The award-winning Phluxus2 Dance Collective will bring together a list of local creatives, including Nerida Matthaei (‘Angel Monster’, ‘Love Stories’, ‘Boy Swallows Universe’), Ben Ely (Regurgitator) and Lisa Fa’alafi (Polytoxic) to present the genre-defying production ‘The Next 14 Seconds’.
‘The Next 14 Seconds’ draws from disciplines of dance, theatre, visual art and sound design, to explore human evolution and where we are headed in the future.
‘The Next 14 Seconds’ was created during the events of 2020 – a time when the world was processing distress, trauma, and a lack of control.
“I have always been drawn to creative work that helps me address and unpack certain aspects of being human that are interesting, unusual, frustrating, or need to be agitated,” Phluxus2 Artistic Director/Choreographer Nerida Matthaei says.
“This is a brand-new work, anchored in collaboration with an amazing team of performers and creatives who are responding to the choreography in real time as we create the work together. Our process is certainly multi-artform and impossible to put in a box, but dance is absolutely the hero.”
“The title of the work references the notion that in this infinite cosmos our world is a small but beautiful fragment, we as homo sapiens, are said to represent a mere 14 seconds of its condensed cosmic existence.
“It draws on where we have come from: the evolution of human biology, the development of collective and community, invention, reinvention, imagination, consumerism, and creation, and importantly looks to where we are heading. What will we change in our next 14 seconds?”
The production will feature artwork by Wulli Wulli woman and visual artist Arabella Walker, and the two sound designers have purposely been kept separate from one another, to ensure individual responses to choreography.
Five dancers join the work: Jade Brider, Hsin-Ju Ely, Georgia Pierce, Asher Bowen Saunders, and Jacob Watton. . . Alongside leading local practitioners Lisa Fa'alafi (costume design), Arabella Walker (visual artistry), Ben Ely and Haami Te Kuru (sound design), Keith Clark (lighting design/production) and Daniel Evans (dramaturg).
“I hope that ‘The Next 14 Seconds’ will generate conversations about how we approach community and the philosophies for our own lives, and that it encourages reflection on where we have been to find a future that is fairer, brighter, joyful and sustainably rejuvenated,” Nerida says.
‘The Next 14 Seconds’ plays Queensland Performing Arts Centre 28-29 November.
