Ahilan Ratnamohan, the inspirational theatre-maker, renowned for crossing the art of dance with his experience and passion for the physicality of football has developed another inspiring performance.
Ahil graduated from the University Of Technology Sydney in 2005, then went on to attempt a professional football career in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. Since 2007, Ahil has toured and performed in Australia, South Africa, and Europe and has worked with a varied range of establishments and artists. His latest solo piece, 'SDS1', is deeply informed by his past experiences in football (soccer, not AFL). This piece has been in the making for two years and fuses the elegance of dance with the physicality of football.
The motivation behind 'SDS1' came from the desire to create a football theater piece with no dialog. “I’d been making what I call football dance theatre productions for a while… The ones that I’ve made before 'SDS1' – ‘The Football Diaries’ and ‘Michael Essien I Want To Play As You’ – are both very biographical with lots of dialog. I was keen on going for something more physical and trying to look more at the chorographical side of what I call football dance theatre... Focusing on the physicality of the piece rather than the words or script.”The name 'SDS1' is very unique and intriguing, exactly how Ahil wanted it to be. “The name stands for ‘Soccer Dance Solo 1’… With these football shows it’s really easy to come up with a cliché name… I didn’t really want anything like that.”
'SDS1' will target and hopefully attract not only fans of theatre, but also people who are passionate about football. “It’s not straight theatre at all. I think you can bring a footballer to [the show] that doesn't go to see [theatre] performances and they may really be moved by it and drawn to it… It’s definitely got that football target audience but at the same time I’m trying to develop the choreographic elements of football and I think that stuff can be quite interesting for a dance audience. I really hope that the piece can be interesting for both [audiences].”The creative process behind 'SDS1' has developing for two years and Ahil initially took on a very DIY approach to sound and lighting. “[When] I premiered the show, it was actually very self-operated... I controlled all sound and all lights... That meant I went with a very simple lighting design [to begin with]. As the show went on ... we started to think about how it could be developed a little bit more and maybe that that DIY aspect wasn’t so important... Mirabelle Woutors has come on board for this development as the lighting designer”.
Since studying film at university, Ahil has proceeded on a side path into football and then the performing arts. “I really want to get back into film; sometimes I see theatre and performances as a kind of detour towards making films down the line. One of my past football theatre productions, I looked at the migration of African footballers to Europe involving the exploitation and illegality which kind of takes place there – I’ve always thought about doing a longer version of that as a film.”
On Thursday the 16 of July, Ahil will be holding a talk on 'SDS1' and hosting a workshop at The Mill in Adelaide where he plans to shed light on what he is currently doing as an artist. “Sometimes there can be quite a bit of antagonism between the art and sport worlds… But I feel like they could both learn off each other quite a bit… I like to take dance explorations to footballers and likewise when working with a group of performers, we can be influenced and inspired by techniques used on the football field. I hope the talk at The Mill will be an exchange with the people!”
'SDS1' uncovers the mindset behind these football players who are fighting for acceptance and to be worshipped. Ahil, through movement, depicts that the player is caught in the performance, rather than in control of it. When football is translated into the world of theatre, it becomes raw, repeated and abstract. Beautiful and ugly at once.Ahilan Ratnamohan Tour Dates
Wed 19 – Sat 22 August – Arts House (Melbourne)Wed 29 – Sat 29 August – Vitalstatistic (Adelaide)
Wed 2 – Sun 6 September – Blacktown Arts Centre (Sydney)
Thurs 17 – Sun 20 September – Salamanca Arts Centre (Tasmania)
Wed 23 – Sat 26 September – Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
Tues 29 September - Thurs 1 October – Mandurah Performing Arts Centre
Tues 20 – Thurs 22 October - Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre
