FIELD NOTES
Dancehouse commission: deep reflections on dance works
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FIELD NOTES
FIELD NOTES is a Dancehouse initiative that commissions writers, academics, artists, and culturally engaged thinkers to produce thoughtful, in-depth reflections on works presented within the Dancehouse program. Moving beyond conventional reviews, these texts aim to extend the life of each performance, opening new interpretive pathways, encouraging dialogue, and contributing to a broader conversation about contemporary dance.
Rather than simply summarising or judging a performance, Field Notes positions Dancehouse as a site of critical reflection, knowledge production, and cultural memory, supporting sustained engagement with choreographic practice and its wider cultural resonances.
You are you even if you think
— a written reflection on never are by Emma Riches
by Arabella Frahn-Starkie
“What I saw in Emma’s choreography was a desire to engender focus and to do more with less. Innovating through resourcefulness, looking at what is already amongst us to create something anew.”
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“In the context of today’s visual saturation and attention-deficit, temporal experiences like never are, created with patience and resourcefulness at the core, feel like the antidote to a cluttered brain. Through simplicity and restraint Emma reveals that there is plenty to see if you have the time to look.”
The Mouth as a Well, the Loop as a Promise
— a written reflection on Sync Well by gemma+molly
by Isabella Hone-Saunders
“To watch Molly and Gemma is to enter a collaboration defined by what they call “shitty magic”, a low-fi alchemy where trickery, synchronicity, and the somatic dislodgement of the body collide.”
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“Molly and Gemma conceptualise the work around the motif of the wishing well, a site that requires a sacrifice in exchange for a possibility. There is a profound, shared sincerity in this act; to toss a stone into the dark is to acknowledge a hopeful-hopelessness.”
Between the Threads: A response to Mekar yang Diam
— a written reflection on Mekar yang Diam by Yukio Masukawa and Mekratingrum Hapsari
by Dr Priya Srinivasan
“The climax of the work came from allowing their bodies to lose control, perhaps to the ancestral memories that manifested on their bodies and animated them.”
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“The two then become one; the binary moves into a third space, an unexpected creature.”
Between Street and Stage
— a written reflection on new new by Threading Frames, Jorje, and CONJAH
by Crissy Collins (DJ Mothafunk)
“Though time marches on and technology evolves, we are perpetually confronted with the same universal challenges of existence. Yet this shared humanity is also what unites us across time and space, often with the aid of music and movement.”
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“The piece suggests that in our attempts to suppress the darkness within, we risk becoming the very monster we seek to evade.”
A Ribbon, Loose, Not Tied
— a written reflection on Solarpunk by Jonathan Homsey
by Martin Hughes
“I love site specific work, and this is a very specific site! You need to work with the site or the site works you. An exercise in what you can’t control. You are competing, complementing, contrasting but not controlling.”
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“The ribbon of the sculpture connects through space but also divides. It frames the performers but also separates them and hides what is behind.”
Something Beneath the Surface
— a written reflection on Pool by Alex Dobson
by Noemie Huttner-Koros
“I think about the tenderness and intimacy and love present in the ways we hold and touch the hands of those we love. How holding my dad’s hand in the hospital differs from holding my partner’s hand while cooking which differs again from holding my friend’s hand as we navigate our way across a crowded dance floor. ”
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“I realise suddenly that I’m thirsty and yet filled with water.”
This and That
— a written reflection on That Day, This Body, That Time by Jonathan Sinatra
by Philipa Rothfield
“Dancing bodies do not spring from nowhere. They have a history, perhaps several. Movement habits are a reflection of the way we have been dancing over time. Sinatra’s dancing is familiar, playful, soft, gently weighted.”
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“People like to extol the virtues of live performance. Liveness is a form of risk-taking on the part of the performer(s). It is also a mode of community on the part of the audience. Dancehouse enables the ritual formation of dance community.”
