Utterance
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'Utterance' (2019), Siobhan McKenna. Photo by Claire Wakeford.
Utterance takes audiences on a rhythmic journey, navigating entangled patterns of sound and proposing intriguing new ways to understand the relationship between language, sound and the human body. Winner of the 2017 Melbourne Fringe Best Dance Award, this work grapples with the layered complexity of form, creating an immersive experience for both performer and audience. Siobhan McKenna utilises semantic satiation and rhythms to push language to the point of incomprehensibility, leaving us with pure texture and a cacophony of sound. At its core, Utterance is an investigation into the power of the sensorial body.
Choreographer: Siobhan McKenna
Performers: Arabella Frahn-Starkie, Emma Riches, Hillary Goldsmith, Rhys Ryan
Costume Design: Helene Frøsiland
Lighting Design: Nick Glen
Sound Adviser: Lena Douglas
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Siobhan McKenna was awarded the Choreographic Award for showing outstanding potential through her work Petri-Dish upon graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts (2016). In 2017, Petri-Dish was remounted and toured to Hong Kong and Singapore with the University. McKenna was the recipient of a NSW Young Regional Artist Scholarship (2017), which supported the development of her work Utterance before its premiere in the Melbourne Fringe Festival at Dancehouse (2017). Utterance won the Best Dance Award and the Temperance Hall Award. McKenna has worked with artists including Lee Pemberton on her Artistic Fellowship and has choreographed a short work for Youth Company, fLiNG Physical Theatre, which premiered in Bega, NSW. In 2018, she had a one month residency at Temperance Hall to continue to build her choreographic practice and was supported by Dancehouse to travel to Bassano del Grappa and undertake a Choreographic Research week as part of B.Motion Festival.
