With the end of 2011 drawing closer, I have begun to think about what I have been doing and where I have been during the past year. I thought it would be interesting to look back on what now seems to be a really busy 2011!
January – May. I began my year working on the fashion label TRIMAPEE’s second film. It was filmed from 9pm to 6am at the Melbourne Aquatic Centre. Hours were spent underwater with a scuba diver with oxygen tanks on standby, which meant we could stay underwater for 20-minute blocks. After a cold long night and some editing, the final outcome looked pretty cool. http://vimeo.com/21292513
In February Lucy Guerin Inc flew Antony Hamilton and I to Mildura to create and perform ‘Untrained’ alongside two Footballers from the town. This was my first tour of a show so I was pretty excited.
Just after that project I flew to Sydney to work with Narelle Benjamin and Francis Rings premiering ‘Forseen’ a double bill. I grew up in Sydney and I was excited to perform back home for the first time. One very special audience member was my high school dance teacher; she is the one I looked up to and also the one who told me to audition for the Victorian College of the Arts. This was the first time she saw me dance professionally after 7 years. I hope to think I’ve changed a lot since my high school days. http://vimeo.com/29240093
Returning back to Melbourne I continued my solo practice producing a short work ‘Partially Here’ for Short Sweet + Dance. I was very excited to be awarded Best Male Dancer! Straight after closing night I flew to Brisbane to begin a month leg of a three-month regional tour performing ‘Untrained’ with Lucy Guerin Inc. During the month we performed in amazing places like Toowoomba, Lismore, Coffs Harbour, and Newcastle. The best part of the tour was that I happened to have friends and family in every town, making it an extra special experience. Another plus was the beautiful weather!
June: Returning back to Melbourne I began collaborating with Supple Fox, event organisers for the International Jazz Festival. Here I joined forces with my collective 2ndToe www.2ndtoe.com to produce a crazy, intimate roving dance experience lurking in the darkness of the city’s prestigious Kelvin Club for the Jazz Festival’s program ‘The Cave’. http://supplefox.com/selected-work/the-cave/
During these days I also began first development with Chunky Move, ‘Assembly’. Four weeks full time working hard on a giant wooden staircase, you should have seen my bruises!
July - August: This is where I started to get busy, busy! Chunky’s development just finished and I began work with Adam Wheeler for Chunky Move’s ‘Next Move’ project ‘It Sounds Silly’ in collaboration with Signal. This is where I had the opportunity to step out of the dancing role and take up another interest of mine - costume design. Designing for 28 people was a giant mission but in the end I was very, very happy. I kept them warm during the season, which took place outside in the cold next to Flinders Street Station.
During this time, I had also begun choreographing and collaborating with the second year dance students at the VCA two days a week.
One other job weaved its way through the two months, costume designing a Rock Eisteddfod for 98 students at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School. Which shared its opening night with ‘It Sounds Silly’; lucky I made it to both!
September – October: I began teaching beginner and intermediate classes on Saturdays
at Chunky Move for the month, which was a fun challenge to get a group of people moving the way I like to move. I also continued my work with VCA. It has been interesting working on eleven dancers, finding different ways to communicate producing an ongoing exploration of my movement vocabulary. Both teaching at Chunky Move and VCA has been quite rewarding. Both contain a room full of different bodies and brains. Questions about movement provide an ongoing exploration for the participants and I.
Towards the end of September ‘Assembly’ reformed to rehearse and perform in the Melbourne Arts Festival. Working with a youth choir of sixty, eight opera singers and seven other dancers was an amazing experience. We built a very big family over the season and the bruises came back!
Today and the Future: I am sitting in my room post ‘Assembly’ and all I have at the moment is my VCA work to finish. They open on the 2nd November, which is very exciting. This is the first time I have made a work on a large group of people. I am very excited to see how it all wraps up.
Soon I’ll begin work on a first development with Lucy Guerin Inc. I can’t wait!
Then to finally end my year I am flying away on a well deserved holiday, first stop San Francisco to see some friends, then off to Los Angeles to see my aunty for Christmas.
Looking back on my three years out of VCA, I have noticed my workload has slowly increased. I am so lucky to be doing all of this. All I know is I love what I do and all I can do is keep working hard and keep showing interest to all I love and look up to. BRING ON 2012!
- Benjamin Hancock
