Body in Question
1998-2005
The Advertiser, Adelaide:
A stylish work that seamlessly integrates movement, spoken and written text, animation and an extraordinarily live-looking puppet. Director Fuks has collaborated with Cunningham to craft a multi-layered and intensely personal work.
Sunday Herald Sun, Melbourne:
A moving alliance of dance, video, vibrant musical score, a triumph of creative expression and dance over all our human frailties.
Telerama, Paris:
Reinventing the choreographic space, Cunningham throws himself into startling body-to-body tussles with his puppet to find new artistic strings. A flag-ship show of the festival.
A multimedia movement-theatre show, incorporating dance, video- and slide- projections, a life-sized puppet and an original soundtrack. A diary come to life, portraying the true story of an Australian dancer who – after paralysing one of his arms in a motorcycle accident – journeys through the worlds of medicine, rehabilitation and disability, in recovery of self-expression. He finds new angles on perceiving the body, and new ways to move. “Body image” and concepts of “normality” are questioned.
Choreography: James Cunningham and Suzon Fuks
Direction and Visuals: Suzon Fuks
Performer: James Cunningham
Composer: Lee McIver
Lighting Designer: Iain Court
Supported by the Australian Government through the Images of Australia Branch, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the NSW Ministry for the Arts, Myer Foundation, Pratt Foundation and VicHealth
– The Edge Theatre, Sydney (in-progress showing)
– Rex Cramphorn Studio, Centre for Performance Studies, Sydney
– Star Court Theatre, Lismore, NSW
– Mixed Metaphor, Dance House, Melbourne
– Regional tour to Swan Hill, Echuca, and Portland, Victoria
– Awakenings Festival, Horsham, Victoria
– High Beam Festival, Adelaide
– D’ici et d’Ailleurs Festival de Danse, Brussels, Belgium
– visions International Festival of Visual Performance, Brighton, UK
– Biennale Internationale des Arts de la Marionnette, Paris
– Blickwechsel Figure Theatre Festival, Magdeburg, Germany
– International Day of Puppetry, Baden, Switzerland
– Blickfelder Festival, Zurich, Switzerland
– Mimos, Perrigueux
– François-Rabelais University, Tours, France