A Sun Dance
24 Feb 2024
Whole Gallery
Free with ticket
Rochelle Haley, A Sun Dance, 2024. Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra 2023. Assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. Dancers pictured: David Huggins, Ivey Wawn, Angela Goh, Lizzie Thomson, Niki Verrall. Costumes by Leah Giblin. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Photographer: Kerrie Brewer.
‘At the core of the work is a relationship between performer, sunlight and architecture. Specifically, shafts of sunlight streaming through architectural forms are used as ‘sets’ for dance over the course of a day.’
About
Rochelle Haley, A Sun Dance (work in development, November 2023), Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra 2023. Assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. Dancer pictured: Angela Goh. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Photographer: Leanne Mason
A Sun Dance is a new performance commission by artist Rochelle Haley.
At the core of the work is a relationship between dancer, sunlight and architecture. Conceived in relation to the architecture of the original National Gallery building, shafts of sunlight streaming through architectural forms provide changing sets for dance over the course of a day. Durational in nature, audiences are invited to enter and exit the work at will. Three cycles marked by morning, midday and afternoon sun provide opportunities for audiences to orientate themselves within the structure of the work.
The performance, developed over different seasons, draws influence from the feel of sun on skin; the temporal passage of sun to earth; the geometries of the architecture; the hum of the building; and architect Col Madigan’s observation of light ‘dancing’ through the gallery.
The performance, like light itself, expands, intensifies, and recedes through time and space. Together the dancers realise a poetic choreography in harmony with the ‘moving graphic backdrop’ of the sun within the gallery.
Artist: Rochelle Haley
Choreographers: Angela Goh, Ivey Wawn
Dancers: Angela Goh, David Huggins, Lizzie Thomson, Niki Verrall, Ivey Wawn
Composer & Musician: Megan Alice Clune
Costume: Leah Giblin
Curators: Elspeth Pitt and Deirdre Cannon. Produced by Saskia Scott.
Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia 2023. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum, a research project hosted by University of New South Wales, with Art Gallery of New South Wales, Monash University Museum of Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and Tate.
The original National Gallery building was designed by Edwards Madigan Torzillo and Partners.
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Australian Research Council
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Creative Australia
Tickets
Rochelle Haley, A Sun Dance (work in development, November 2023), Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra 2023. Assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. Dancers pictured: Angela Goh, David Huggins, Lizzie Thomson, Niki Verrall and Ivey Wawn. National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Photographer: Leanne Mason
A Sun Dance is a free, ticketed performance.
You are invited to experience the work at any time during your visit to the National Gallery on Saturday 24 February 2024, from 9.30am to 4.45pm.
Five dancers and a musician will be following the path of the sun as it passes across and through the building. At times, they will be performing together. At others, they will disperse throughout the Gallery.
To discover A Sun Dance:
- Follow the sun
- Listen for the sound of bells, chimes and humming
- Seek out long sightlines between gallery spaces, horizontally and vertically
- Look for our Gallery staff, who will be wearing bright yellow sunbeams on white t-shirts
An Acknowledgement of Country will take place in the Gallery’s Sculpture Garden (Lakeside), at 9.30am (point A on the map of the Sculpture Garden).
The performance will then begin in the Sculpture Garden, on the slate pathway at the rear of the building (point B on the map).
Morning, midday and afternoon cycles also provide ways into the work:
- 10am: Level 1, Galleries 10 & 11
- 12pm: Level 2, Gallery 25
- 3pm: Level 2, Galleries 19, 20 & 21
Sunseekers, we look forward to welcoming you into A Sun Dance.
Events & Activities
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Fri 22 March, 5.30pm
Arc Cinema, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
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Sun 25 Feb 2024, 11am
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Fri 23 Feb 2024, 12pm
Video
Artist
Rochelle Haley, 2023, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, Photographer: Leanne Mason
Rochelle Haley is an artist and Senior Lecturer at University of New South Wales, School of Art & Design Sydney who engages with painting and choreography to explore relationships between moving bodies and physical environments. Her painting installation and performance works explore intersections between colour, gesture and light, discovering harmonies between audiences, performers and architectures. Haley is interested in painterly and choreographic modes of composition, experimenting with abstract form and colour embodying temporality within space.
Ensemble
Rochelle Haley, A Sun Dance (work in development, November 2023). Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra 2023. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. Dancer pictured: Angela Goh. Copyright: National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Photographer: Leanne Mason
Angela Goh
Angela Goh is an artist who works with dance and choreography. Her work is presented across contemporary art contexts and traditional performance spaces in leading institutions around the world. She lives on Gadigal Land/Sydney, Australia.
Rochelle Haley, A Sun Dance (work in development, November 2023). Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra 2023. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. Dancer pictured: Ivey Wawn. Copyright: National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Photographer: Leanne Mason
Ivey Wawn
Ivey Wawn is a dancer based on Gadigal Land/Sydney. She makes performances mainly for live audiences in art gallery and theatre contexts. She also contributes regularly to the work of other artists as a performer/collaborator and owns and operates a restaurant in Redfern with friends.
Rochelle Haley, A Sun Dance (work in development, November 2023). Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra 2023. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. Dancer pictured: Niki Verrall. Copyright: National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Photographer: Leanne Mason
Niki Verrall
Niki is a queer, Japanese-Australian dancer who lives and works in the Kulin Nation/Melbourne and Eora Nation/Sydney. She is interested in the intangibility of dance and the ability of movement to connect with others and the self. Niki has performed in the Sydney Festival, March Dance, Cementa, Liveworks Festival, and Dance
Rochelle Haley, A Sun Dance (work in development, November 2023). Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra 2023. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. Dancer pictured: David Huggins. Copyright: National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Photographer: Leanne Mason
David Huggins
David Huggins began his dance training while completing his psychology degree in Aotearoa/New Zealand. After graduating with a Bachelor of Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, he worked with Russell Dumas’ Dance Exchange, performing nationally and internationally with the company.
Rochelle Haley, A Sun Dance (work in development, November 2023). Commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra 2023. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. With additional support from the Australian Research Council through research and commissioning partner Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum. Dancer pictured: Lizzie Thomson. Copyright: National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra. Photographer: Leanne Mason
Lizzie Thomson
Lizzie Thomson has been engaging in dance professionally for over two decades as a dancer, choreographer, writer and educator. She has collaborated and performed in Australia and internationally with artists including Rosalind Crisp, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Jane McKernan and Mette Edvardsen. Her writing has been published in books, journals and exhibition catalogues. She lives and works on Wangal land/Sydney.
Megan Alice Clune. Photographer: Maja Baska
Music
Megan Alice Clune
Megan Alice Clune is a musician, artist and composer based on Gadigal and Wangal lands/Sydney. Her work explores the dynamic relationships between music, technology, the body and temporality through composition, performance and installation. She has collaborated with leading Australian film-makers, visual artists and choreographers to create music for film, dance, video and performance art.
Leah Giblin
Costumes
Leah Giblin
Leah Giblin is a textile artist, textile consultant and costume designer working on Gadigal Country. She has collaborated on textile and costume projects with artists, and contributed to large scale textile works for Carriageworks, Artspace and Sydney Opera House. To create the costumes for A Sun Dance, Leah Giblin was assisted by Marianne Close.
Stories & Ideas
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