Chalk About
From story telling and contemporary dance to chalk drawings, Beyonce and sharks swimming in pools (with lots of blood): Chalk About is a thought provoking performance that takes families on a personal journey.
When: 6 & 7 June 2015, 11am and 2pm
Where: Arts Centre Melbourne (meet near the Playhouse), 100 St Kilda Rd MELBOURNE
Cost: tickets $22 each, click here to book
Review
This morning Immi (9) and I went along to experience Chalk About at the Arts Centre. The performance takes place in the Playhouse rehearsal room – deep within the bowels of the Arts Centre (Immi counted and it was 64 steps down). The experience in just getting to the theatre space itself is a bit of an adventure – there are plenty of staff along the way to make sure you don’t get lost and it’s a small theatre and therefore an intimate audience.
There are no allocated seats – but we were lucky enough to nab some front row seats. There is plenty of action in Chalk About and so if you choose the front row you are sure to be in the thick of it – and in Immi’s case she was one of about six children who were invited up from the audience to take part in some chalk drawing.
The contemporary dance is incredibly physical. The two performers (Christine and Hendrick) engage in playful dance and somehow manage to make it look effortless – leaping and rolling about. It’s fun to watch and as an adult you can’t but help to marvel at their strength.
While the story telling is almost child-like the topics touched on are quite deep. Themes cover things such as what children like and don’t like, what they want to see (definitely no puppets!) and also what makes them sad. We also learn some of the performers life stories.
A couple of notes:
- From beginning to end expect this experience to take about 50 minutes.
- Given the stairs in and out of the theatre I am not exactly sure if there is disabled access (there is no mention in the information I have been sent) and so if you do require assistance I would highly recommend calling the Arts Centre to check: 1300 182 183
Notes from the media release:
Glasgow-born dancer and choreographer Christine Devaney teams up with Belgian performer Hendrik Lebon in Chalk About at Arts Centre Melbourne, a playful, funny and unique dance theatre work devised to get children think- ing about how we see ourselves and others.
From June 6 – 7 Christine and Hendrik from Scottish performance company Curious Seed will take children aged eight and above and their families on a chalk-drawing journey asking some BIG questions about identity and the meaning of life. What makes us who we are? Is it where we are from? Is it the way we dance? Our pasts or our fu- tures? And, most importantly, doesn’t’t everyone like pizza?
At its core they are two people from very different backgrounds sharing stories and getting to know each other through talk and dance. The dancers tell their stories and leave their marks by chalking the floor before they gently invite the audiences into their world.
Described as sophisticated and generous of heart, Chalk About has been performed to children across the world including families from Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, England and Scotland. Since Chalk About’s very first show in 2013 they have used over 2000 pieces of chalk to tell the story of human difference.
