MISCHA BAKA

(Ben Jamieson, Choir Dance Company, Dale Polglase, Ella Baxter, Rebekah Stuart, Sarah Hotchin, Stacey Lake - Cecil st studio)

I admire Rebekah’s strength. In one day she finished school reports. We packed up the beach House. Drove to Melbourne and presented her dance show. It was well received and a success.

(Ella Dumaresq, Shari Cohen)

Ella and her friend Shari arrived. We were lucky enough to walk down the beach and find that a excavator had connected a trench from the Inlet to the Ocean. A great rush of water flowed into the waves. Ella and Shari navigated the water and we explored shapes and holding positions that contrasted against the fluidity of the moving water. A metaphor of trying to find permanence in the persistent flow of time perhaps? Or holding on to other people to find a sense of stability in the chaos. 

Ella Dumaresq, Shari Cohen

(Ella Dumaresq, Grace Frances)

Ella arrived with her friend Grace. They had participated in a series of contact improve dance workshops recently. We explored rolling down the sand dunes on the beach. I love how their bodies flowed into and around each other. I love how the perspective of the camera disguised the angle of the sand dune, but gravity could be seen in how the bodies moved.

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A post shared by Mischa Baka (@mischa_baka) on Dec 19, 2018 at 7:05pm PST

Rebekah Rehearsed her show in Aireys.


Beginning with some beautiful duets. I navigated the duets with the moving camera.


The space opened up the performance. I imagined that the expanded energy of this space might give the work more volume in the smaller Cecil st next week. I thought of times distance is explored in conversations to see how they might change body language, volume and dialogue.

(Stacey Lake, Dale Polglase, Sarah Hotchin, Ella Baxter, Rebekah Stuart, Ben Jamieson, Mishka Beckmann. )

Stacey Lake, Dale Polglase, Sarah Hotchin, Ella Baxter, Rebekah Stuart, Ben Jamieson, Mishka Beckmann.

Sarah Hotchin, Mishka Beckmann, Dale Polglase, Ella Baxter

Ben Jamieson, Stacey Lake, Mishka Beckmann, Sarah Hotchin, Ella Baxter, Dale Polglase

Met up with Ella Dumaresq and had a great chat about the lines between dance, therapy and medical practice. We mused on the idea that dance could be prescribed like a medicine in a very clinical and methodical way. Seeing a doctor and having them prescribe a dance, writing a prescription. Ella shared ideas about exploring resistance in the body. We spoke about the natural environment providing challenges that are not imbued with human motivations or human notions of evil, coercion or desire. The built human environment doesn’t allow resistance to a natural force. The natural environment allows liberation from human intentions while still allowing the body to play and explore its resilience and power.

We played with the stones along the beach.

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Rocks are Breast

(Catherine Magill, Caroline Meaden)

An evening of dance, music,vocal and spoken word improvisation.
This month Catherine Magill takes on the one hour challenge in rolling duets with Alice Dixon, Helen Davey, Hilde Knottenbelt and Caroline Meaden. 

(Cecil St Studio: Catherine Magill, Alice Dixon, Caroline Meaden)