Documentary on the development process of 7 DEADLY SINS. Graeme Murphy and Janet Vernon create this show with the wonderful ladies of MADE (Mature Artists Dance Experience) in Tasmania. [AI generated subtitles available] #graememurphy #creativeprocess #documentary #australiadance
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00:00Their experience is better than technique.
00:06It is better than refined artistry.
00:10It is a lifetime of experience that actually when they move,
00:15even when moving can be difficult,
00:18it reminds you of where they've been, how they've been,
00:21what they've been through, what they've experienced.
00:24And in a work like that, that is actually what we're trying to achieve.
00:28I say there's no sinner like an old sinner.
00:58I think the reason I keep coming back to this troupe of dancers down in Tasmania,
01:02apart from the fact that Tasmania drags me back anyway,
01:06is they offer me something that no other company I've worked with does.
01:12It's a troupe of mature artists,
01:16but it's a troupe of very adventurous women for the raid.
01:20It's a troupe of mature artists,
01:22but it's a troupe of very adventurous women for the raid.
01:26And I think they are completely courageous,
01:28because some of the things I've asked them to do,
01:30I don't think I would get the same response
01:32if I was working with professional dancers or actors or singers.
01:34And I think they are completely courageous,
01:36because some of the things I've asked them to do,
01:38I don't think I would get the same response
01:40if I was working with professional dancers or actors or singers.
01:44They bring such a unique slant to everything they do,
01:46and they bring such a courageous energy.
01:48I think professional dancers would probably faint
01:50if I actually asked them to do some of the things I'm asking these girls to do.
01:52So these are the hand shoes only.
01:53They get really dirty on this floor,
01:54and if they are put on top of each other from the base,
01:56from the bottom to the shadow it dirties in them.
02:01And I think sometimes it far for them.
02:18I think sometimes it's hard for them.
02:20Sometimes it's hard for them, I think sometimes they feel uncomfortable, but I'm not asking
02:24them to be technical ballerinas, I'm asking them to be involved in the creation, to bring
02:30their wisdom and their age to the event and what they know about the world and what they
02:35know about sin.
02:36And should we keep the laces tight?
02:38In 2016 at the end of the season of the frock, we'd packed up the frock and put it back in
02:44its wardrobe and Graeme rang and said he would really like to work with Maid again and the
02:52topic was he would like to be able to use the wonderful sculptures of Judith Wright who
02:58has depicted seven of the sins and he said I would love to come and work with Maid again.
03:05Janet and I have a friend who dates back to our Australian Ballet earliest days who was
03:12a dancer with us and is now a great artist, sculptor, video art.
03:18We love her work and I'd seen some of her interactive installations.
03:23She mentioned that she had an installation that had been created on the Seven Deadly Sins
03:29and although we haven't had them at this point in time, we've seen the photos and her works
03:35always seem to incorporate some theatrical dancey element.
03:40It's something that I think once a dancer it never leaves you.
03:43Can I see those walks that you did?
03:48And then remember that any case we were doing walk, walk, walk and we were doing circles
03:54around corners.
03:55That's what we were particularly doing from this ground, from around Ashka.
04:01And you make them meaningful by following with your focus and engaging all your body when
04:10you do those things.
04:11Getting into your walk, that's lovely, clump.
04:16It's nice you can hear a rhythm too.
04:18This is free fall all around turning corners.
04:22I love it.
04:24And that has to be slow and even and contacting.
04:31So be there ready and there, be there ready.
04:36Point them in the same direction.
04:39Parallel, absolute parallel.
04:41Be accurate babies, toe to toe.
04:46Bringing it back that way, so it's making a circle.
04:52Can we do this quarter, turn, quarter.
04:58So it goes up and coming down it changes a quarter, slowly.
05:08One last one and number five was become a throw.
05:13Love your work.
05:15The technical side, Graeme works around extremely well.
05:19Some people in the ensemble have never learned dance before.
05:23For example, Sue Peay.
05:25Sue Peay, can you do this with your shoes and just join into that?
05:32So you've just increased it to six and stay with her for a while.
05:36She brings a certain elegance, a certain honesty to her performances.
05:41I enjoy working with the Maid group.
05:46They're all a great load of people.
05:49We work well together.
05:51And I think because we've been working for such a time together,
05:56we can almost see what another person is doing.
06:02And you can react to that quite nicely.
06:06It almost needs to be up, down, change, and up, down, change.
06:13And that could be even.
06:15That was not too bad for a first time, I thought.
06:17Yeah.
06:18Remember, we've got to do all these things.
06:20We've got to get them slightly apart.
06:22And we're moving.
06:23And up.
06:24And up.
06:25And up.
06:26We're moving.
06:27Good, girls.
06:28And up.
06:29I thought that was pretty good.
06:30That was pretty good.
06:31Yeah, your path was great.
06:32There's a lot of research now around being physically active as we approach 60s, 70s, mid-70s in some cases.
06:47That being physically active is important, but also the creative side.
06:52Thinking through.
06:53It changes the pathways in the brain.
06:56It's an atmospheric work.
06:58And what I want to bring to it is not literal.
07:03It's not about the individual sins, but somehow that topic has got them absolutely fired up.
07:11You can just feel isolated and envy anyone who has friends.
07:14So I am really just reading this.
07:16You're reading it.
07:17Two of the room.
07:18Oh, God.
07:19Is that what you're talking about?
07:20We'll do another one.
07:21Okay, right.
07:22Growing up, Paul was okay.
07:25Everyone was the same, apart from the girl across the road.
07:29She was my best friend most of the time, and said she envied me, my brothers and sisters.
07:36And she wished her mother stayed home.
07:38But I really envied her.
07:40We were asked by Graham to choose a sin.
07:43So I was away at the time, and I thought, oh, I'll be given something I don't want.
07:47And I don't want any of the sins.
07:49So I started to look at them very closely and read about them.
07:52And I found the antidote or the other side of each sin in some website.
07:58And one of them was kindness.
08:01The sin of envy is removed by kindness.
08:07When her doting parents gave her a handsome pony for her 11th birthday, my envy reached mammoth proportions.
08:18After that, every waking moment was spent on how to get a horse.
08:23A horse.
08:24Good horse.
08:25Good horse.
08:26Good.
08:27Good horse.
08:28I schemed and bargained and begged and whined.
08:32I worked hard for pocket money.
08:35So I wrote a little story about being a very lucky girl and being gifted a poor old horse when I was 13, which was a really clever thing for my parents to do.
08:49This horse, when she came out of that horse flight, was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
08:54She wasn't.
08:55She was terrible and she was dirty and she was skinny.
08:57The white pony over the road was going.
09:00However, her poor sore legs introduced me to the country vet.
09:06He was almost too old for me, or so his mother said, but I snagged him anyway.
09:14Turns out he's the kindest man in the world.
09:17We have six grandchildren now.
09:22Should I be looking down?
09:23No.
09:24It's the kindest man in the world.
09:27We have six grandchildren now.
09:30Okay.
09:30The contrast of all the sins and the consequence and the redemption of anger and wrath,
09:37or many of them just, in the course of this experience,
09:41we're going into beautiful softness and comfort and things
09:45because I think, as humans, there's a point when you want to fix the wrongs of the world.
09:53I would like you to aim more central because I don't want them to go too wide into sculptures.
10:08So, bullseye.
10:11Yeah, I'm just wondering whether...
10:12Bad.
10:14Chrissy died.
10:22It's fabulous.
10:23Don't even have another career.
10:25No, you don't get seconds.
10:27Everything in this work has been pulled out of the ether in a way,
10:31and that's what's so beautiful.
10:32That's what I'm saying, basketball.
10:33I just want to be the tall guy.
10:35Wow!
10:36But I can find rage in the throwing of the shoes,
10:41but I can also find, you know, a very Arabic offence throwing shoes,
10:46an ultimate sort of statement of despising.
10:51Lots of little elements just keep growing out of nowhere.
10:54I love it in the shoes.
10:55I think this is one of those works that you can just let instinct and emotion
11:00and internalize things manifest.
11:07Because this is all in silence,
11:08really nice to one section that is really pecussive.
11:18Because the noise is really...
11:21I love it.
11:26That's good.
11:28Fabulous.
11:28I do love the thing of trying to...
11:31People might love them.
11:34I might headbutt them.
11:38Hello.
11:40Oh.
11:42Yeah.
11:43That's it.
11:44Yes, that little hover at the top is beautiful.
11:47Stamina, yeah?
11:48We are not professional dancers,
11:50so sometimes he needs to adjust to accommodate what we can and can't physically do.
11:55But also, he's very cheeky sometimes,
11:57so it would be,
11:59Oh, Graeme, you can't say that.
12:00Or, Graeme, no, you can't do that.
12:02And we all just laugh and then move on.
12:07That's a Graeme Murphy.
12:08You have a toilet roll.
12:09You've got to deal with.
12:11Roll up your pubic hair
12:12and put it in your false purse
12:13and your false groin.
12:15And then you just let throw on it.
12:16Good hair.
12:17I love the noise.
12:19One.
12:20One.
12:21One.
12:22One.
12:22Oh, my God.
12:23That's amazing.
12:23Oh, my God.
12:23That's really amazing.
12:25Whoa.
12:25We got a lot out.
12:27Yay.
12:28Success.
12:28We didn't meet, Ken.
12:31The girls couldn't do anything.
12:32And I almost feel like,
12:34as long as you don't get strangled by this,
12:36I almost feel like this is just drifting around you in horror
12:42and you are just...
12:43Put up in it.
12:44I want to go back.
12:44And rather than...
12:46But once someone on one end's taken it,
12:48there should be no problem.
12:51In.
12:52And then the next bit.
12:54And then you've just tangled into the web of her pubic hair.
12:57Loving that.
12:58And then from here you look at her
13:00and then you make your position.
13:04I think I'm a rather shy person,
13:06but I looked at Janet
13:09and when she said that this is okay,
13:14I trust them both,
13:15I trust Graham and Janet
13:17that this is a good thing to do.
13:18And, you know,
13:20when I'm on stage,
13:21I'm someone else
13:23and I'm not afraid of people laughing at me.
13:28So I like to make people happy and smiling.
13:32So for me, it is good.
13:33Yeah, that's lovely.
13:36Yeah, beautiful.
13:38This is what I like to do.
13:39I like performing.
13:41I was a Polish folk dancer
13:43and I know in Poland
13:45you stop at a certain age dancing.
13:48So I thought,
13:49okay, I will do ballroom dancing
13:51or maybe I will do flamenco.
13:53But in here I got such a great opportunity
13:57to be in dance theatre.
13:59I love it.
14:00I wonder if you shouldn't leave the case open
14:01so you can put things
14:02when you finish with them that way.
14:06And then you're feeling that beautiful
14:08and then you find a tough little bit.
14:12Oh, do you think fingernails is quite nice?
14:14Just fingernails?
14:15I'm vanity.
14:19So my husband told me
14:21that Graham knows me very well.
14:24Closer, closer, closer.
14:28I love it.
14:32I love the face going.
14:35What the?
14:36We definitely grow.
14:56There's definitely a challenge.
14:57There's definitely people saying,
15:00I can't do that at the beginning
15:02and then realising afterwards
15:04that, yes, I have done it.
15:06And you stay where you are.
15:07They'll start it.
15:08And now go with them.
15:12And right across.
15:13And you stay where you are
15:14and they're going to go, go.
15:17It's not a theatre stage performance.
15:19It's a performance
15:20where audience is very close.
15:22Their work walking around is made.
15:25It's not a dance company
15:26that dances in theatres as much.
15:29We like to go and be unique.
15:32We like close proximity to audiences
15:35and Graham's accommodating that,
15:36particularly in Seven Deadly Sins.
15:38This is probably going to push people
15:39around the outside
15:40and we might be sort of
15:41end up doing it this way too.
15:43It's just that rock-a-bye baby motion
15:46is so nice.
15:48Attach everything.
15:49Sew the doona into the thing.
15:52Leave that bit of gap,
15:53which is great.
15:54Oh, I chose sloth
15:55because it's my natural inclination
15:58to lie on the couch
15:59and read books.
16:00That's where I feel really comfortable.
16:02Yeah, I love...
16:07It's beautiful.
16:10And spin your legs up.
16:13Not too fast.
16:14I love change.
16:15The worming change position
16:16is beautiful.
16:17And rolling.
16:18Take time on that one, Shirley,
16:21if it's not too painful.
16:22I think that sloth is a wonderful...
16:26That sort of letting go of everything.
16:28How bad can that be?
16:30I know it's terrible
16:31if you don't actually occasionally get up
16:33and do something for the world or yourself.
16:37I just...
16:37I think they're all fabulous.
16:39So I look at all the sins
16:40and I think, you know,
16:41well, don't feel too bad
16:43if you've got all seven
16:44because, quite frankly,
16:47they can be quite motivating.
16:49I think I'm probably a general sinner.
16:52I seem to do bits of everything.
16:56It's interesting.
16:58Very interesting.
17:00I think we have all sinned in some way.
17:04Lovely.
17:06Maybe not gross sins,
17:10but I'm sure
17:10we have all had a lust after something.
17:13We've all had a...
17:14I want that.
17:16I think we've all got pride
17:18in something in our lives
17:21that we've done.
17:22Ah!
17:26These ladies relish their wrinkles
17:28and they delight in their dreams
17:32and they take you somewhere
17:34that you would normally...
17:37maybe not have the courage to go.
17:40Don't know where the results end up.
17:42I feel like
17:43it is the strangest work I've ever done.
17:48Sometimes I...
17:49In the first week, I went...
17:51I think I'm taking the wrong approach.
17:53I am treating this like theatre
17:54and I have to treat them
17:56like actual elements
17:58of Judith's creation.
18:00They're like extensions
18:02of the sculptures
18:03that lie in the room,
18:04the seven constructions
18:06that she's put together.
18:07That's lots of...
18:08No, this is envy.
18:10That's out there.
18:11Good.
18:11From that piece of base there.
18:14Where do we want...
18:16What's this one?
18:17What's that thing?
18:17Well...
18:30I'm here.
18:30What?
18:32I'm here.
18:32I'm here.
18:35I'm here.
18:36How do you feel about today?
18:54I'm feeling excited, I think it will be great.
18:59It's actually the culmination of the best exciting time and working in a project, you
19:04know, because the last two weeks and the creative development is what the experience is all about for us.
19:25I can't say that I really enjoy performing.
19:29It gives me a deal of satisfaction when it's all done.
19:33I love getting the performance established, but I get absolutely petrified before going on stage.
19:40Sorry, if you feel happy to be upstanding, please do and anyone who really needs to sit should have a seat.
19:47Be kind to them.
19:49It's 20 past, still got lots of time.
19:54Has everybody got enough blood down their chests?
19:58That looks interesting that we throw it from down here.
20:02Thank you for being here because you are our first experience of the first stage of this adventure.
20:14You'll be seeing something which is quite strange to do that has no soundtrack for the most part.
20:20So time is very bendy when there's no music.
20:23There is nothing to contain these girls.
20:25So if it goes on for five and a half hours,
20:29now a warning, just bear with us.
20:33And just seriously, that's something to consider.
20:36It has a certain power because there is no music and there is no pulse and there is no drive,
20:42except their heartbeat, their energy and their passion.
20:46Here we go, gang.
21:12Oh no, I told you.
21:37250 and then close the other door.
21:40No!
21:44No!
21:45No!
21:46No!
21:47No!
21:54No!
22:08No.
22:09Take your feet out of the wheelchair.
23:09When she got too old and too lame, we sent her to the country as a broodmare. However, her poor, sore legs introduced me to the country vet. He was almost too old for me, or so his mother said, but I snagged him anyway.
23:29Turns out, he's the kindest man in the world, and we have six grandchildren now.
25:30I keep reminding myself, this is stage one.
25:32There will be another rehearsal.
25:34There will be a rehearsal period in situ, in the real venue, with the real sculpture.
25:40We are so lucky to have this, so honored to have an audience.
25:50자가 CPS.
26:06You
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