THE statistics sound impressive: 100 events in 30 venues, including 15 world premieres and 21 Australian premieres.
But when the 2014 Melbourne Festival unfurls in early October, the figures people talk about will be the ones performing amazing acrobatics and daring dance moves.
Circus and dance loom as big program pillars this year, bolstered by hugely diverse music, intriguing theatre and exciting design innovations.
Star names abound (Jeff Mills and Clint Mansell, Pat Metheny and The Gloaming), but looking for “something unique” to “disrupt our thinking”, festival director Josephine Ridge has cast her net far and wide.
Star names abound (Jeff Mills and Clint Mansell, Pat Metheny and The Gloaming), but looking for “something unique” to “disrupt our thinking”, festival director Josephine Ridge has cast her net far and wide.
Get ready for the “pop crimes” of Rowland S. Howard and a life-size carousel, a fusion of manga art and Italian dance (Marzo) and a Euro theatre epic starring 40 teenage girls (When The Mountain Changed Its Clothing).
“It is a program that has been curated specifically for Melbourne ... which responds to our audiences and to our artists,” Ridge says.
The festival’s “global circus” component is a big tent embracing Cirkpolis (from Montreal’s famed Cirque Eloize) and Nanjing acrobats, wordless wonderment from Belgium (Carrousel Des Moutons), and an exhibition about Circus Oz (Vault).
Dance dazzlers include a mini-festival honouring the Trisha Brown Dance Company, from America; Complexity of Belonging (a project by Falk Richter and Chunky Move’s Anouk van Dijk); and AM I, a bold new work by trailblazing Australian choreographer Shaun Parker.
The Foxtel Festival Hub, next to Princes Bridge, will again explode with ravishing sounds: from Snarky Puppy and Josh T Pearson to Ed Kuepper and The Bamboos. Elsewhere, music will be streaming from the Sidney Myer Music Bowl (Greek superstar Mihalis Hatzigiannis), the much-loved ANAM Quartetthaus, and an open house for Haydn in Heidelberg.
The big design innovation this year is MPavilion, described as a “unique collision of architecture, art and performance”.
ANAM Quartetthaus.
TOP 10 FESTIVAL SHOWSTOPPERS
1. TANDERRUM (Federation Square)
A “poignant exchange of story, song and dance”, Tanderrum is being crafted by members of the five clans that make up the Kulin nation. This upbeat opening event will followed by Murru — a “hymn to the land and its people” conceived by Big hART.
Murru, by Big hART.
2. CIRKOPOLIS (State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne)
Roll up, roll up for the festival’s biggest circus show. Cirkpolis, from Canada’s Cirque Eloize company, references Fritz Lang’s legendary film Metropolis and turns a grey, industrialised world into a wonderland of juggling, acrobatics and contortion.
3. MPAVILION (Queen Victoria Gardens, on St Kilda Rd)
Remember Botanica? This floral feature of John Truscott’s Melbourne Festivals in the 1990s has inspired MPAVILION — a wondrous Sean Godsell-designed structure purpose-built for free performances and talks.
MPAVILION.
4. OPUS (State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne)
Strings and springboards, bows and body slams ... circus and classical music come together as one in Opus, featuring Australia’s Circa and the Debussy String Quartet from France.
Opus.
5. NANJING PROJECT (Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne)
Visiting Australia in 1983, China’s Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe revolutionised our home-grown circus scene. Now, 30 years on, a new generation of Chinese acrobats is flying in to collaborate with Victorian artists on a world premiere show.
Nanjing Project.
6. CLINT MANSELL (Melbourne Recital Centre)
The Grammy-award winning composer behind Darren Aronofsky’s films (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) is heading our way. Clint Mansell — with a nine-piece band — will present a sweeping retrospective of his movie compositions.
Clint Mansell.
7. JEFF MILLS (Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne)
In an Australian exclusive, sonic innovator Jeff Mills joins forces with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Their 90-minute concert, conducted by long-time Mills collaborator Christophe Mangou, promises to be “ambitious and exploratory ... a propulsive electronic melange”.
Jeff Mills.
8. GOLDEN MIRROR CAROUSEL (NGV International)
Fluorescent bears are in residence right now, but come October, Federation Court at NGV International will be the site of a Golden Mirror Carousel. Belgian artist Carsten Holler is assembling this life-size merry-go-round and says with each slow turn, “participants will be carried further into a gleaming, gilded looking glass reflection”.
A “poignant exchange of story, song and dance”, Tanderrum is being crafted by members of the five clans that make up the Kulin nation. This upbeat opening event will followed by Murru — a “hymn to the land and its people” conceived by Big hART.
Murru, by Big hART.
2. CIRKOPOLIS (State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne)
Roll up, roll up for the festival’s biggest circus show. Cirkpolis, from Canada’s Cirque Eloize company, references Fritz Lang’s legendary film Metropolis and turns a grey, industrialised world into a wonderland of juggling, acrobatics and contortion.
3. MPAVILION (Queen Victoria Gardens, on St Kilda Rd)
Remember Botanica? This floral feature of John Truscott’s Melbourne Festivals in the 1990s has inspired MPAVILION — a wondrous Sean Godsell-designed structure purpose-built for free performances and talks.
MPAVILION.
4. OPUS (State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne)
Strings and springboards, bows and body slams ... circus and classical music come together as one in Opus, featuring Australia’s Circa and the Debussy String Quartet from France.
Opus.
5. NANJING PROJECT (Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne)
Visiting Australia in 1983, China’s Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe revolutionised our home-grown circus scene. Now, 30 years on, a new generation of Chinese acrobats is flying in to collaborate with Victorian artists on a world premiere show.
Nanjing Project.
6. CLINT MANSELL (Melbourne Recital Centre)
The Grammy-award winning composer behind Darren Aronofsky’s films (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler) is heading our way. Clint Mansell — with a nine-piece band — will present a sweeping retrospective of his movie compositions.
Clint Mansell.
7. JEFF MILLS (Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne)
In an Australian exclusive, sonic innovator Jeff Mills joins forces with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Their 90-minute concert, conducted by long-time Mills collaborator Christophe Mangou, promises to be “ambitious and exploratory ... a propulsive electronic melange”.
Jeff Mills.
8. GOLDEN MIRROR CAROUSEL (NGV International)
Fluorescent bears are in residence right now, but come October, Federation Court at NGV International will be the site of a Golden Mirror Carousel. Belgian artist Carsten Holler is assembling this life-size merry-go-round and says with each slow turn, “participants will be carried further into a gleaming, gilded looking glass reflection”.
9. TRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY (Arts Centre, Arts House Meat Market, ACMI)
Trisha Brown retired from her eponymous company in 2012, but the ground-breaking choreography of this dynamic American dance-maker goes on. Melbourne Festival — the Australian leg of her international farewell tour — is programming her celebrated works across three venues.
Trisha Brown Dance Company.
10. TEAM OF LIFE (Malthouse Theatre)
Sport, theatre, dance and music meet head-on in a powerful new work by Melbourne’s KAGE company. Actors, dancers and “rising sports stars” all share the stage.
