MAXINE HEPPNER : CREATIONS
Duets For Dance And Piano
Description of Work
From 1997 to 2002 Maxine Heppner (dance) and John Sharpley (piano) performed a series of Chamber Concerts, “Duets for Dance and Piano”, in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Canada and the USA. The venues varied widely, such as private living rooms, a historic Peranakan courtyard, a Sake Brewery, a Victorian Hall. Responding to the specific venue and configuration of audience to performer, accommodating from 20-200 people, in these unique settings they created programs that blurred divisions between casual social interaction, performance and verbal and non-verbal discussion.
The concerts invited the audience to be privy to the artists’ journeys, how they made their compositional choices, how they felt while performing the work, sometimes the audience even offered on-the-spot solutions to how to end a piece. Each program included performance of highly crafted repertoire and spontatneous creations. This series was a focal point for John and Maxine’s research regarding the technical and esoteric intersections of dance and music.
Duets for Dance and Piano: Credits
Choreographer / Performer
Maxine Heppner
Composer / Performer
John Sharpley