Coming soon: Jasperse and Friends

The Dance Massive Festival is coming to Melbourne next month. It's going to be a slightly overwhelming, rather huge feast of Australian contemporary dance, with many new works along with some delicious remounts on the menu.

It's going to be tough choosing what to see, but here are a couple of snippets I found about Becky, Jodi and John, a piece choreographed by John Jasperse several years ago.

This glowing review by Roslyn Sulcas for the NY Times is worth a read, and if you're still not convinced, here are a couple of cute video excerpts from the show:






One of the performers, Becky Hilton, is a cornerstone of Melbourne’s contemporary dance scene. She was one of the first graduates of the Victorian College of the Arts Dance School, and went on to have a fabulous career, both here and overseas. She is loved as a teacher and mentor by many young dancers.

In this work, Becky and two of her oldest friends, Jodi Melnick and John Jasperse, perform a portrait-style piece about sustaining a dance career past the ripe old age of forty. Jasperse has peppered his abstract movement with plenty of humour and personal anecdotes, which is one of the reasons this will definitely be on my shortlist of things to see during the festival.

Becky, Jodi and John is on at Dancehouse from March 24 til April 3, 2011. Visit dancemassive.com.au for more information and bookings.