“This work questions empowerment and our responsibility in shaping a future society where women reappropriate and recode the female body according to them. Mea Culpa is an attempt to consciously move away from the forces of technology, science, religion, patriarchy, matriarchy and pop culture, represented by 'IT', that hold women down” explains choreographer Cloé Fournier who has developed a movement aesthetic that blends and stretches contemporary physical theatre with French folk dance in order to explore and exploit the idea of the human machine, part-mechanical, part-human.
Fournier is known for her provocative solo works, as well as her powerful performance presence in works by cross-genre companies including Branch Nebula and Stalker Theatre. Fournier’s work examines human behaviours, the female form and its relationship to modern society, and the crucible of life and death.
Mea Culpa the gutsy new dance theatre work from this French-Australian multi-disciplinary artist Fournier is presented by FORM Dance Projects at Riverside Theatres on 18 and 19 October.
Featuring intriguing movement and spoken word, Mea Culpa depicts the dramas played out amongst seven female bodies in a futuristic society who bear the pressures from an ever-present invisible power, referred to as 'IT' which keeps them in submission. The work takes the viewer on an absorbing and sensuous journey, where women stomp their feet and hiss in quest of salvation, freedom and self-liberation.
Performers: Imogen Cranna, Isabella Coluccio, Emily Flannery, Cloé Fournier, Nicola Ford, Anna McCulla, Natalie Pelarek and Daniela Zambrano Choreographer Cloé Fournier Mentor/Dramaturg Vicki Van Hout Lighting Design Frankie Clarke Music Composer James Brown