THAT WAS FRIDAY
World Premier season
23 - 26 November, 2022
Belconnen Arts Centre, Canberra
NOW AVAILABLE FOR TOURING
Conceived by Charley Sanders and Eliza Sanders
Created and written by Charley Sanders, Eliza Sanders, Jack Sullivan and Amrit Tohari Agamemnoian with the ensemble
Video design by Laura Turner
Original score and sound design by Mario Späte
Featuring Enya Daly, Alec Katsourakis, Billy Keohavong, Lachlan Martin, Ryan Stone, Ella Williams, Jareen Wee, Amrit Tohari Agamemnoian and Sara Zwangobani
Who are you, without your community?
We are shaped by the bonds we form with others: our blood family, our chosen family, and the communities in which we find ourselves. But what happens when those connections falter, the connecting threads become strained?
That Was Friday is a new contemporary performance work about distance and connectedness, familiarity and strangeness. An Australian family has become geographically dispersed. Whilst each have created their own communities in their adopted homes and global networks, something has happened to the bonds that once held them close. To reconnect, they must relearn how to fit together.
Moulded from the experience of the queer, trans & culturally diverse team, That Was Friday layers dance, theatre and video in a theatrical collage of experiences in the search for a sense of home. This ground-breaking new work fills the gaps between art forms to create a new experience of connection.
Darkly humorous, joyful, and visually stunning, That Was Friday will take your heart and squeeze it.
BRING THAT WAS FRIDAY TO YOUR COMMUNITY
all hOurs
A spectacle of stamina, a complex meditation on daily life cycles, and most importantly, a reminder that challenges cannot be overcome alone.
“a sweet meditation and welcome disruption in an unlikely place. I found myself marvelling at the beautiful digital installation, wishing I could stay for the whole 24 hours.”
Audience comment, September 2019
Originally commissioned by The Sydney Fringe for their 2019 festival.
house of sand, rumpus, and the old 505 theatre present
the split
by sarah hamilton
Directed by
CHARLEY SANDERS
With
AMY VICTORIA BROOKS
and
MAX GARCIA-UNDERWOOD
Original Score by
MARIO SPÄTE
Lighting and AV Design by
KOBE DONALDSON
Jules and Tom are on an old fishing boat. They’ve borrowed it. It’s only pretty small.
Jules and Tom have been together a long time. They’re close. They know a lot about each other.
Something is about to end.
Very little will happen. Everything will change.
Will the world Jules and Tom knew be recognisable when they return?
The latest quiet masterpiece from Sarah Hamilton (‘They Saw a Thylacine’) ponders the meaning of change. A love story on the verge of a nervous breakdown, or a parable of impending doom.
The Split is a play about love and loss. ‘The Split’ is a play about people and nature.
Future Dates & Cities To Be Announced Soon
Contents. Container
created and performed by Brendan anderson and Eliza Sanders
An intricate combination of predetermined elements and improvisation which draws from the relationship between apparently opposing binaries.
Following an improvisational framework of association and emotional response the content is created in the moment of performance
The audience is able to share in and observe the colliding of choice and chance as each moment is being negotiated. The performers themselves are a representation of antithetical but inextricably linked processes; one working with movement and one with sound – two different mediums responding to the same moment.
Premiered at Belconnen Arts Center for ‘Dance on the Edge’ May 2019
Prepared and available for commissioned performance
In Development
Meeting: Part 1
Created and performed by Eliza Sanders and James O’Hara
First Development Thanks to Strut Dance WA
SEED Residency June 2019
A dance of honesty, friendship and emotion.
Further developments coming soon
FEET.Us
WELLINGTON FRINGE FESTIVAL - KOHA DEVELOPMENT SHOWINGS 2017
runner up - nz fringe 'most innovative worK'
created by Eliza Sanders l design by Owen McCarthy
dramaturgy by Charley Sanders l featuring Sophie Gargan
Dirty, smelly, wet and lonely Crimpson and Clover continue to the last drop of joy. Innocent of your grime.
Journey into the world of these two strange broken beings. They know no time baby, they know no gender baby, hey know no love baby, no sense, no beauty, no ambiguity. No baby, no. Baby baby oh, baby oh I RARELY HAVE AN EGG FOR BREAKFAST THO MY WORK REQUIRE INFINATE EGGS TO COME TO BIRTH IN ETERNITY – Allen Ginsberge, Death to Van Gogh’s Ear!
We want to hear what you have to say about this world, these lives, the chicken, covered in semen. Semen. The chicken covered in sea men, see men? say amen
Ageist associations to ahh .. socks. And ginger.
knitting while sleeping
“Occasionally an artist emerges who possess the thrill to surprise. Eliza Sanders is such an artist… Sanders’ work will offer a new experience in the lexicon of dance. She emerges as a refreshing new talent in contemporary Australian dance.”
(Peter Wilkins, Canberra Critics Circle)
Half the audience are seated safely in the seating bank, the other half at risk on the stage floor. Four female dancers will enter the space. Their relationship to the audience is full of potential - will they fulfil their role as caregivers or belie it?
Taking thematic inspiration from the works of J. M. Coetzee and Berlinde De Bruyckere, and choreographic inspiration from the theatrical language of Pina Bausch, Knitting While Sleeping takes audiences on a highly individual journey through ideas and images as various as maternal instinct, floating feathers, migration, over-population and babies made of blankets.
“From anxiety to hysterics of laughter to thoughts of "what the hell will they do next?" this performance piece takes you through everything… see it while you can.”
Wellington Reviews
“The show for anyone who’s been too nervous to go to see modern dance. It offers a variety of audience experiences all of which give you a fascinating look at an emotional, impressively physical world.”
Brooke Matherly for Art Mumers (NZ)
Creator & Choreographer - Eliza Sanders
Dramaturge - Charley Sanders
Dancers - Laura Beanland-Stephens, Jadyn Burt, Tyler Carney, Sophie Gargan
Costume & Set Desighn & Construction - Eliza Sanders & Jane Allan
Lighting Design - Owen McCarthy
Inspired by We Are All Flesh by Berlinde De Bruyckere & J.M. Coetzee
Team
Bonus content. A cool photo that looks like a Francis Bacon painting.
Photo by Lorna Sim, of Eliza Sanders