OVERTURE
★★★★ “A wild ballet” The Age
★★★★ “Beautiful Chaos” The Herald Sun
Winner of three 2019 Green Room Awards (Best Dance Production, Ensemble Performance, Outstanding Choreography).
‘Lloyd’s choreography and the dancing are razor-sharp throughout, riveting attention and abolishing time.’ Alison Croggon (Witness)
June 2021 Chaillot National Dance Theatre, Paris (cancelled due to COVID)
March 2020 Sydney Opera House (cancelled due to COVID)
October 2019 Melbourne International Arts Festival
August 2018 Arts House Melbourne
When Jo Lloyd was young, she would pretend to interview famous people she’d like to meet. OVERTURE is an extension of that, a dance that considers the unrequited, the unattainable and our attempts to connect with particular beings of obsession.
The original stimulus for creating OVERTURE came from Felix Mendelssohn’s Concert Overture for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It brought to light Fanny Mendelssohn, the sister, the genius, the one who was only permitted to shimmer a fraction of what she could. It bought out stories that were never shared, things never said and desires never fulfilled. The music was the departure point for a larger investigation into ideas of permission, being audible, pilgrimages, shared fictions, history making, overdue and redundant conversations, glorification, and a desire to penetrate.
Lloyd’s choreography moves gloriously on the precipices of the possible and unthinkable. Her performers shake, run, halt, throw limbs and memories out through the ends of their fingers, as they invoke lost heroes to play out impossible scenarios.
Director/ Choreographer: Jo Lloyd
Performers: Deanne Butterworth, Sheridan Gerrard, Rebecca Jensen and Jo Shian Law, Lloyd
Composer: Duane Morrison
Lighting Designer: Jenny Hector
Set: Jenny Hector in collaboration with Andrew Treloar and Jo Lloyd
Costumes: Andrew Treloar
Backdrop image: Peter Rosetzky
Dramaturge: Anny Mokotow
Producer: Michaela Coventry (Sage Arts) coventrymichaela@gmail.com
Photos: Peter Rosetzky