ERSKINEVILLE SOUNDWALKS
Taking art to the streets of Erskineville as part of PACT’s 2022-2023 Sound Out the Street program.
songs for phantom dances
Gail Priest & Amy Flannery
A geolocated soundwalk of Erskineville that encapsulates the energy of dances that have been, could have been, and maybe will be in the future.
Gail Priest and Amy Flannery have been rambling around Erskineville with ears tuned to sonic spectres and spirits.
Starting with a shared listening in the present they have sought sonic histories and future speculations in order to create a suite of songs for certain sites that encourage an understanding of place through the potential energy of the moving body.
From the balletic history of the Kirsova Parks 1 & 2 to the toe-tapping of the old shoe factory; from the thumping pumping joy of The Imperial, to the sporting choreographies of the local oval, Songs for Phantom Dances invites the participant to listen and move through Erskineville with curious ears and dancing feet.
gail priest.
Gail Priest is a sound artist and writer based on Darug and Gundungurra land (Katoomba). Her work spans soundtracks for dance, theatre and video, solo electro-acoustic performance as well sound installations for gallery contexts.
Gail has performed her live compositions and exhibited sound installations nationally and internationally including in Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Norway and the Netherlands.
She has undertaken numerous radio commissions and releases music on her own label, Metal Bitch Recordings as well as Flaming Pines. She also curates events and exhibitions and writes fictively and factually about sound and media art. She has just completed a PhD in creative sound theory at UTS.
AMY FLANNERY.
Amy Flannery is a First Nations Australian creator and performer. Amy completed her training in dance at the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA Dance College).
After graduating from NAISDA, she has performed, choreographed and composed for a number of companies and independent productions, including Lost All Sorts Collective, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Jannawi Dance Clan, Dance Makers Collective, Erth Visual and Physical, Wagana Aboriginal Dancers, and PACT Centre for emerging artists.
Walk with us on beautiful Gadigal country…today a meeting place for people from many Aboriginal nations. Journeying from paperbark to swamp land, from PACT Centre for Emerging Artists to South Eveleigh's Cultural Landscape Garden, you will meet and walk with local Elders and knowledge holders on a journey through deep time and culture, through stories unfolding under the fig trees, to the landscape of today.
A soundwalk by Henrietta Baird (Kuku Yalanji) and Rowan Savage (Kombumerri) guided by Aunty Jacqui Jarrett (Dharawal, Gumbaynggirr), Aunty Bronwyn Penrith (Yuin, Wiradjuri), and Clarence Slockee (Cudgenburra, Bundjalung).
WALK WITH US
henrietta baird & rowan savage
HENRIETTA BAIRD
Choreographer and performer Henrietta Baird is a Kuku Yalanji woman from FNQ, graduated from NAISDA in 2005.
Henrietta performed in many productions across Australia, including Vicki Van Hout’s “Stolen”, which toured NSW. Her script “The Weekend” was one of 6 finalists selected for the Yellamundie Festival.
Henrietta performed in “Divercity” which toured Dance Massive (2017), Yirrimboi Festival (2017), Spirit Festival (2018) and showcased at APAM (2018).
ROWAN SAVAGE
Salllvage (Rowan Savage) is a proud Kombumerri man, living on Wangal Land. He is an experimental producer and DJ working at the intersection of queer club culture and connection with Country.
His work mutates on-Country field recordings into electronica, and inhabits and bridges the tensions between abstraction and emotion, the wild bush and the dancefloor, the personal and the social, authenticity and reconstruction.
Acknowledgments:
Songs for Phantom Dances and Walk With us are supported by major sponsor City of Sydney, and Create NSW as part of PACT’s 2022-2023 Sound Out the Street program.
