newest ~ 11-02 ~ 11-01 ~ 10-01 ~ 08-01 07-02 ~ 07-01 ~ 06-04 ~ 06-03 ~ 06-02 Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival of Arts and Australian Dance Theatre present D e v o l u t i o n Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) CarriageWorks Bay 17 January 24-27 Concept and Direction by Garry Stewart Choreography by Garry Stewart and the ADT Dancers Robots and lighting design by Louis-Philippe Demers Video by Gina Czarnecki Costume design by Georg Meyer-Wiel Composition by Darrin Verhagen Performers Shannon Anderson, Craig Bary, Danny Golding, Daniel Jaber, Paea Leach, Alex Sasha Leonhartsberger, Larissa McGowan, Tim Ohl, Xiao-Xuan Yang, Paul Zivkovich Two-time 2006 Helpmann Award Winner for Best New Australian Work & Best Lighting Design "The ADT's extraordinarily athletic dancers' precise robotic movements merge (sometimes literally) with the massive, hissing, kerchunking robots to a tungsten-tough score." The Age "[this] brilliant dance piece...took the synergy of dance and technology to a new level and showed why this company is a world leader." The Sunday Mail Devolution is a fast and furious fusion of choreography with robotics, sound and video, creating a riveting exploration of mutation and evolution. An ambitious, award-winning spectacle, Devolution is the result of a unique collaboration between ADT's Artistic Director Garry Stewart, French-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist/designer Louis Philippe Demers, UK video artist Gina Czarnekci and Australian composer Darrin Verhagen. Melding the forces of choreography, robotics, sound and video Devolution imagines a future where humanity and technology clash and fight for control. Think Cyborgs, Terminator and Matrix - Devolution supposes an integrated evolution/mutation of humans and technology. Devolution is contemporary dance at its confrontational, aggressive, edgy best. With prosthetic limbs, hydraulic spines and kinetic lighting, Devolution features massive robotic creatures that interact with dancers, who - in typical ADT style - hurl their bodies in all directions at frenetic speeds, connecting in jaw-dropping displays of technical prowess and ensemble cohesion. Download trailer for the adelaide festival season (2.31 mb) In a world of Devolution, both dancers and machines are treated as creatures. While the dancers are rendered something other-than-human by the angularity and staccato rhythm of their movements, Demers' robots are designed to move with an organic fluidity. Underpinning Devolution is the scientific possibility that life is as much a mechanical construction as an organic one, that humans and machines are separated only by degrees of evolutionary complexity. The models of existing ecosystems inspired Stewart's choreography, which explores naturally occurring processes like predation, parasitism, territoriality, herding and mutation. As a result, the dancers' bodies shift from their pedestrian orientation to a pre-cultural, animalistic form. Full-bodied collisions between dancers contrast with micro movements erupting in a single body, exploiting the range of dynamic possibilities between large and small-scale movement. French-Canadian Louis-Philippe Demers is a freelance set and lighting designer specialising in machines as media. This is the first time he has collaborated on work where robots and dancers move together. For Devolution, Demers created over 175 machines. Developed at the ADT's studios in Adelaide and across the globe in Demers' atelier in Germany, Devolution is large-scale in ambition, scope and impact. Where CarriageWorks Bay 17 245 Wilson Street, Darlington When January 24-27 at 7pm Duration 65mins, no interval Price A reserve $50 / $45 B reserve $45 / $40 Bookings Festival Ticketek 1300 888 412 Online www.sydneyfestival.org.au