Fresh Tracks
From a young emerging hip-hop artist to a seniors dance troupe, Tracks Dance Company is staging a diverse show at the Darwin Fringe Festival.
By Kylie Stevenson
Now in its third year, Fresh Tracks showcases the talent of local emerging choreographers, and resident dance animateur Kelly Beneforti says this year’s performance will bring four very different acts to the stage.
Beneforti led a seven-week intensive course in which Darwin dancers Will Nery, Felicity Wardle and Sheila Rose developed new works for the show.
Recent Casuarina Senior College graduate, Nery, will use dance to represent young men in Darwin through hip-hop and break dance; experienced circus and physical theatre artist, Wardle, brings her recent Indonesian dance studies in masks and puppetry to the stage; and local Indigenous woman, Rose, will perform powerful stories to a Black Arm Band medley.
Each will choreograph a 10-15-minute act performed by local dancers and the show will be rounded out by seniors dance troupe the Grey Panthers.
“The local and independent dance community in Darwin is small but is dealing with a diverse and interesting range of issues and these pieces reflect that,” Beneforti says.
“We are treading new ground and committed to making contemporary, thought-provoking work of now.”
She encourages everyone to come along, especially if they haven’t experienced a dance performance before.
“Dance is more powerful than any other platform because audiences can have their own interpretation of what the piece is about or what the choreographer is trying to say,” she says.
“A lot of people worry that they’re not going to ‘get’ dance, but you don’t have to in order to watch and enjoy dance.
“Once people realise this and let go and give themselves permission to draw from it what they like, it is an amazing space for an audience.
“Being such a physical art form and really visceral, it draws an empathetic response from the audience.”
The popular Tracks show has just two performances at the intimate Brown’s Mart Theatre.
SUN 8 JUL | 12.30PM & 2.15PM | BROWN’S MART THEATRE | $15 | $10 CONC darwinfringe.org.au
