KAGE

Take the emotion and resonance of opera.
Exaggerate it.

Make it physical.

Then take out the singing.

And wink.

Take the sensuality of a dancer and give it to a wrestler.

Take delicious nonsense, and make it beauty.

KAGE strives to create work that’s felt as often as it’s explained. Technically rigorous and visually striking physical performance becomes a platform for work about the subtlety of experience. About the millions of gigantic-yet-tiny, deeply felt, funny and ultimately connected moments that make up our lives. Success, failure, awkwardness, panic, tears and reckless joy. The work of KAGE is to render physical these, and other human things.
 

Not quite dance. Not quite theatre. Not circus, or poems, or dreams; but like these. KAGE strikes out for new ground, innovating and re-conceiving performance to draw humour, humanity and pathos from the physicality of human bodies.

As Co-Creative directors of KAGE, Kate Denborough and Gerard Van Dyck's visionary partnership has sparked for just shy of a decade. Extraordinary visual design, physical dexterity and humour are all indelible traits of KAGE’s work. Since its performance debut in 1997, KAGE has propelled dance-theatre into fresh territory, claiming international awards, recognition and new audiences along the way. Combining drama and theatrical illusion with dance, KAGE continues to innovate, collaborating with elite physical performers and creatives to present works of extraordinary power.

After earlier performances in 1998 and 1999, their first major work No (Under)standing Anytime headlined Next Wave Festival 2000. Creating a world inhabited by unexpected and eccentric personalities, it remains one of KAGE’s significant works.  Van Dyck's idiosyncratic and delightful solo show, The Collapsible Man, premiered at Melbourne Fringe 2001. It has gone on to tour the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne International Arts Festival and regional centres. The critically acclaimed Nowhere Man premiered in a sell-out season at Melbourne International Arts Festival 2003 where it was awarded runner-up in The Age Critics’ Awards. The Company's first work for a young audience, The Day the World Turned Upside Down is a children's magic show. With the feel of a child's storybook classic, its irreverent slapstick, mesmerising storytelling and vaudeville sensibility continues to astonish audiences everywhere. Headlock was presented at the Malthouse in 2006 and attracted rave reviews and won four Green Room Awards and the Drama Victoria Award for Best Production for Young People. Headlock toured to the Sydney Opera House and the Adelaide Festival Centre in 2008. KAGE premiered Appetite at the 2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival. The Company is currently developing two new works for presentation in 2011:
Look Right Through Me  - a new work of dance theatre inspired by the imagination of Michael Leunig featuring a diverse and talented cast of some of Australia’s foremost physical performers including: Craig Bary, Sarah-Jayne Howard, Tim Ohl, Gerard Van Dyck and Paul White.
Sundowner - a new work of dance theatre which aims to give authentic creative expression to the often hidden personal experiences of those dealing with younger onset dementia and to increase the community’s general understanding of Alzheimer’s disease through means of artistic expression. KAGE has partnered with Alzheimer’s Australia (VIC) and the cast includes Helen Morse, Michelle Heaven, Stuart Christie, Gerard Van Dyck and five members of the Tivoli Lovelies ((the oldest professional chorus line in the world).

The sheer bloody minded dynamism and emotional depth of these hell raising performances is a wild, explosive, multi-faceted trip into the masculine psyche. The intensity never falters. Young masculinity is portrayed as physically invincible and still emotionally, heart breakingly exposed. KAGE has achieved a profoundly rich production with Headlock. It is physically thrilling, precise and riotously vigorous. The final scene of this stunning production is the most moving theatre experience I have ever had, and I won’t ruin it by describing it. Go see it. (Melbourne Stage Online - Headlock)

It is rare to see a show so beautiful and deeply original, where one stunning image succeeds another, where each scene startles or amuses, where absolutely every detail is attended to perfection. I can’t remember the last time I was genuinely sorrowful a show had finished. (The Age – Nowhere Man)

In Nowhere Man from KAGE physical theatre, director Kate Denborough called on the bodies of her troupe and the imaginations of her designers… the piece’s wicked wit delivered delights from a cast mutating from suspense to surprise. (The Bulletin)

For originality, theatricality and sheer entertainment KAGE was outstanding! (Sydney Morning Herald)