Theme:  Inside a moment there is simply the experience itself. Only afterwards do we give it a name and a description and fix it in time. These instances are complete in themselves. Their accumulation is what we call our life or our self.

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Additionals: If venue permits, design includes a lobby exhibit. Producer may choose to incorporate public outreach and community involvement through “the veryShort Story collection” (see below).

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Description of the work: begins with an open stage, houselights, dancer and choreographer on stage, talking and reviewing. Slow cross of lights changing space into performance, first isolating dancer, then space opens with projections that wrap around and transform the space with colour and texture and she is in the centre of it. The piece unfolds, one persona seamlessly after another, each new moment a new environment of dance, shape, colour, sound. Surtitles give each moment a name and a context. Jess’ serenity, Susi’s inspiration, Tina’s compassion, Yarra’s apology, Bianca’s past, Galih’s present, Leila’s past, Chiou’s Joy, Chin’s burden, Yumi’s anger, Sue’s desire, Takako’s love, Maxine’s kiss

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The design is a series of 14 colour-field images projected in 220° wrap of the space crating an entire environment in which the dancer lives. There is one sheet of metal that is placed in the space midway through the piece.

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Choreographer’s notes:   “Moments in Time” is a collection of 14 moments of a woman’s life. The work is presented in a conventional viewer-performer relationship, however the fourth wall is penetrated because projections of colour that emanate from the qualities of the dance, wrap from the stage 180° into the house. Audience becomes enveloped by the stage persona’s internal landscapes. Each moment (section) is also defined by a name and state of mind, e.g. Jess’ serenity, Susi’s inspiration, Yarra’s apology. The names are sur-titles ghosting in and out of the virtual painted space. The dancer, transforming from experience to experience, is the centre of her universe, at times the central point of power (e.g.Wei’s determination), at times engulfed by the moment (e.g. Sue’s desire). It is my intention that the collection of moments be experienced as the totality of a single life with its shifting emotional moods, the names being the people who have moved through the stage-persona’s life.

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Maxine Heppner on the process: “I have made many dances for many people in many places for many years. A while ago I decided that it was time to take a close look at all this energetic activity to understand what I’ve been up to, to move forward. These solos are a distillation of many of the elements of my work. My patterns, preferences, weaknesses …and thankfully! strengths and surprises… surfaced and bubbled throughout the process. In a solo, material and interpretation are stripped to their essences, so this collection of solos is both an appropriate and risky challenge – and I have been very lucky to have my so talented colleague Takako Segawa with me in this practice.”

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Takako Segawa says about working with Heppner: “Maxine’s process and understanding of movement is at a high theoretical level that also is profoundly human. Her methods first intrigued me and now have actually changed the way that I perform. She has managed to develop a practice that integrates both intuition and intelligence: Content & meaning translated into impulse, control of physical energy, and three-dimensional space. The result is dance that is more detailed, more grounded, more substantial, more sensual, more human. She has led me to dance right to my nerve endings – exhilarating!

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Outreach and community engagement:   
veryShort Story collection: public call to write and send very short stories (can be as short as a tweet), personal or fictional, in response to the 13 moments of the dance. eg. about serenity, determination, joy, etc. stories are chosen to be added to the collection that is presented in the lobby of the venue for audience to read before and after seeing the show. This collection has proven to assist audience in entering the dance’s world with wide ranging life-references that open the mind to receive the movement without questioning “what does it mean”. Also potentially draws new audience to the theatre. In the past the contributors have received a free or highly discounted participatory workshop on interpreting the heart of a story through dance.

 

Workshops also available: dance technique, creative process, master classes and/or mentoring local artists, participatory workshop on interpreting the heart of a story through dance.