Be BOLD: Canberra’s professional dance festival is back
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Get ready for a week of frivolity and joy: Canberra’s only professional dance festival is back for 2022.
Running from Wednesday 2 until Sunday 6 March, the BOLD Festival celebrates all moving bodies and the legacy of dance in a jam-packed five-day event.
Featuring a range of talks from some of the world’s leading dance experts in a program covering a myriad of subjects, the mix of conferences and performances began in 2017 to support the “small but strong” dance community in Canberra.
Offering both emerging and older dancers a platform to showcase their talents and share their stories, according to Festival Director Liz Lea, it’s the only dance festival in Australia that focuses on the importance of legacy in performing art.
“This means younger artists creating work from their heritage, be it cultural or familial, and it’s also a vehicle for older artists to still be able to perform and present,” she says.
“We have Elizabeth Cameron Dalman and she’s our patron. She’s a living legend. Eileen Kramer performed with us last time in 2019 and she’s a keynote speaker this year at the age of 107. And then we have a range of younger performers.”
Launching at the National Sound and Film Archive with a screening of a series of short films from Sue Healey and Eileen Kramer, Gail Hewton and Ripe Dance, Jen Brown and Eric Avery, Mira Balchandran Gokul and Elinor Randle, Liz says the conferences don’t focus on one ‘theme’.
Instead, like the short films, there’s an eclectic range of people speaking on various topics, including culture, disability, and age.
“We’ve got Eileen talking about maintaining inspiration over a sustained period of time. Gary Lang will be zooming in from Darwin…he will be talking about working as First Nations man across a number of different cultural forms,” says Liz.
“We have a documentary reporter who’s based in Canberra, she’ll be talking about her book about Christian Fredrickson, and the designs that he did for several different theatre companies and that relates to the National Library of Australia’s On Stage exhibition that opens on 4 March and runs through to 7 August.”
Along with the 30 speakers discussing and reflecting upon important topics with the dance industry, festival-goers can also expect to have some fun and be wowed by live performances.
Running alongside the Enlighten Festival, Australian Dance Party is presenting an illuminated outdoor dance and music experience weaving through the evocative architectural sculpture of LESS Pavilion on Friday 4 March.
Then on Saturday 5 March, a magnificent mix of men and male-identifying performers will take to the legendary QL2 Theatre stage to share an eclectic smorgasbord of performances and film.
“Some of the performers are just very comedic, very fun, and the cabaret closing night will just be an absolute blast,” says Liz.
Adding to the frivolity the visual visage of Creature, the mascot of the BOLD Festival, will be making appearances throughout the events.
Formed from the imagination of an artist who wishes to remain anonymous, she represents creativity in a difficult time, something Liz and Canberra creatives know all too well.
“It speaks to triviality. It speaks to joy and creativity, in a really tricky time. It’s been very, very hard to keep creative,” says Liz. “When I saw the images [of Creature], they just spoke to me. I just went ‘This is brilliant. This is nuts. This is crazy’…she’s enigmatic and slightly withdrawn and just bringing some joy.”
As the arts scene comes back to life in Canberra, the BOLD Festival is the perfect opportunity to be inspired by local creators while taking some very important advice from Creature: socially distance, be mysteriously fabulous, and always show a little leg.
For more information visit the BOLD Festival Facebook page.
Feature Image: Creature, Credit Robert Wagner
