Dancing with Bees – Casting Call
Dancers of all backgrounds, ages and body types are invited to audition for a new digital public artwork that will be installed on the exterior of the Orange Civic Theatre. Up to twelve dancers will be cast for the project to work with renowned choreographer Larissa McGowan and the award-winning artist Zanny Begg to devise short dance sequences that will be filmed and displayed as part of the digital public artwork.
Dancers will be required for two days’ filming and rehearsals in Orange in November 2023. Successful applicants will be paid National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) rates with travel and accommodation (if needed). First Nations, CALD and dancers of diverse abilities are encouraged to apply. Dancers based in, or with a connection to Orange, are especially encouraged to apply.
To be considered for the project please send a CV, headshot, links to any dance performances and up to two minutes video of you moving/dancing (recorded on your phone is fine) to dancingwithbeesorange@gmail.com. Applications close August 30.
Dancing with Bees: Project Background The Arts and Sciences will meet in this groundbreaking artwork that will adorn the front of the Orange Civic Theatre from February 2024. The engaging artwork will invite viewers to reconsider our fragile ecosystem and notions of time while celebrating the talents of our local dancing community. Dancing with Bees will focus on local pollinators from Orange (Native and introduced) whose rhythms of life secure the food produced in the area. Bees talk to each other by dancing, the artwork aims to highlight this astonishing fact by inviting us to consider what else we can learn from trying to embody and understand the natural world.
Dancing with Bees is an artwork by Zanny Begg, funded by Create NSW, Orange City Council and the Australian Council for the Arts. The project has been commissioned by Orange City Council.
LARISSA MCGOWAN is an award-winning Australian dancer and choreographer. She was a longstanding performer and Associate Choreographer with Australian Dance Theatre. Following winning the 2003 Green Room Award for Best Female Dancer, Larissa won multiple awards in 2004, including Best Female Dancer in a Ballet or Dance Work at the Helpmann Awards and the Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer. Larissa works independently creating contemporary dance, and is sought out for movement consultation for theatre, opera, film, TV, video-clips and commissions for major dance companies.
ZANNY BEGG is an artist and filmmaker who is interested in hidden and contested history/ies and the ways in which art can help us see the world differently. She is the winner of the 66th Blake Prize Established Artist Residency 2021, the 2018 winner of the inaugural ACMI and Artbank film commission, the 2016 winner of the Incinerator Art Award, Art for Social Change, the 2016 winner of the Terrence and Lynnette Fern Cite Residency Paris and in 2022/2023 a retrospective of her recent video works is touring ten venues across Australia, supported by Museums and Galleries NSW. Zanny has a long history of creating engaging and visually compelling works in public and community settings. She has been invited to participate in eight biennales around the world, her work is held in major collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane.
To be considered for the project please send a CV, headshot, links to any dance performances and up to two minutes video of you moving/dancing (recorded on your phone is fine) to dancingwithbeesorange@gmail.com. Applications close August 30.