Dream Cellscapes
by Alice Weber
a cellular dream in a spreadsheet performance
Three performers corrupt office software – a live spreadsheet – as a choreographic field.
Dream Cellscapes explores the cell as a container of desire. A cell is a contained space, the smallest unit of life, and creates potential for complex mathematical function. Where there is life there is desire.
Dream Cellscapes creates physical and online embodiments, going soft and reanimating as the audience are invited to contemplate how desire flows between digital and IRL existence.
Choreographer: Alice Weber
Performers: Ella Watson-Heath, Wendy Yu & Molly McKenzie
Sound Design: Megan Alice Clune
Alice Weber is a choreographer, performer and researcher living on Gadigal land in Eora/Sydney. Her work uses and misuses her various training backgrounds to consider contemporary embodiments, intimacies and desires. Alice’s work and research has been supported by Critical Path, Dirtyfeet, Ausdance, Inner West Council, among others. She has presented nationally and internationally including Left of Main/Action at a Distance (CA), Christchurch Arts Centre (NZ), The Dance Centre BC (CA), Cement Fondu (AU), National Dance Forum (AU), Accademia Nazionale di Danza (IT) and Centro Nega (ES). Alice gained an MFA in Choreography from Trinity Laban in 2018, as a funded Leverhulme Scholarship recipient.
Ella Watson-Heath is a dance artist born and raised on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar currently living on Gadigal land, working across performance, choreography and improvisation. Ella is a graduate of WAAPA, BA Dance Course. In 2017 Ella took part in a one semester student exchange to Purchase College at the State University of New York. As a member of Dance Makers Collective’s Future Makers company, Ella collaborated with Lee Serle and performed in In Situ (SydFest ’21), and performed with Future Makers alongside DMC members in The Rivoli (SydFest ’20). Ella went on to tour The Rivoli nationally in 2022 and is now a member and co-leader of DMC. Ella has been collaborating with Alice Weber in the realisation of her work Dream Cellscapes since August 2020. Ella is a proud member of MEAA and the Dancers Australia National Committee.
Wendy Yu is an interdisciplinary artist actively practising in the fields of dance and computational design. She has completed residencies and projects internationally, working on mounting installations of interactive dance through creative coding, including the Centre for Projection Art in Melbourne. Wendy has conducted theoretical research into dance and urban media art, and holds a Masters of Interaction Design and Electronic Arts at the University of Sydney. She received the Youth Excellence Award in the New Media Art Division of the “Think Youth” Shanghai Digital Creation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship International Competition in 2022; and in 2023, the “2023 International Chinese Outstanding Youth” award.
Molly McKenzie is a contemporary performance artist working in Naarm/Melbourne. Molly is a 2021 graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance). She was the recipient of the Dr Phillip Law Travel Scholarship, allowing her to partake in the Marina Abramović Cleaning the House Workshop in Greece. Molly was the recipient of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Fund 2023 alongside Gemma Sattler as part of their joint practice gemma+molly. This grant allowed the duo to complete a professional development tour in Greece, France and Belgium, looking into durational performance and queer performance practices. In 2023 gemma+molly premiered their award-winning work LUSH. LUSH was presented by Dancehouse as part of their 2023 Melbourne Fringe Festival Program and received a five-star review in The Age as well as the winner of ‘Best Dance & Physical Theatre’ for the festival.
Megan Alice Clune is a musician, artist and composer based on Gadigal/Wangal country, Sydney, Australia. Her work explores the dynamic relationships between music, technology, the body and temporality through composition, performance and installation. She has performed, presented work and undertaken residencies across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America, including VividLIVE at the Sydney Opera House, 3331 Arts Chiyoda (Tokyo), Performa15 (NYC), Institute of Modern Art (Meanjin/Brisbane), Substation (Naarm/Melbourne) and more. Her recent records ‘If You Do’ (2021, Room 40), ‘Digital Auras’ (2022, Longform Editions) and ‘Furtive Glances’ (2023, Room 40) have been released to critical acclaim.