The Choreographic program this year (2019) was co-led by dance artists and resident Tracks animateurs Kelly Beneforti and Jess Devereux. Kelly and Jess both have a long history with Tracks and are passionate about choreographic practice. They sat down to interview each other about the program and what it's been like to co-facilitate together.

What have you valued and enjoyed about co-facilitating the Choreographic Program this year?

Jess: We were armed with double the energy, positivity and experience heading into the studio for this year’s program, which filled me with confidence and joy to co-facilitate with Kelly. Getting to know Kelly’s unique perspective more deeply as a dance artist, developing our process together, and hosting people in the studio was a great experience. She has a calming presence and a lovely, considered approach to preparing each workshop, which I adore and have learnt a lot from. I particularly enjoyed dreaming up the program together, scribbling on big sheets of butchers paper, creating themes for the workshops (Body, Site, Music, Devised work, etc) and offering up ideas and thoughts to each other. Our points of difference have felt like a strength, in the way we each work with the participants in the studio. There’s a great sense of fun, support and ease that comes with co-facilitating. I really enjoyed the rigour of Kelly’s warm ups, her patience and her explanation of the history around the YES manifesto. We developed our own ‘Yes manifesto’* with the participants, which became a guiding set of values and source of inspiration for the duration of the program.

Kelly: For me, the true joy of this program is not the showings at the end, but the time spent in the studio each week, accumulating experience, discoveries and creative relationships. I have valued and enjoyed so much sharing this time with Jess - learning from and bouncing off each other, deepening our artistic connection, and just being able to talk about what’s happening in the room each week. As a facilitator, I have been inspired by how she is led by her intuition, her curiosity, a sense of playfulness and a constant energy and readiness for dance and the craft of choreography.

When it comes to choreography, what are you passionate about and why? How have you shared this with the participants?

Kelly: I’m really passionate about the dialogue between the intellect of the body and the intellect of the mind in the practice of choreography. It interests me because it seems the norm in the Western world to view the two as distinct and so I see dance as a significant art-form because it deals with the relationship between how we use our bodies and our minds to think, explore, experiment, and remember. I’ve shared this with the participants through investigations that involve an interplay between moving, discussion and writing, through using imagery and imagined states to move from, and through provoking questions around what it means to have an idea or concept and what it means to feel in your own body and see in other bodies the physical practice or exploration of the idea, which might reveal different or concurrent ideas.

Jess: I am all about the joy of moving, and intuition, and the individual. Highlighting what makes a person unique, and the process of chance in choreography, using your instincts. I also love the physical embodiment of dance, particularly in improvisation, and the way different moods, energies and choreographies can intersect and highlight the chaos of the human condition. I love that we don’t always have to talk when it comes to choreography... that a clarity and confidence of expression can be found through moving the body. Which I find freeing. I love seeing that fullness and confidence bloom in others. A kind of ‘plumping’ of creative expression. Choreographically, I really value work that spans across artforms. I’m passionate about the relationship between sound and movement. I have shared these passions with the group by asking open-ended questions, giving annoying open-ended answers (haha!) and by drawing on all sorts of props and costumes and strange, jarring playlists to inspire movement. I’ve encouraged the artists to warm-up via dancing. To embrace and harness any nervous energy, to practice performing, and to be super generous when they work with each other as collaborators.

What has it been like to have a diversity of practitioners in the room from many art forms?

Jess: It’s been really eye-opening and cool. I have a huge amount of gratitude for the diversity of practice in the room this year. In its’ humble beginnings, Tracks choreographic program was a youth development project, but I love that it quickly grew into a program for all ages, experiences and disciplines. I’ve enjoyed seeing the artists get inspired by each other this year. One participant has been so moved by the willingness of some who’ve faced their fears of dancing in front of others, that they enrolled themselves in a local acting course in order to bust themselves out of their own comfort zone creatively! I’ve enjoyed the varying perspectives on ways to look at dance and make dance, from Ayurvedic perspectives, storytelling, dramatic arts, dance in the ageing body, etc. The diversity of practitioners has enriched the conversations and pushed me into new ways of thinking.

Kelly: One of my favourite aspects of the program is the way that the participants learn from each other as much as from Jess and I, and we from them. Having a diversity of practitioners in the program this year has broadened the artistic expertise that we have all benefited from. How lucky we are!

Why is the program unique in Darwin?

Kelly: I think the program is unique here in Darwin because it makes an ongoing commitment (across 10 years now) to the development of emerging dance and choreographic artists with their personal growth as the central driving force. There are so many other benefits that come out of the program but it’s because of the artists that these outward flowing ripples occur.

Jess: The program is unique because it fosters creative expression and articulate dance artists to extend their skills as choreographers in Darwin. It is incredibly unique on a national scale~ in it current form, the program has been offered free of charge to participants, and each time, it runs for three months which allows the participants to take a deep dive into choreography through intensives, and a slow burn approach to developing their artistry, supported by the expertise of the Tracks dance animateurs. I don’t know of any other programs quite like it in Australia. Each program becomes a kind of hothouse of local Darwin creatives, which I love.

*Our YES Manifesto
Yes to bring everything with you
Yes to discomfort
Yes to accepting / receiving offers
Yes to to open hearted-ness
Yes to freedom
Yes to trust
Yes to telling your story
Yes to being bold
Yes to being physical
Yes to noticing habits
Yes to group acceptance
Yes to self acceptance
Yes to aesthetic or non aesthetic
Yes to falling short of expectations
Yes to dangerous ideas
Yes to observing
Yes to singing with your body
Yes to collaboration

Read more about the 2019 Choreographic Program
Showings & Artist Talks - Nov 23 & 24