The tenth annual Reeldance festival promises a collision of art, dance and film. “Niche arts are always referred to as small,” says festival director Tracie Mitchell. “I started to look at that and think, well, what does small mean?” This years Reeldance looks to be anything but small. “I’m much more interested in the concept of niche … something that is exquisite and robust and courageous and creative and pioneering and not wanting to follow a formula but is interested in finding the accidents and the possibilities,” Mitchell expounds. Opening night sees Daniel Askill’s We Have Decided Not To Die and Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation’s The Rape of the Sabine Women, a feature based on the Roman myth and set in the idealistic 1960s. This year also sees the launch of Send the Cameras Out, a Reeldance Indigenous Initiative that involves nine artists in isolation responding to the question, ‘What is dance onscreen?’ and having the results compiled into three short films, screened for the first time on the night. “It invites us to engage in every kind of conversation,” Mitchell says of the fusion of cinema and dance, “From the incredibly serious to the whimsical … and they’re all a part of us.”
May 13-16, Performance Space, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, $15-95, 1300 723 038, reeldance.org.au
