Wrap 74

Restless Wrap.
Unexpectedly Real.

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issue no. 74

Restless Goes Global

Intimate Space Tour

Closing Ceremony

from the artistic director
Hello

We are absolutely thrilled with the results of our Restless Goes Global fundraising campaign. Thank you so much to everyone who supported us. Your support will give our dancers with disability the life-changing opportunity of going global. For Restless, the concept of “Going Global” is about connection between our Company and audiences across the world. It speaks of building our profile and celebrating our unique dancers with and without disability and the incredible art they create.
Thanks especially to our matching donors James Darling AM and Lesley Forwood, to the Adelaide Theatre & More Social Club, Rob and Jan Tanner and to the Creative Partnerships Australia Plus1 program.

We not only reached our fundraising target, we exceeded it by $10,000! We have raised a total of $110,435 towards the costs associated with touring Restless works nationally and internationally over the coming years. What an amazing result! Thank you so much to everyone. We look forward to keeping you abreast of the touring we are able to undertake as a result of your valuable support.

We have also recently returned from a highly successful, sold out, season touring Intimate Space in the Bleach* Festival as part of Festival 2018 – the Commonwealth Games arts and cultural program.
AND I choreographed the Restless Dancers and Gold Coast Recreation and Sport performers in an opening sequence on three separate stages for the Closing Ceremony for the Commonwealth Games.

It has been a busy time.

Thank you.
Michelle Ryan Artistic Director

Restless Goes Global

Kathryn Evans Photography: Shane Reid

Restless Goes Global surpasses its $100,000 target!

We conceived of a three stage matched funding campaign called Restless Goes Global.

Stage one was that we set ourselves a target of $25,000. We had generous support from a wide range of donors, some who have donated to Restless before and some who are new donors. We were bowled over when the wonderful people from Adelaide Theatre & More Social Club contacted us and subsequently made a donation of $20,000! What an extraordinarily generous response to our work. We cannot thank them enough. Together all these donations reached an amazing total of $35,435.05! Thank you to one and all for your wonderful generosity. We will make every single dollar of this count as we take the work of the company to the world – including that 5 cents!

For stage two we asked two of our current donors to Restless Dance Theatre – James Darling AM and Lesley Forwood – if they would be prepared to commit to matching our $25,000 target to bring our total to $50,000. They said yes and we thank them so much for their open hearted support of Restless.

The third stage of Restless Goes Global was a successful funding application to Creative Partnerships Australia’s Plus1 matched funding program who have committed to matching the whole $50,000 dollar for dollar.

So our target of $25,000 for Restless Goes Global has been matched and matched again and, with the extra we raised, we are up to a total of $110,435.05. Wow!

We feel so lucky to have such incredible support around our company and we are so grateful to everyone for helping us to achieve our goal. Thank you.

Restless Goes Global is supported by James Darling AM & Lesley Forwood and by Creative Partnerships Australia through Plus1.

Intimate Space on Gold Coast

The cast and crew of Intimate Space in Hilton Surfers Paradise. Photography by Scott Belzner.

Another Sold Out Season for Intimate Space
We remounted Intimate Space for the Bleach* Festival as part of Festival 2018 – the Commonwealth Games arts and cultural program.
This was a huge undertaking for the company where we successfully tested our collaborative model for touring the production. This involved taking a touring party of 19, including 11 Restless dancers and working with 10 locally based dancers. Most of these local dancers were members of two Queensland organisations: Indelability Arts and Gold Coast Recreation and Sports. Altogether with our own techs and support staff and local support staff there were 31 people in the cast and crew.

Michelle and Restless Artistic Manager Roz Hervey visited the Gold Coast on several occasions before the festival to work with the local dancers and to adapt the site specific production to the new dynamics and environment of Hilton Surfers Paradise. They, and the whole cast and crew, did their work brilliantly and Restless presented the work twenty times over 4 days.

The season of Intimate Space was sold out a week before it opened. And the production received another glowing review:
Intimate Space is a beautifully crafted piece of theatre – tender, witty, challenging, and whimsical. Rightly, the short season was sold out. Dance Australia 2018

Michelle Ryan writes:
We had people in tears at the end. We also had an audience member who came with her two teenaged daughters tell us that it provided the opportunity to sit down afterwards and discuss what they had seen/shared and to talk about disability and how it is perceived. For me, this was a fantastic outcome because ultimately that is what I hope the work of the company does, it starts conversations.

Commonwealth Games
Closing Ceremony

Rehearsing for the Closing Ceremony. Photography GOLDOC

An audience of millions
Michelle Ryan choreographed three large stages with multiple dancers for the start of the Closing Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. The dance sequence accompanied the opening song by Amy Shark and Archie Roach.

Michelle writes: This was huge. I was incredibly impressed by the dancers’ focus, professionalism and being supportive of each other and the guest dancers from Gold Coast Recreation and Sport. It was very intimidating going in to the huge stadium for rehearsal and on the night for the performance but we rose to the occasion.

Although the Closing Ceremony in general has had some negative feedback for its exclusion of the athletes, the Restless section, at the very beginning, was well received and was described by an audience member as “Absolutely beautiful“.

Rest With Restless

Dana Nance. Photography: Shane Reid

Why not leave Restless a Bequest?

Making a bequest in your Will is a thoughtful way to ensure that the vital work of Restless Dance Theatre continues into the future. To request information or discuss the steps involved in making a bequest, please contact Belinda Hellyer, Development Manager, via email belinda@restlessdance.org or phone her on 08 8212 8495.
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