247 Days 2013

Jul 22

Drawing on reflections of a stranger in a foreign land, 247 Days was Anouk van Dijk’s intimate exploration of human dynamics. An exposition of what we most passionately love, fear, desire and hate, 247 Days investigated how these divergent urges manage to coexist in all of us simultaneously. Observing the individual within the social constructs of everyday life, Van Dijk’s choreography for six dancers captured unguarded moments of delight, despair and self-revelation. Stripping back the veneer of the human façade to reveal what ultimately lies below, 247 Days was a piercing examination of the human condition.

Creative Team
Concept, Choreography & Direction Anouk van Dijk
Composition Marcel Wierckx
Set Design Michael Hankin
Lighting Design Niklas Pajanti
Costume Design Shio Otani
Assistant to the Choreographer Chimene Steele-Prior

Original Performers Leif Helland, Lauren Langlois, Alya Manzart, James Vu Anh Pham, Niharika Senapati, Tara Jade Samaya

Artistic Director Anouk van Dijk
Executive Producer Catherine Jones
Business and Program Manager Hillary Coyne
Production Manager Michael Carr
Stage Manager Blair Hart
Assistant Stage Manager (Melbourne) Megan Fitzgerald
Sound Operation (Melbourne) Nigel Brown

Lighting Technician/Operator (Netherlands/Belgium) Remko van Wely
Sound Operation (Netherlands/Belgium) Gideon Cozens

World Premiere
15 March 2013 (Melbourne)
Presented with Malthouse Theatre

Touring Season
2014 Aalst, Amsterdam, Groningen, Utrecht, Den Bosch, Heerlen, Tilburg, Rotterdam, Breda, Den Haag

Awards
2014 Helpmann Award For Best Male Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Work For James Vu Anh Pham

“Another van Dijk masterpiece.” The Age.

“Van Dijk brilliantly conveys her dancers’ inner turbulence.” The Australian. Read More.

A note from Anouk Van Dijk
Slowly, my first year in Australia unfolds. Seasons take shape,  names and faces meld together, my bike finds its way home by itself. Although the rhythm of my daily life on the surface hasn’t changed much, living upside down has made me look at things from a new perspective. Surrounded by new people with different beliefs, backgrounds and ways of communicating, I’ve had to recalibrate the image of myself as well as that of the world around me.

A kaleidoscope of impressions echoing in the room, 247 Days blends my personal take on the world with the reflections of my new surroundings. After our first collaboration in An Act of Now, dancers Leif Helland, Lauren Langlois, Alya Manzart, Niharika Senapati, James Pham and I, together with new recruit Tara Jade Samaya, took a closer look at what we most passionately love, fear, desire and hate. These many facets often seem irreconcilable, even to ourselves, yet co-exist in all of us simultaneously.

It’s funny how you read yourself in the faces of others. There are so many sides of ourselves that we do not allow others to see. Still, our emotions invariably seep through one way or the other. An oddly timed laugh, eyes sparkling or turning away, an unexpected hug, a sentence stopped short – it’s these miniature moments where people are not in control of themselves that stay with us and trigger the imagination. Through a tiny crack in time, they expose a private world that is as meaningful and real as that which we so carefully choose to present. It’s this hidden inner world that fascinates me, as well as the way we each try to control and channel it.