Performing Lines Pitches Five Audacious New Projects At Asia TOPA's Performing Arts Market

This month dynamic and unique Australian arts production company Performing Lines will present one full length work and pitch five new projects to national and international presenters at the 2020 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts (Asia TOPA). The five-day gathering in Melbourne celebrates Australia's connections with contemporary Asia, and connects Australian artists with national and international opportunities, deepening relationships and creates new markets and pathways across the globe for contemporary Australian performance.

The Performing Arts Market is but one example of the energetic, vital work achieved by Performing Lines, who will work with over 200 audacious, independent artists across 30 productions in 2020. After almost four decades, Performing Lines continue to support independent artists and arts companies to realise their potential, to make thought-provoking and inspirational live projects happen in Australia and overseas. Performing Lines Executive Producer Marion Potts said, "Independent thought is at the heart of everything we do. Our 2020 Program includes fearless contemporary artists and carves out a space for those whose work may be excluded from conventional or institutional structures. Our experience and care empowers artists to think and work ambitiously as we provide important support in the artistic development of projects, find partners and allies to invest in them and seek out the most advantageous presentation opportunities - nationally and internationally." Performing Lines will present six productions at APAM, which exemplify their commitment to work that is propelled by pressing questions and new ways of seeing the world.

With a two week season as part of Asia TOPA, the Australian premiere of Kamila Andini's extraordinary dance theatre work The Seen and Unseen will run at Martyn Myer Arena from 20 - 29 February. Drawing on her multi award-winning feature film of the same name, acclaimed Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andini directs a moving collaboration with Bali's Komunitas Bumi Bajra and Australian Adena Jacobs and the team from Fraught Outfit. This live theatrical production - a visual feast incorporating traditional Balinese dance, live music and song - follows the magical and emotional journey of 10-year-old Tantri as she realises she won't have much more time with her bedridden twin brother, who is losing his senses one by one.

Performing Lines will pitch:

• Throttle, a high-octane thrill ride from The Farm (QLD), taking inspiration from urban legends, B-grade slasher flicks and Aussie outback horror epics like Wake in Fright and Wolf Creek;
• Sydney Chamber Opera's The Howling Girls, an opera by Adena Jacobs (VIC) & Damien Ricketson (NSW) about the real-life story of the women who presented at hospitals in the weeks after 9/11 reporting blockages in their throats, and the ways our bodies respond to trauma;
• Epoch Wars, a battle for the future by antidisciplinary artists Pony Express (NSW/TAS), as they tackle the notion of the Anthropocene and the fight for the planet that lies ahead;
• ae??a?? Gui Shu (Belong), an intercultural film, live sound and movement installation that moves from the laneways, malls and teeming streets of Taipei to the bushscapes and suburbia of Western Australia by Steamworks Arts (WA);
• Tasmania Performs' Hide the Dog, a First Nations work for kids by Nathan Maynard (TAS) & Jamie McCaskill (NZ) combining puppetry, storytelling, original music and storytelling to empower children to discover culture and community

Performing Lines - APAM Dates

Performance open to the Public:
Feb 20-29 • 7pm nightly + 2pm Feb 24 • The Seen and Unseen • Martyn Myer Arena - VCA

Performances open to APAM delegates only:
Feb 25 • 12-1:30pm • Hide The Dog • Meat Market
Feb 26 • 12-1:30pm • Throttle • Meat Market
Feb 26 • 12-1:30pm • The Howling Girls • Meat Market
Feb 26 • 12-1:30pm • ae??a?? Gui Shu (Belong) • Meat Market
Feb 27 • 12-1:30pm • Epoch Wars • Meat Market

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