The World’s Smallest Stage

In mid 2020, during South Australia’s first extended period of lockdown, I conceived and produced a project titled The World’s Smallest Stage. The aim of this project was to provide opportunities for local independent choreographers and dancers, along with dancers from the ensemble of Australian Dance Theatre, to create new dance works in their homes. These artists were asked to create these works a 2m x 2m space – an area that would be accessible to anyone living in a house or small apartment.

The research questions embedded in this project are various and pertain largely to the challenges to the embodied experience of transmission of multimodal information required in creating and performing dance. What are the affordances and limitations in the choreographer/dancer relationship in creating dance through video conferencing? What are the specific challenges in the translation of dance performances created in home lockdown to the stage for live performance? Even as the pandemic’s grip lessens, these are still vital questions in an increasingly digital world.