Featured Performance
Momentum Unveiled - September 2024​​
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Celebrating Lifelong Passion: A Dance Journey Through Time
As Co3 Contemporary Dance Australia 2024 IN.RESIDENCE recipient, Momentum Dance Perth performed this triple bill which unveiled remastered dance works by WA based choreographers Liz Cornish, Storm Helmore and Evgenia Plotkin Mikhalov.
Photo: Toni Wilkinson
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​An evening of dance that transcended age and embraced the timeless spirit of movement. Momentum Unveiled was a tribute to the enduring love of dance, featuring mature-aged dancers who have devoted their lives to this beautiful art form. Each movement on stage was a reflection of the many years of dedication, creativity, and joy that dance had brought into their lives.
"Making its State Theatre Centre debut with a program that’s abstract and athletic, Perth’s ensemble for dancers over 45 continued to rewrite the rules about who gets to dance".
(Nina Levy)
These dancers, with their wealth of experience and wisdom, brought a depth and richness to their performance that only time could cultivate. Their bodies told stories—of challenges overcome, of passion sustained, and of the pure, unyielding love for the craft that has remained constant throughout the years.
The performance showed not just the precision and skill honed over decades, but also the personal journeys that had shaped each performer. This was more than dance; it was a celebration of life, resilience, and the unbreakable bond between dancer and dance.​
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"Momentum’s dancers certainly exhibit an expressive depth and spirit".
(Jonathan W. Marshall) ​​​​
Wrinkles
by Liz Cornish
When my son Tim was 4 years old, he looked at me with awe and wonder and said “Mum, you have a stave on your head”.
I realised he meant I had lines on my forehead that resembled a musical stave. He saw lines and was impressed.
I refuse to buy into the idea that wrinkles need to be ironed out, plumped up, filled in, or covered over.
Wrinkles are a visual reminder of a life filled with laughter, tears, challenges and triumphs. They are the traces left by the constant repetition of daily tasks. Let us all cherish our hard-earned wrinkles.
My favourite part of the creative process has been getting people to compare the lines on their foreheads. I’ve had very young and very old people competing to have the deepest lines. It is a great way to start to look at lines on the skin in a different way.
Purple Patch
by Evgenia Plotkin Mikhailov
“When one has a heart, place has no significance at all” (Likutei Moharan, Part II, Torah 56:1).
I came across this quote during one of my travels, and it resonated deeply with me due to my personal story. The work explores the journey of finding peace and purpose, regardless of external chaos or challenges—it’s about discovering a path beyond external manipulation.
This quote serves as a reminder that when we connect with our true selves, we can find meaning and direction, no matter where we are or what we face.
PURPLE PATCH delves into the theme of manipulation, which is all around us. We often don’t realise how we’re being influenced, making choices designed for us and gradually drifting from our authentic selves.
The true PURPLE PATCH is in Freedom—the freedom to be ourselves. It lies in returning to our true nature, embracing freedom in our choices, our expressions, thoughts and our hearts.​​​
Sharing Space
by Storm Helmore
How does your ideal day begin? Mine is slow and quiet and without the pressure of time. But how often is this actually possible? And how much does this shift when you share the space with others?
Their presence alters the way you navigate your morning, sometimes delightfully so, though often changing your plans dramatically. I find this notion translates also to the studio space, our creative space, and I wanted to wander through this idea with the dancers of Momentum.
When I was invited into the process, I knew the dancers were keen to learn to move in the manner of the choreographers they invited into the studio - to be challenged by new pathways and styles. So here we began, sharing movement that felt good in my body and seeing how that translated in the bodies and minds and hearts of the dancers I was sharing space with.
We followed the paths that presented themselves. We found lightness and fun, but were also challenged by our attempts to ‘try on’ each other’s movements and to make them feel and look as we thought they should.
How we navigate this sharing of time and space is a negotiation we undertake every day, both in and out of the studio - sometimes embracing playfulness and sometimes learning to sit in the discomfort, but ultimately continuing to move through it together.​​​​
It's the final section of this work that’s my favourite, as the morning, perhaps, gets derailed. Prompted by Felix Laband’s toy-town like mechanical beat, the ensemble is swept up by the momentum of a joyful hip-swinging phrase.
A strange buzzing fractures the group into duets and trios, peppered with gestures like extravagantly curlicuing hands. It’s a buoyant performance.
The mood shifts to pensive in Wrinkles, created by dance artist and founding Momentum member Liz Cornish in response to the memory of her then four year old son describing the lines on her forehead as “a stave”.
Those lines are echoed by a series of crocheted ropes that form a giant stave across the back of the stage and by the strings of a harp, played live by Anthony Maydwell.
Beyond this, the theme of cherishing one's “lines” described in the program is generally not explicitly played out by the 13 dancers but there is a sense, instead, of relishing the body’s capabilities, in numerous overlapping solos.
Maydwell’s harp is haunting and moments of interplay with the dancers are especially rewarding. Emma Macmillan’s beautifully constructed open satin robes flow and flip with the dancers despite having no ties or buttons.
The final work on the program, independent dance artist Evgenia Plotkin Mikhailov’s Purple Patch, is the most physically dynamic. It’s also the most emotionally demanding of its cast of 11, delving into themes around finding peace, purpose and freedom. All cast members rise to these challenges with aplomb.
One of the work’s most powerful moments, however, is its quietest, physically. As the words of Guy Burgs urge us to embrace simplicity, the dancers’ arms float upwards in their own airy embrace.
It’s a pleasure to see the wisdom, beauty and charisma of older dancers showcased by Co3 at the State Theatre. As Momentum’s chair Liz Chetkovich remarked after the show, this season feels like the start of a new era for the ensemble".​
Excerpts from Nina Levy Review
"There’s a beauty that’s present in a body that contains decades of performance and life experience. All three works on the bill lean towards the abstract and athletic end of the contemporary dance spectrum.
The first, Sharing Space, takes as its starting point the gap between the way we imagine we’d like to start our day, and the way our day actually begins. There’s a lightness to which opens against whimsical piano notes from The Vernon Spring. Overlapping solos, duets and trios echo early-morning sleepiness. Shoulders lift with a sigh. At the end of a deep stretch, fingers wiggle. Hands cover eyes adjusting to the rising sun.