And in the meantime, we’d love to hear what you thought of the show! Leave a comment for us on the Black Rider facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Black-Rider/171780086229055), or email us at travelartdance@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Artistic director of Melbourne’s Travel Art Dance Company, Meah Velik-Lord, sat down with Melbourne freelance journalist Annabel Boyer to talk about her upcoming production, the Black Rider.

Shadowy forests, silver bullets, love and madness, The Black Rider album is a dark fairy-tale, wrapped up in the gristle and bone of Tom Waits’ music and voice. German folklore embedded in everyday American, given a twist that shines on an undercurrent of deeper themes. In just two weeks time Melbourne’s Travel Art Dance Company is set to perform the Black Rider through dance. But it’s been a long road since artistic director, Meah Velik-Lord first came across the album, all the way back in 2003.

“I was working with Tom Waits’ music for another production at the time,” she says, “not with a narrative, but sort of exploring the themes in that piece. The beautiful and the bizarre and the way those two elements really spoke through the music. I picked The Black Rider up in a bookshop, just buying it as an album, not even knowing that the Black Rider was a play or anything like that.”

Already a Waits fan, she immediately loved it, at least most of it. But it wasn’t until she read the short synopsis of the fairy tale, printed  in the album cover that she became aware of the album’s history and it struck her as the perfect material for a dance performance. It was the album as a whole, she says – the artwork, the layout, the lettering and the story, neatly retold in two paragraphs – rather than just the music, that gave flight to her imagination.

“I have to say there are some tracks on it, that are really difficult to listen to, as listening,” says Meah, “but putting them in the context of the story makes it quite a different experience. And that comes through when we are working on it.”

When Tom Waits originally wrote the music it was as a collaboration that harnessed the talents of director Robert Wilson, writer William S. Burroughs, as well as his own, on a musical play. However, he did not sing it for the original play, and only released an album of the songs, singing the songs himself, some time later.  Like so much of Tom Waits’ music, the album ranges widely from gentle romantic ballads to pieces that seem more like machinations from a factory floor.

It has taken seven years since that first glimmer of inspiration for the TADC’s production to become a reality.  And now after beginning work on the production earlier this year, they are just two weeks away from the final performances. The production is entirely made up of originally choreographed and improvised dance, and as far as the company is aware, it is the only production of the Black Rider to be done entirely through dance.

“It is completely different now to what I thought it would be.” Says Meah, “In my head, it was a full staged production with amazing sets and effects, with people dropping in and out of the stage floor and things like that. Now we’re in the Northcote Town Hall, which is a really beautiful venue in its own right, but it does have its limitations. We’ve had to be a lot more creative and in the process of distilling it down, it has become a lot more raw.”

Another major challenge has been to tell a clear narrative while dealing with the fact that some songs from the original play were not included in the album. But Meah says that sticking with the album as a point of inspiration has been a very conscious choice. Elsewhere the performers have dug in to their own collective experiences for inspiration, along with the story. Over the last few years, Travel Art Dance Company has done a lot of work using the themes of collective memory and archetype. The group has been able to draw on this work as they develop the Black Rider with its age-old themes of love and Faustian bargains.

“People have brought in their own cultural heritage, the ideas and stories that people are holding in their heads.” Says Meah, “I think that process has fed in to wanting to do it in a much more human way. Technically, it’s still a dance work, but I would say that it’s become something more like physical storytelling than what audiences might typically think of as “dance” . It is a combination of choreography and improvisation and the real driving force for us has been  having an outward expression for the music and the tale.”

Travel Art Dance Company will perform the Black Rider from the 27^th to the 29^th of October at the Northcote Town Hall.

THE BLACK RIDER

“Travel Art’s approach is a pleasure to observe.” – Hilary Crampton, The Age

Based on the Robert Wilson/Tom Waits/William S. Burroughs musical play of the same name, and set to the album The Black Rider by Tom Waits, this performance takes the audience on a journey through a shadowy fairy tale landscape of love, lies and longing… and the perils of doing deals with a certain charismatic gentleman of the netherworld…

Thursday October 27 – Saturday October 29 at 8:30 PM

Main Hall, Northcote Town Hall 189 High St Northcote

Tickets: $28 full, $23 concession, $20 groups (6 or more)

www.northcotetownhall.com.au, phone (03)9481 9500

More information:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Black-Rider/171780086229055

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Black-Rider/171780086229055

And a slight amendment to our earlier post – because this is very definitely an after-dark production, the performance will be commencing at 8:30, rather than 8:00 as previously advertised… Ticketing info to follow shortly!

***Congratulations Seniors!***

The Prom is on, and you’ve earned an invite…

Performing at The Senior Winter Prom 2011 are:

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Travel Art Dance Company will be performing a contemporary dance piece

http://www.travelartdance.com/

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Fiction. The two piece folk / rock band consisting of Benjamin Syles Lawless and Stephanie Lambiris will be making their first ever public performance

http://soundcloud.com/fiction_band

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Everyone’s best mate Race Cooper will be spinning hell out of the turntables with funk, soul, and experimental hip-hop

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DJ Voltron will be delivering ear candy to the tune of deep house.

http://www.house-mixes.com/profile/v01tron

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The irrepressible Tunetek will be flooding the dancefloor with house to everything else. Its compulsory to dance to this chap.

http://soundcloud.com/tunetek

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DJ MUPPET (!?) will be moving us into the realm of tech house, utilising his insane turntable abilities.

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(More acts to follow)

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Doors open at 9pm, and entry is free before 10pm – come early!

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Merrymaking With Friends

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Based on the Robert Wilson/Tom Waits/William S. Burroughs musical play of the same name, and set to the album “The Black Rider” by Tom Waits, the production will be staged in the dramatic setting of the Northcote Town Hall (main hall) for three shows only, October 27-29, 2011. It is shaping up to be a pretty amazing production, so pop the dates in your diaries and stay tuned..!

“The silver swan, who living had no note,

when death approached, unlocked her silent throat.”

‘Swan Song’ by Orlando Gibbons.

Originally from the poem by Orlando Gibbons, the term swan song has become part of our vernacular. This exhibition takes the term swan song to mean a warning song: an ominous call that signals impending death or disaster. Through using the Australian black swan, Cygnus atratus, it asks: what happens if that song is left unheard?

This exhibition will be opened by a short performance work by Travel Art Dance Company, the remnants of which will remain in the space for the duration of the exhibition.

In the meantime, we’ll be performing two choreographed works in Flare Dance Company’s Reflections this coming weekend (Oct 1&2), before we take a few months off performing to work on some exciting projects coming up early and mid-2011… stay tuned!

TADC

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 and 2 (the weekend after “Any Requests?”).

When? Fri Oct 1 8:00 pm, Sat Oct 2 at 3:00 pm & 8:00 pm

Where? Renaissance Theatre, Kew High School, 826 High St East Kew

Cost? $15/20 (proceeds to Alzheimers Australia Vic)

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…