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Canberra Today 15°/16° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Canberra hoofers head for Bangkok

EIGHT of our brightest and best from QL2 Dance’s “Quantum Leap” ensemble young Canberra contemporary dancers are high on the skies, on their way to Thailand for a contemporary dance exchange.

Dancers high in the sky
Dancers high in the sky

That’s not all — QL2 will be welcoming four Thai dancers to Canberra tomorrow, Friday July 4.

The eight Canberrans have been selected from QL2 Dance’s “Quantum Leap” ensemble, and will be doing development workshops, classes and performances with a group of 13 dancers from Bangkok Dance Academy as part of the “Boundless Dance Exchange”, supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Thailand Institute in DFAT.

'Boundless' team rehearsing
‘Boundless’ team rehearsing

And that’s not all either. They’ll be continuing on to London, then Glasgow for the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival.

Their chosen feature work will be a 16-minute contemporary dance piece, “Cinders,” developed under choreographer James Batchelor, a former Quantum Leaper.

These days Batchelor is an independent dance maker based in Melbourne. “Cinders” incorporates live dance, screen projection and an original score by Melbourne composer, Morgan Hickinbotham. QL2 performed the work earlier at the AustralianYouth Dance Festival in Renmark.

It’s a bit of a whirlwind. The Bangkok performances will be at Sodsai Pantoomkomol Centre for Dramatic Arts at Chulalongkorn University on Saturday July, and will also include “Atta” by choreographer Lordfai Pachimsawat (once a QL2 exchange dancer).

The four visiting Thai dancers will join 40 Canberra and region dancers working at Gorman House Arts Centre under choreographer Danielle Micich, to develop and rehearse the final piece for QL2 Dance’s triple bill “Boundless”, to be staged at Canberra Playhouse from July 30-August 2. The eight globetrotters will be back in time for final rehearsals and performances.

Bangkok performances, “2nd Quantum Leap across Thailand” Chulalongkorn University, 1:30pm and 3:30pm, July 5.

Canberra performances, “Boundless”, July 30-August 2, at the Playhouse. Bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au

All pictures by Lorna Sim

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Helen Musa

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