"My desire was to blur boundaries between performers and audience,
shift perspectives about deaf people and dance and music, to engage
more with the community and break down physical and communication
barriers in society.”
moment, then laughing, and then performers, and taken through lie down on the floor. Here, we truly
feeling sympathy and anger about a series of dance moves. As the experience music as deaf people do
the way people who look different evening progresses, these groups – the bass thrumming into our bodies
were, and often still are, treated. finally become one, all dancing through the floorboards.
beneath the coloured lights SPIN and mirror ball. The whole time, this unique event, and one of the
Once again, the studio foyer of the projections on the screen are synced main performers, said: “With SPIN,
Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre is to the music, adding to the dynamism my desire was to blur boundaries
packed with people waiting excitedly of the event. between performers and audience,
for the event to begin. This time we
To end the evening, DJ Callum
Anna Seymour, the creator of
shift perspectives about deaf people
are greeted by a man using Auslan, Padgham comes to the centre of and dance and music, to engage
and a woman interpreting for the our dance area and signals to us to more with the community and break
hearing members of the audience.
down physical and communication
Inside the darkened studio, five
barriers in society.”
people are crouched face-down on She has definitely succeeded in
the floor while contemporary music her aim, as has Sarah Houbolt with
pounds from big speakers and a her performance of KooKoo the Bird
DJ wearing a neon-lit mask stands Girl. Congratulations to Darebin Arts
below a huge film screen. This has Speakeasy for staging these two
all the hallmarks of a nightclub but shows and bringing together people
first, we are an audience watching the with and without disability in such an
performers slowly rise from the floor
and begin to dance. The music fades
as two of them begin a conversation
in sign language (with a voice-over
Opposite page: Sarah Houbolt is
KooKoo the Bird Girl, image by Sarah
Louise Cheesmur. This page: SPIN
images by Kate Disher-Quill.
entertaining and positive way.
www.darebinarts.com.au
interpretation) to enlighten us on
how deaf people ‘hear’ music and
cope at nightclubs. They draw our
attention to how they use the bass to
feel, rather than hear, the rhythm of
the music. They joke about the way
deaf people often huddle around
the loudspeakers to deepen their
experience of the music.
We are invited to participate
in the show by dancing with the
performers; the 100 or so audience
members are divided into three
groups, each led by one of the main
linkonline.com.au
arts
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