Breakings

Choreography & performance: Aimee Smith
Sound design: Ben Taaffe
Lighting design: Mike Nanning
Video mapping: Jerrem Lynch
Set design: Fiona Bruce & Bryan Woltjen
Duration of Work: 55 minutes

Concept: Breakings is a sharp, confronting and reflective look at today’s mediated world, Breakings questions our relationship with the media and how it influences our perception of the world. Hailed by the West Australian as one of Perth’s most promising emerging choreographers, Smith is known for her cutting edge political dance, and Breakings certainly continues this legacy.

Amongst a pile of out of tune television sets, walls converge and a body is caught between hope and fear. An alarm clock sounds, a lone individual wakes in a domestic space like no other, where the virtual and real worlds mix, where her bed is today’s newspaper, her cat is her tv, and her weetbix taste like the news. As she is bombarded with a tirade of news bulletins, flashing images of beauty and perfection, and the lure of gameshow fame, Smith struggles to keep up with her ever changing environment where she no longer knows what’s real, what’s truth or what to believe in.

“Smith is a beautiful dancer and her performance on opening night was deft and sure.” — The West Australian, April 2010.