ALTER – A Double Bill of Design, Dance, Disability and Dissent

Overview

ALTER is a presentation of two new works at Belco Arts, epitomising excellence in Canberra centred creativity. Led by Canberra artists of international repute in collaboration with leading ASEAN artists from Kuala Lumpur, a current UNESCO City of Design, both works have been supported by Creative Australia funding.

Born of design and innovation, ALTER is a double bill of dance works exploring the potential of new design technology in the interplay between body, identity and cross cultural exchange. Drawing on 35 years of Liz Lea's specialisation in classical Indian and contemporary dance, as well as focused research into the power of the Metaverse as an accretive design tool, ALTER brings technology to the fore to enable symbiotic interaction between real and virtual bodies, where movement creates visuals in a projected environment.

ALTER speaks to the brutalist architecture of Canberra's design and its surrounding nature. As the largest example of Australia's Garden City Movement, Canberra is recognised internationally as a designed and planned city, and yet nature prevails, its untamed energy making the city hum. Just as Walter Burley Griffin's designs were based on the natural topography of the land, ALTER draws from the natural topography of the body.