CASTILLO
Prue Lang with Jana Castillo
CASTILLO is a new dance performance sparked by an artistic synergy between Prue Lang and Jana Castillo. The work explores the taxonomy of touch and texture through the lens of choreography and neurodiversity.
CASTILLO is danced and described via Pointe Shoes, Socks & Sneakers, exploring friction and texture to generate diverse and nuanced choreographic modalities. Each choreographic investigation is framed by a film, giving the spectator further insight into the complex art of dance making and embodiment. The film and live elements are interwoven to a score by composer Chiara Costanza. CASTILLO is an innovative visual-musical journey that celebrates physical intelligence and difference and stimulates new perceptions of the dancing body.
A further iteration of CASTILLO will develop a parallel oratory description and textural score for visually impaired audiences to more fully experience dance. This will be presented online with the textural elements sent to participants, in collaboration with Fayen d’Evie.
Concept & Direction: Prue Lang
Choreography: Prue Lang and Jana Castillo
Performer: Jana Castillo
Composer: Chiara Costanza
Video: Prue Lang, Pippa Samaya, Takeshi Kondo
Lighting design: Lisa Mibus
Producer: Alison Halit
Ticket Package:
3—6 March: CASTILLO by Prue Lang with Jana Castillo & Judy and Me by Rachael Wisby
M $35 | C $45 | F $55
Packages are available for purchase until 9am on Thursday 3 March
Prue Lang is a choreographer and performer now based in Melbourne, following 17 years living and working in Europe. Her projects are characterised by her rigorous choreographic innovation, conceptually driven aesthetics and her choreographic explorations into the expanded field. Prue advocates feminism and environmental sustainability in her mode of artistic production. She is the founder of PLANT – a research lab created to transmit, explore and further develop her choreographic practice in Australia. Prue worked with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt and The Forsythe Company, before establishing herself as an independent choreographer. Her works have been presented in festivals, theatres, museums and galleries throughout the world including Theatre National de Chaillot (Paris), Festival Faits d’hiver (Paris) Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (Saint-Denis), Maison Rouge (Paris), Mains d’oeuvres (Saint-Ouen), Tanzplattform Deutschland (Germany), HAU (Berlin), Mousonturm (Frankfurt), Tanzhaus NRW (Düsseldorf), Darmstadt Stadttheater ( Darmstadt), STUK (Belgium), Les halles de Schaerbeek (Brussels), Transart (Italy), Kalamata Festival, (Greece), REDCAT (Los Angeles) TATE Modern (London), NGV Triennial (Australia) Carriageworks (Sydney) Adelaide International Arts festival (Adelaide) and Dance Massive (Melbourne). Awards include: Most Outstanding Dancer, Most Innovative Production and Most Outstanding Choreographer by Europe’s Tanz’s Annual Critics’ Survey, PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA award for Hybrid Art, Green Room Awards for her Design, Original Choreography and Best Ensemble in Australia.
Jana Castillo is an award-winning Sydney-based performer working with leading artists across dance, theatre and opera, including Prue Lang, Shaun Parker and Company, Force Majeure, Dance Integrated Australia, Opera Australia, Nimby Opera, Projections Dance Company, Legs on the Wall, Australian Dance Theatre (Garry Stewart), Meryl Tankard, Lucas Tervies, Cass Mortimer Eipper & Charmene Yapp. In 2018 Jana was awarded the Australian Dance Award for ‘Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer’. She also worked as a motion capture stuntwoman at the world-renowned Weta Workshop in New Zealand, for feature films Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, working closely with film directors Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor. She also serves on the newly-established Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group member at SDC (Sydney Dance Company) as a contributing LGBTQ+ artist living and thriving with disability.
Chiara Costanza is a renowned music composer and producer born and raised in Torino, Italy and now based in Australia. Classically trained in piano in Italy and later exposed to electronic music after moving to Melbourne in 2004, Chiara has since moved into a well respected position in the Melbourne electronic music movement through her dedication to a refined DJing technique and production of electronic music. This eventually led to extra studies in sound art and design at RMIT, extending her interests into composition and sound design for screen. Chiara’s work now ranges across composing and producing music and sound design for feature films and TV commercials, creating electronic music for live performance, composing soundscapes for immersive environments and art installations, and the experimental use of field recordings with analogue and digital synthesis. DJing under the moniker Chiara Kickdrum, she also performs at a range of venues across Australia and overseas.
Alison Halit is a highly experienced producer who has worked for many of Australia’s most acclaimed creators of experimental and contemporary performance. Current artists include Joel Bray, Prue Lang, Luke George, Aphids. Alison has produced many intercultural collaborations and is currently co-lead producer/curator with théâtre Garonne (Toulouse) of a French/Australian Exchange which late 2019 resulted in ‘Australia Express’ – a 28-day tour of 4 contemporary/experimental works to 9 venues/festivals in France and most recently presented new online work for In Extremes Festival 2021. Alison is currently producing projects with Perth, Brisbane and Sydney Festivals, Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre, Albany Pride Festival, ChillOut Festival (Daylesford), Wagga Wagga Civic Centre, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, The Wedge (Sale), Cowra Civic Centre, Mackay Entertainment and Convention Centre, Canberra Theatre Centre, New Annual Festival Newcastle, Recontres Chorégraphiques Internationales (Paris), theatre Garonne, TheatredelaCité (all in Toulouse), FAB Festival (Bordeaux), Chunky Move, Arts House and Malthouse Theatre.
This project is funded and supported by The Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, Besen Family Foundation, Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance through the Makers program, Chunky Move, Dancehouse, LGI/WXYZ. With special thanks to Lauren Castillo, Fayen d’Evie, Pippa Samaya and Tara Jade Samaya for their invaluable contribution to the project.