Elephants
A Geo-poetic Performance Meditation / Created By Joseph Lau
Audiences join and witness a herd of Asian elephants following a dry river path in search of the water source. Along the path that their ancestors had traversed for generations, the herd navigates both changing terrain and unsteady ground, encounter shrines, and experience unfamiliar frequencies. Audiences are invited to walk at their own rhythm alongside the performers, stopping to observe in place, interacting with shrines, and sit as desired.
The performance is a contemplation on industrialism, deforestation, nature conservation, and cultures within Southeast Asian regions, and the reverberations to our global village. ‘Elephants’ is a gently participatory, geo-poetic meditation on our collective impact on the environment.
A JauArtist Project Produced by Project Auske / In Development
BACKGROUND
Joseph's father recalled to him of a time when elephants worked as beasts of burden to industry in timber and logging. This recollection along with, memories and complex emotions from his time in Malaysia and Singapore, has remained with Joseph to this day.
Prior early stage research was made possible through a remote residency secured with Dance4 (Nottingham) that gave Joseph an opportunity to formulate a scaffold of the themes into a structure, and spend time in creative discourse with Tony Yap, an award winning artist who is exploring and creating a dance theatre language that is informed by psycho-physical research, Asian shamanistic trance dance, Butoh and psycho-vocal experimentations.
2024/2025 CREATIVE RESEARCH TEAM & CREDITS
Concept. Director. Choreographer: Joseph Lau
Choreographic & Performance Researchers: Bridget Fiske; Joseph Lau; Pei Yee Tong
Dramaturges: Bridget Fiske: Michèle Steinwald
Audience Engagement Curator: Michèle Steinwald
Film and Moving Image Design: Andrew Crofts; Bridget Fiske
Composer: Stelios Manousakis
Lighting Design: Andrew Crofts
Producers: Project Auske; Bridget Fiske; Joseph Lau; 44 Arts Productive; Michèle Steinwald
Sharing events to date with: Project Auske; MadeSc - Quarterly Artist Sharing
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
Supported by: Sunshine Coast Council; Studio1; MAD Dance House; Lowry; Movema; Company Chameleon; University of Salford; Liverpool East and South East Asian network; Canada Council For The Arts
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT IMAGES
Photographers: Point Of View Photography; Bridget Fiske; Megan Rowland