Restless is currently in the second stage development of the Touring Company’s new production Second Nature. This new work, directed by Sydney-based artist Dean Walsh, investigates the notions of adaptation, mutation and the inhabitation of our natural environment.

Inspired by the dancer’s continual need to adapt to their external environment, their physical mutations and their constantly enquiring minds, this new work for the Touring Company taps into a gold mine of diverse and instinctual choices made within the performers unique physical ability.

Set to premiere in 2013, Second Nature looks into what we too eagerly deem as foreign without investigating the possibility that perhaps it is ourselves who are foreign, different, other, odd or strange. It is all a matter of circumstance, position, perception and environment.

A studio showing of this work in progress for APAM delegates is scheduled for 1 – 2pm Monday 27 February and 5 – 6pm Thursday 1 March 2012.

To follow the blog link from the first stage development in 2011 at Bundanon click here.

We are thrilled to receive a mention in the national survey of dance critics which highlights some of the country’s best.

Featuring in the February / March 2012 issue of the Dance Australia magazine, South Australian dance critic, Alan Brissenden mentions Restless Dance Theatre (Adelaide) as the ‘Most interesting Australian group or artist’.

For more of Alan’s choices for 2011, go to link

Having recently returned from the UK after attending the Oska Bright Film Festival in Brighton, Lorcan Hopper has been awarded a JUMP Mentorship. This National Mentoring Program for Young and Emerging Artists is the largest mentoring program of its kind and is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts.

A member of the Youth Ensemble, the Education Team and a regular presenter (emerging director) of Restless’ DEBUT Program, Lorcan is one of 75 young and emerging artists selected – the largest ever intake into an Australian artist mentoring program designed to advance their careers and make their mark on the Australian arts industry.

Over the next ten months, he will work with Peter Sheedy from the Adelaide College of the Arts to devise a unique program of integrated participation with other young dancers. Lorcan will join contemporary dance technique and composition/choreography classes at the College and will be supported by a personal assistant (PA) throughout his program who will assist in his learning and help create a video of his JUMP experience.

To follow Lorcan’s project and for program updates throughout 2012, visit the JUMP Mentoring website.

The Restless Youth Ensemble has returned early this year for a week-long intensive rehearsal period. The dancers are working with guest director Zoë Barry (Alarm Birds – Melbourne) for the first stage development of the company’s major production for 2012, Howling Like A Wolf.

Zoë has worked with the company on a number of productions (Beauty, Safe from Harm, The Heart of Another is a Dark Forest, In The Blood and Perfect Match) as a composer, musician and performer.

Howling Like a Wolf is about the chaos of human interaction and how we prepare for it. Through researching the history of scientific exploration into non-verbal communication, from the classical philosophers, French neurologists of the mid 19th Century and Darwinism through to the pop psychologists of the 1960′s, the dancers are exploring how this information is used to assist us in connecting with or manipulating others.

Joining the Youth Ensemble for this major production are established independent guest artists and emerging artists from Adelaide’s disability arts scene including invited guest performers from No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability, Tutti Inc and Company@.

This new work will premiere at The Queens Theatre 17th August 2012.

Learn more about the process by following the blog for Howling Like a Wolf.

Restless presents a Ranters Theatre Masterclass series 28 Nov – 9 Dec 2011. The Lure and Blur of the Real residency will be “non-fiction”. This means using aspects of ‘real-life’ to create ideas for performance.

The workshops will focus on 2 distinct areas:

Creating material from the real lives and experiences of the creative participants involved (performers, directors etc). This could be autobiographical or biographical.

Creating material from meetings with the public. This will mean a controlled excursion to a public space to observe and talk/question with selected public persons. We will look at how to develop ideas for creating work from the material we discover.

Our aim will be to develop raw material that is unprocessed, unfiltered, uncensored and infused with a deliberate ‘un artiness’.

Check out the link to the blog

For more information about this Ranters residency and to obtain a booking form, call Restless on (08)8212 8495 or email philip@restlessdance.org

Debut 3 is an exciting new program of short works directed by selected members of Restless Dance Theatre’s Youth Ensemble. Now in its third incarnation, this artistic initiative sees three outstanding members of the Company work as Directors to develop their own individual choreographic styles. The Directors have worked alongside experienced guest artists as mentors to guide them in the creative process. This season of work is united by the theme: ‘The Butterfly Effect’. Debut 3 demonstrates how small changes in one part of a complex system can have a dramatic effect elsewhere.

When: 7:30pm Friday 11 November, 3pm & 7:30pm Saturday 12 November 2011. The performance on Friday 11 November will be Auslan interpreted and audio described. (please telephone Restless if you require this service).
Where: The Restless Studio, 234a Sturt Street, Adelaide SA 5000 (enter off Arthur Street)
Tickets: $10, $5 concession – Bookings are essential
For further info and bookings contact Restless Dance Theatre
at: bookings@restlessdance.org or telephone 8212 8495

The Restless Assembly… dance til ya drop.

Ever wanted to know why so many people enjoy coming to Restless?
Want to meet new people in a safe and supportive environment?
Do you love dancing, playing games and having fun?

The ASSEMBLY is a BRAND NEW terms-worth (8 weeks) of inclusive dance, open for people of all ages from different cultural backgrounds with and without a disability.

The Assembly brings dancers together in a fun environment, where no one is judged and where there is no wrong or right way to express your individual creativity.

For more information and to book your place, call Restless on (08)82128495 or email lyn@restlessdance.org

When: Tuesday nights 5.30-7pm
18 Oct – 6 Dec 2011
Cost: $10 per class or buy a block of 8 classes for $70

Restless will present a Masterclass at the Crack Theatre Festival in Newcastle Saturday 1 October 2011. Crack is a national festival and forum for alternative theatre-makers and performing artists devoted to experimental, fringe, cross-artform theatre and performance. It is part of the This Is Not Art media arts festival.

Artistic Director Philip Channells, will be accompanied by emerging disabled artists Lorcan Hopper and Kyra Kimpton who will lead the Beyond Technique masterclass and be part of an Accessible Arts panel discussion.

For more information about the event click on the link to the Festival.

JUNCTION – where artists develop a deeper understanding of integration and inclusive practice, share new skills and information, and hatch a new generation of arts practice in South Australia.

JUNCTION is an artist exchange program initiated by Restless Dance Theatre to support and promote the development of new independent work. With a focus on disability arts practice, JUNCTION is designed to encourage an exchange of ideas, space and expertise that shifts the boundaries between disability arts and mainstream dance and theatre practices. It supports emerging and established artists with a movement background while generating pathways for potential new collaborations between disabled and non-disabled artists.

Piloting this program is independent artist Tobiah Booth-Remmers who is being mentored by Carol Wellman Kelly through the national JUMP mentoring program. Tobiah is in the Restless Studio for the next two weeks working on the second stage redevelopment of In Absence Of. This work focuses on the removal of something significant from a group of people, and explores how they then react and interact once this removal has happened. Joining the project on secondment is Restless dancer Jianna Georgiou who has spent the past 2 weeks with Tobiah at the Australian Dance Theatre studios. Jianna has been keeping busy taking technique class, learning repertoire from the work, devising new material from improvisation scores and teaching Tobiah some of her moves.

As part of the JUNCTION program Tobiah will have a studio showing for invited guests at the Restless Studio . For more info about JUMP (click).

Administration Assistant
Restless has appointed Lyn Wagstaff to the Administration Assistant position. Lyn worked for many years as Project Officer for the Adelaide Festival of Arts on the events: Adelaide Writers’ Week and Adelaide Festival of Ideas. We are delighted to welcome her to Restless.