Inhabitance I-V
Inhabitance I-V is a series of screen dances filmed in rural Victoria, Australia. They explore what it is to be surrounded by majestic and powerful landscapes and what it feels like to be a human in those places. Do these places care about our presence? Does our presence affect these places? The films feed into the larger conversation about the urgent need for our collective human behaviours to be gentler and kinder to our natural planet, even when it feels like us a small individuals have absolutely no power over the force of the natural world.
They also serve as a reminder of the power of immersion in nature to re-vitalise and inspire.
Inhabitance I: Meadow
Crickets heighten the silence of an alpine meadow. Set atop the heights and protected by an enclosure of intertwined branches. The eye seeks the horizon but is held in by the trees. A storm slowly gathers far away, there is plenty more sunlight for now. The depth of the mountain reaches up to support the bodies, the trees.
Location: Dinner Plain, Victoria. Gunaikurnai Land.
Dancers: Hayley Does & Rachel Mackie
Music: Sophia Kalo
Director: Sarah Saxon
Inhabitance II & III: Trace & Clouds
Stillness. Two women trace the contours of the peaks and valleys near and distant. Small beings observing and measuring an ocean of land. Intertwined and present.
Water vapour traced by the gentlest finger tips. Ribs expand and relax in rhythm with the clouds; forming, tumbling and reforming. Proximity and observation. Body becomes like vapour, moulded by the tireless breeze.
Location: The Razorback Mt. Hotham, Victoria. Gunaikurnai Land.
Dancers: Hayley Does & Rachel Mackie
Music: Sophia Kalo
Director: Sarah Saxon
Inhabitance IV & V: Rocks & Coast
Fingertips trace the etchings of ocean-worn rock and cliff face. Feet tread gingerly on sandblasted surface. Three women playfully, gently manoeuvre. A curiosity about these striking, sharp forms.
Wait. Watch. Prepare. Attempt. Play.
Fail playfully, fail joyfully. Frolicking, focussed choreography guided by the eb and flow of waves. One foot in and one foot out, not quite land, not quite sea.
Location: Johanna Beach, Victoria. Gadabanud Land.
Dancers: Hayley Does, Tamara Bouman & Nancy Martin
Music: Sophia Kalo
Director: Sarah Saxon