MAY 3RD, 2017
OGILVIE HIGH SCHOOL, HOBART

METASYSTEMS is a series of short performance works by James Batchelor and Collaborators for theatres and public spaces. Since it began in 2014, it has toured in Australia, Europe and Asia and continues to expand as it negotiates and adapts to new contexts.

METASYSTEMS contemplates human interaction with the environment from the individual to the universal. It is an assemblage of raw building materials with the body, a rhythmic landscape of construction and movement. Documenting and translating the processes taking place at the construction site, METASYSTEMS is an observation of the changing urban landscape. It analyses the human encounter with the material world, the desire to shape it and the physical positioning of body and object.

James spent one week with DRILL in Hobart to create a new, super-scale version of METASYSTEMS on fourteen dancers.


(Click to enlarge)

CREDITS

Choreographer
James Batchelor

Producer
Joshua Lowe

Performers
Aimee Schollum, Ayame Ochi, Bella Young, Chelsea King, Ebony Nichols, Elise Jackson, Gayl Koh, Jaala Jensen, Jenn Ma, Julian Bennett, Kaani Booth, Kady Mansour, Michaela Tancheff & Shani Glenn-Ward

 
 

JAMES BATCHELOR

james dancing headshot

James Batchelor is one of Australia’s leading young choreographers. His work is known for its visual clarity, architectural sensitivity to space and rhythmic playfulness. Movement is hypnotically focused and detailed drawing audiences into a contemplative and imaginative realm. His practice is collaborative, spanning mediums of dance, film, music and sculpture. The result is highly original and immersive performances of impact and scale that resonate with diverse audiences internationally.

James’ mission as an artist is to make work that inspires curiosity. To shift assumptions, widen awareness and create possibility. He strives to find ways that dance can be a conversation, collaboration and exchange with other disciplines and communities. In 2016 James was an artist in residence on a two-month expedition to the sub-Antarctic Heard and McDonald islands. Since this experience, there has been a particular focus in his work on the intersection of science and arts.

James trained at the Victorian College of the Arts graduating with a Bachelor in Fine Arts (Dance) in 2012. Over the last five years he has generated an extensive body of work in Australia including commissions from Chunky Move (REDSHIFT), Dance Massive (DEEPSPACE), Dancehouse (ISLAND), Keir Choreographic Award (METASYSTEMS, INHABITED GEOMETRIES) and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. (SMOOTH TRANSLATION).

His international work is focused mainly in Europe and Asia having presented in Paris (La Briqueterie), Versailles (Plastique Danse Flore), Luxembourg (Trois CL), Bassano del Grappa Italy (B.motion), Bangkok (Creative Industries) and Chongqing China (501 Artspace). In 2018 he will travel to the UK (Birmingham International Dance Festival, Dance 4 Nottingham, Hackney Showroom London, Arnolfini Bristol), Bassano del Grappa Italy (B.motion), Rome (Balletto di Roma), La Briqueterie Paris (Les Plateaux), Finland (Lonely in the Rain), Groningen The Netherlands (Jonge Harten), Riga Latvia (Homo Novus) and Brugge Belgium (December Dance).

As a performer he has worked with internationally renowned choreographers such as Iván Pérez, Anouk van Dijk (Chunky Move), Antony Hamilton, Prue Lang, Stephanie Lake and Sue Healey.
www.james-batchelor.com.au