eMerge

The debut performance of Dragonfly Dance (formerly Move Through Life) 20 years ago in 2004. Back in 2004, we were a group of 8 dancers who had danced all their lives, and wanted to do more than dance in a children's dance studio (which is where most of us met), and to perform once a year in a school concert. So we decided to put on our own show. We called it eMerge, because we were an emerging company, and because the show merged artforms (live music, photography, and dance) and the works of several choreographers. Clearly, technolody has advanced a lot, and this footage is blurry. But it's fun to share our history, particularly as we are celebrating 20 years of dance for adults in Adelaide.

eMerge began as a set of unrelated, abstract dance pieces by a new group of dancers, and an idea about how it would be nice to incorporate other art forms into our piece. As we started to flesh out ideas for new dance pieces and explore ways of sequencing existing pieces, we noticed the dual themes of emerging and merging. We, an emerging dance company, wanted to produce a show that merged dance with music and photography from other emerging artists. The blurry form of eMerge had begun to materialise.

As we continued to work, the concept took shape and we discovered or incorporated new aspects of the dual themes. We were not only merging artforms, but also works from a variety of choreographers. The inclusion of photography meant we had a transparent record of the how our dance pieces had emerged from choreography to rehearsal and finally performance. The black and white, sepia tones and colour photographs in the exhibition were reflected in the costuming and colours, which begin as black and white, then develop through earthy tones to full colour. The live music component has been spliced into the performance and will be accompanied by projected images of the dancers.