Image: Courtesy Dance Makers Collective
Woman’s Work
Presented by Dance Makers Collective
Friday 16 June 2023, 7 pm
Saturday 17 June 2023, 5 pm
The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
A woman’s work is never done.
But what is a woman’s work today?
Dance Makers Collective’s Katina Olsen and Anya McKee connect with five inspirational Australian women from their communities, as a way to begin to unpack and rediscover what this phrase means today.
Site-specific and adaptable, Woman’s Work integrates a kaleidoscope of image, movement and sound including dance-film, live dance performance, and seven moving video portraits of Australian women to create an evolving work for the real and digital world.
From land to flesh and back to land, Katina and Anya uncover and share stories, discovering the relentless beauty and hopeful determination that exist within a woman’s work.
Presented by Dance Makers Collective, and featuring video portraits by Aunty Yawuri Penny Bonney, Candi Smith, Hoveida Saberi, Pepa Molina and Eileen Kramer.
Creative team
Choreographers and Performers: Anya McKee and Katina Olsen
Composer: Gavin Clarke
Projection/ Set Design: Mic Gruchy
Associate Designer: Rose Mulcare
Choreographic Support: Sophia Ndaba
Video: Anya Mckee
Opening Scene Ocean Footage: Mic Grundy
Anya’s Portrait Footage: Katina Olsen
Portraits:
Katina Olsen
Anya McKee
Aunty Yawuri Penny Bonney
Candi Smith
Hoveida Saberi
Pepa Molina
Eileen Kramer
Producer: Dance Makers Collective
Artist Bios
Dance Makers Collective (DMC), based on Dharug country (western Sydney), is the only collective-led dance company in Australia. With a mission to build dance communities, DMC brings people together by working with and between dance theatre, contemporary dance and social dance, producing heartfelt dance works that reflect the diverse, personal experiences of Australians..
Established in 2012, DMC has presented 17 dance productions, in theatres, halls, galleries, parks, street corners, balconies, on YouTube and Instagram, in cities and towns in almost every state and territory. Recent highlights include a national regional tour of ‘The Rivoli’ (2022) and presenting two sold-out seasons in successive Sydney Festivals (2020/21).
We are a democratic organisation of independent artists who live the mantra the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We are skilled performers, choreographers, producers, designers, educators and composers. We have worked/work with companies such as ADT, Marrugeku, Bangarra, Force Majeure, Tasdance, Chunky Move, Dancenorth and Restless Dance Theatre, and hundreds of independent artists. Our individual experiences and practices feed DMC, enriching the art we make and the services we offer to the community.
DMC is both a producer and a service organisation, and we do both exceptionally well. Our dedicated core membership of ten dance makers, who form the artistic directorate, co-design and deliver projects and programs in response to the needs of the wider community. It is our unique democratic structure, expansive network, openness, and commitment to shared practice that sets us apart. These qualities make DMC a nimble, resilient and impactful organisation shaping a better future for Australian dance.
Katina Olsen is a Wakka Wakka Kombumerri choreographer / performer who also has Norwegian, German and English Ancestry. She has worked throughout Australia, Canada, UK, USA and Europe with Atamira, Sydney Dance Company, Stalker Theatre, Expressions (now Australasian Dance Collective), Bangarra, Force Majeure, Erth, GUTS, Meryl Tankard, Martin del Amo, Victoria Hunt, Narelle Benjamin, Vicki Van Hout, Liesel Zink and Wesley Enoch.
Katina’s choreographic highlights include Mother’s Cry for Sydney Dance Company’s New Breed 2018, movement direction for the play Sunshine Super Girl (Sydney Festival 2021), the ABC series Cleverman 2 and the Malthouse production Walking into the Bigness.
Katina presented her Independent solo work namu nunar at Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance, Yonder Festival, Horizon Festival, Festival 2018 and Happy Hour as part of March Dance 2019. Katina is also a founding member of Dance Makers Collective and collaborated and performed with them on their Australian Dance Award nominated DADS, Instar as part of Big Dance in Small Chunks (Parramatta Riverside), their 2020 sold out Sydney Festival show The Rivoli and most recently choreographing solo work beneath performed by Emily Flannery as part of In Situ with DMC’s Future Makers at Sydney Festival 2021.
In 2017 Katina choreographed Min Min for QUT’s graduating year for Dance 17 and worked with Digi Youth Arts’ Unsettle project in collaboration with the Queensland Museum. Olsen was appointed by Arts Central as a 2012/2013 Digital Futures mentor and was also one of the 2019 Provocateurs for the Generate GC Arts Lab on Kombumerri Country (Gold Coast).
Image: Katina Olsen supplied by the artist
Anya McKee is an independent contemporary dancer and choreographer based between Mount Gambier and Sydney.
Anya has worked in contemporary dance, dance-theatre as well as some aerial dance. Over her career she has performed for Australia’s Sam Chester, Dean Walsh, Sara Black, Simone O’Brien, Caleb Lewis, Sue Healey, and the internationally renowned Kohzensha Butoh Company Artistic Director Yukio Waguri. She has also worked with Kate Champion’s Force Majeure, aerial dance company, Strings Attached and intercultural dance-theatre company, Marrugeku as part of research series Burrbgaja Yalirra.
Anya has directed and Choreographed short works, Fit To Shift (Riverside Theatre), (PACT) and Dancing With Lolo & Papa (The Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre/ Golden Grove Arts Centre).
Image: Anya Mckee supplied by the artist
Woman’s Work is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Create NSW in association with Australia Council for the Arts, Blacktown City Council and Blacktown Arts
