Double Happiness

Natalie was chosen to represent Australia on the Little Asia Dance Exchange Network tour in 2004. The project had been running since 2000 as a series of solos by Asia-Pacific dance artists. The Double Happiness program was the first time the presenters had commissioned a collaborative work between the artists as well as the solo works. Double Happiness toured from Taipei to Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Melbourne.

The collaborative work, Doubling was made over two weeks in Taipei at the Dance Forum Studios. The participants stayed at the Taipei Artists Village and also gave workshops at various universities in Taiwan.

Natalie's section of Doubling combined classic Australian 'pub-rock' music with traditional Korean and Japanese dance steps along with an appropriated form of social/bush dance. She used a loose narrative about two couples on a night out to explore the meeting of different cultural identities and investigate the types of tensions that are set up as a result.

Crown Theatre
Taipei, TAIWAN
October 8, 9, 2004
5 solos + Doubling
                
National Theatre of Korea
Seoul International Dance Festival
Seoul, KOREA
October 20, 2004
Doubling
double bill with Blue Elephant/Germany

Oribe Hall, Dance Selection - presented by AN creative
Tokyo, JAPAN
October 23,24 2004
Doubling
                
Hong Kong Arts Centre
HONG KONG
October 28,29,30 2004
5 solos + Doubling
                
Esplanade Theatres on the Bay
SINGAPORE
November 5,6 2004
5 solos + Doubling
                
Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall
MELBOURNE
November 11,12,13 2004
5 solos + Doubling

'Cursio's contribution forms a glorious climax: the archetypal Aussie pub classic Khe Sanh makes an incongruous accompaniment, but it's presented here without a hint of sarcasm. It challenged my preconceptions of parochial 'ocker-ness' and its opposition to dance, and the sense of joy radiating from the performers challenged the somewhat limited emotional palette so often employed in Australian dance today.' REAL TIME John Bailey
                
'...climaxes with a joyously down and dirty jive to the music of Cold Chisel that subverts the notion of Asian women as demure and submissive.' THE AGE Hilary Crampton

Dance Forum Taipei, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Esplanade Theatres on the Bay Singapore, ANcreative Tokyo, Hirano Productions Melbourne, and SIDance Korea.