Admittedly it’s been a while since we had a full-length choreographed show of our own, and although we’ve loved focussing on improvisation for a while, we appreciate some of you have been hanging out to see us moving in unison again! Happily (and hopefully!) that opportunity is now just around the corner.

We will be performing two new choreographed works as a guest appearance with Flare Dance Company as part of Melbourne Fringe 2010 on October 1 & 2.

The first piece we’re performing was very well received at its first public showing (Melbourne Town Hall for Dance Card 2010) and we’re really looking forward to staging it again! The second piece is a brand new one we’ll be performing for the first time in this show. We’re hoping that both pieces will be the starting point for a full-length choreographed Travel Art Dance Co. production in 2011, so we’d really love you to check them out and let us know what you think…

We’re hoping to beat a little of the Fringe rush by posting the dates now, but more detailed performance and ticketing information will be coming soon. For details as they become available stay tuned here

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/, http://www.flaredancecompany.com/index.html, or our website, Myspace or Facebook. We look forward to seeing you soon!

WE BRING: One stage. One hour. One dance company.

YOU BRING: One request (e.g. music, prop, image, instruction).

THE SHOW: We see/hear your requests for the first time on stage and create an amazing performance experience with them…

Travel Art Dance Company is excited to announce the return of “Any Requests?” as part of the 2010 Melbourne Fringe Festival. “Any Requests?” is a fun, creative, improvised performance work built entirely around material supplied by the audience at each show. Audience members are invited to bring a request with them to the performance – a piece of music, a prop, an image, a direction, or anything else they would like to see in dance form. The performers see, hear (or otherwise experience!) each request for the first time when they are on stage, creating an improvised performance work on the spot around each one. By popular demand, the 2010 “Any Requests?” season will also feature a matinee performance, at which requests from junior members of the audience will be prioritised!

PERFORMANCE DATES:

Friday September 24 at Dancehouse 8:00 PM

Saturday September 25 at Loop 4:00 PM

Saturday September 25 at Loop 6:30 PM

Sunday September 26 at Dancehouse (matinee) 2:30 PM

For more information about “Any Requests?” as it becomes available, including performance details and guidelines for requests, please stay tuned to our website, Myspace or Facebook, or join our mailing list by contacting us at travelartdance@gmail.com.

Travel Art Dance Company will be performing in Candle Ends on Friday June 25 – details below!

 
The miniature festival Candle Ends kicks off on the 23rd June 2010 showcasing some of the most exciting performances in Melbourne. Artists from all over Australia come together to perform at Brunswick Arts Space creating a jam packed extravaganza not to be missed.
More then a dozen artists performing over 4 nights; a thought-provoking and innovative collection of short performances. Lasting anywhere from 1 minute to 20 minutes long, each performance is set within the vast expanse of Brunswick Arts Space, blurring the lines between audience and artists you never know where the next performance will begin.

Storytelling, short plays, monologues, poetry, digital projection, puppetry, installation performances, and some we just can’t describe

Doors open 6.30pm 4 nights only!

Wednesday 23rd June
Thursday 24th June
Friday 25th June
Saturday 26th June

$15 Full – $10 Concession
Bookings recommended
@ www.trybooking.com

Travel Art Dance Company will be preforming a new work, “Just The Right Bullets” as part of Dance Hall 2010. Details below…

Dance Hall 11am-4pm Saturday 12 June Melbourne Town Hall FREE

Dance Hall is a bumper program of performances spanning multiple dance styles performed by dancers from Victoria’s studios, full time dance schools and companies on the main stage of the Melbourne Town Hall. Dance Hall is accompanied by a Dance Expo with information on all things dance. The event is free and open to all. Drop in or dance all day.

NOTE: Companies will be performing 2:00-3:15

Travel Art Dance Company will be holding an informal “Any Requests?” performance on Saturday May 15 to farewell a couple of our dancers (and to welcome back a couple of others!). For those of you who’ve not been to one of these performances before, we’ve included description and instructions below… And for those of you who are old hats at the requests concept and would welcome an additional challenge, we would be especially keen to work with any requests that are vaguely related to fairy tales, fables, storytelling, etc. We are working on a larger-scale production at the moment that draws on these themes, and because your requests have been so successful in drawing us out of our comfort zone previously (in many different directions!) we’d love some raw material from you to feed into our creative process.

WHERE? Downstairs at Dancehouse, 150 Princes Street North Carlton
WHEN? Saturday May 15, 5:00 PM and 7:30 PM
COST? This is a free event, but if you would like to make a contribution towards our running costs it would be gratefully received – we’ll have a donation box floating around with one of our volunteers on the night

As always, if you know which show you’re coming to and you know you are bringing a request please let us know so we can give it priority – it would be helpful to know the nature of your request (e.g. prop, music, direction, image) but please DON’T tell us what your request actually is. Otherwise feel free to just turn up!

We look forward to seeing you again soon,

TADC

FAQs for “ANY REQUESTS?”

Q. How does the show work?
A. Members of the audience are invited to bring a request with them to the show (although bringing a request isn’t a requirement of being part of the audience!). There will be volunteers collecting and compiling the requests as audience members arrive, so that the performers are kept suitably unaware of them… The performers start on stage and, as requests are played/presented in the space, they create an improvised performance work around each one. There is no prior discussion between the performers, and nothing about the performance is set or choreographed beforehand.

Q. What can I request?
A. Almost anything, as long as the content isn’t obscene, dangerous or potentially damaging to the venue (no naked flame requests!). Music tracks, props, directions, spoken word, images, etc.

Q. Do you need to know any details about my request?
A. You don’t need to tell us any details about your request before the show, unless your request is something that may require particular arrangements for us to be able to accommodate it. In that case, please let us know in advance.

Q. If I have a music request, is there a particular format it needs to be?
A. For ease of collecting requests, we would prefer you to bring your music request on CD if possible. However, we are able to accommodate other formats – if you would like to bring a music request in a format other than CD please just send us an email (travelartdance@gmail.com) and let us know.

Q. Can I request more than one thing?
A. If your request is a combination of things (e.g. an image with a direction, or a prop with a piece of music) that’s fine. But our shows are unfortunately not long enough for us to accept more than one discrete unit of request input per person!

Q. Will you use every request you receive?
A. It depends how many we receive on a given show. Our request-collecting volunteers will compile the requests for us, and if we receive many more than we have time to use, they may need to use their discretion about which would make the best combination for a show. We can also combine requests from different audience members (e.g. if you have a prop you would like to be used with someone else’s music request, or an image you are happy to have used with someone else’s direction, etc.). Just let our volunteers know whether you’d prefer your request to be combined or not.

Q. What should I do if I have a question that’s not on this list?
A. Email us (travelartdance@gmail.com), or leave a comment via our website, myspace or facebook and we’ll get back to you.

FAQs that have recently been changed are marked **NEW** or **UPDATED**. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Q. How does the show work?

A. Members of the audience are invited to bring a request with them to the show (although bringing a request isn’t a requirement of being part of the audience!). There will be volunteers collecting and compiling the requests as audience members arrive, so that the performers are kept suitably unaware of them… The performers start on stage and, as requests are played/projected/presented in the space, they create an improvised performance work around each one. There is no prior discussion between the performers, and nothing about the performance is set or choreographed beforehand.

**UPDATED**

Q. What can I request?

A. Almost anything, as long as the content isn’t obscene (or otherwise inappropriate for children), dangerous or potentially damaging to the venue (no naked flame requests!). To clarify, this is not a children’s performance and requests don’t need to be tailored to children – they just need to not include really inappropriate content…

Some examples of requests we’ve had previously are:

Music tracks – any genre.

Props – e.g. a puppet, a costume, a stack of old novels, a box of fortune cookies, musical instruments.

Directions – e.g. the dancers must all be on stage at once and must be dancing in pairs for the whole piece, there is no music but the performers must create their own soundtrack to dance to, the piece must be danced in a style other than that of the music, the piece must include at least some dance cliches.

Spoken word – e.g. poetry, advertising material, stories.

Images – on paper, projected on a screen, in a book.

The photos currently sweeping across our profile page should give a sense of how requests have unfolded in previous iterations of the “Any Requests?” concept, too..!

**NEW**

Q. If I am bringing a request, what time should I arrive at the show?

A. If you could aim to arrive at the venue approx 15 minutes before the scheduled start time it would assist our volunteers with a smooth request-collecting process!

**NEW**

Q. Do you need to know any details about my request?

A. You don’t need to tell us any details about your request before the show. But if your request is something you did not create yourself please bring any relevant details (e.g. artist, author, source, etc) with you on the night.

**UPDATED**

Q. If I have a music request, is there a particular format it needs to be?

A. For ease of collecting requests, we would prefer you to bring your music request on CD if possible. However, we are able to accommodate other formats – if you would like to bring a music request in a format other than CD please just send us an email (travelartdance@gmail.com) and let us know.

Q. If my request is a digital image, will you be able to accommodate

it at either venue?

A. We will have projection facilities at Loop, but not at Dante’s. So if your request is a digital image, photograph, animation, film sequence etc. suited to being projected please bring it to one of the Loop shows (Saturday Sep 26 and Oct 3 at 7:30).

Q. Can I request more than one thing?

A. If your request is a combination of things (e.g. an image with a direction, or a prop with a piece of music) that’s fine. But our shows are unfortunately not long enough for us to accept more than one discrete unit of request input per person!

Q. Will you use every request you receive?

A. It depends how many we receive on a given night. Our request-collecting volunteers will compile the requests for us, and if we receive many more than we have time to use, they may need to use their discretion about which would make the best combination for a show. We can also combine requests from different audience members (e.g. if you have a prop you would like to be used with someone else’s music request, or an image you are happy to have used with someone else’s direction, etc.). Just let our volunteers know whether you’d prefer your request to be combined or not.

Q. What if I REALLY want you to use my request, and I don’t want to risk just bringing it with me on the night?

A. If you send us an email (travelartdance@gmail.com) including your name, which show you will be coming to and what sort of request you will be bringing – e.g. music, prop, direction etc (but NOT the details of what your request actually is!) we can make sure your request is on a priority list for that show. Also, if you think your request may require any special accommodations for us to be able to use it, please let us know via email in advance..

Q. What should I do if I have a question that’s not on this list?

A. Email us (travelartdance@gmail.com), or leave a comment and we’ll get back to you… And keep an eye on this page or become a fan on facebook for more updates as they become available!