Scenarios
by Benjamin Hurley & Scott Elstermann
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‘Scenarios’ (2024), by Benjamin Hurley & Scott Elstermann. Photo by Takeshi Kondo.
— The doppelgänger effect through a veil of camp opulence
Two dancers negotiate space and self, distorting and altering dramatic incidents to question how we are living today. Can they be one and the same? How did they both get to where they are? Where are they going next?
Grandiose and multiplied through mirrored set design, layered costumes and orchestral soundscapes, Scenarios constantly transforms beyond the performer’s exterior similarities. A tongue-in-cheek duet that projects a kaleidoscope of alternate fictions with new physical language free of meaning yet full of provocation and suggestion.
Choreographers & Performers: Benjamin Hurley & Scott Elstermann
Sound Designer: Robert Downie
Lighting Designer: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez
Costume Designer: Geoffrey Watson
Set Design Consultant: Matthew Bird
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Benjamin Hurley is a queer, award-winning independent dancer, choreographer and teacher based in Naarm/Melbourne. His artistic practice explores the authenticity and vibrancy of the dancing body, articulated through a hyper-sensitive and transcendent poetic interweaving of abstract movement and meaning. He has established an internationally recognised career, collaborating with acclaimed choreographers and companies including Phillip Adams BalletLab, Ivan Perez Dance Theatre Heidelberg Germany, The Sway, Joel Bray Dance, Deep Soulful Sweats, and Dusty Feet Dance Collective. In 2019, he participated in a three-month Venice Art Biennale Programme, performing in works by Trisha Brown Dance Company and Alessandro Sciarroni. In 2022, he received an Ian Potter Fellowship to participate in a three-month mentorship and choreographic exchange with Ivan Perez at Dance Theatre Heidelberg. In Australia, he has presented three award-winning productions: ‘Dunes Rolling Down Dunes’, ‘UpAndUpAndUpAndUpAndUp’, and ‘SCENARIOS’ (in collaboration with Scott Elstermann). He also maintains collaborations with Australian artists including Deanne Butterworth, Lee Serle, Victoria Chiu, Geoffrey Watson, Yuiko Masukawa, Andrew Trelaor, Miriam Nicholls, and Arabella Frahn-Starkie, amongst others.
Scott Elstermann is a multi-award-winning dancer and choreographer based in Boorloo/Perth. He is the first Australian and youngest-ever international recipient of the prestigious Pina Bausch Fellowship for Dance & Choreography. Scott received the Palisade Award for ‘Most Outstanding Graduate’ of the Bachelor of Arts (Dance) course at WAAPA and has performed for the Merce Cunningham Trust (USA), Requardt & Rosenberg (UK), Lucy Guerin Inc., Stephanie Lake Company, Shona Erskine and Brooke Leeder to name a few. Scott’s choreographic work has received critical acclaim, winning ‘Outstanding New Work’ three-times and ‘Outstanding Choreography’ two-times at the Performing Arts WA Awards. In 2023, Scott was selected to create a new work for La Biennale di Venezia under the mentorship of Wayne McGregor and most recently, Scott was a finalist in the 2024 Western Australian of the Year Awards.
