Plastic Belly created in collaboration with Itamar Freed
Performers Nadia Milford and Courtney Scheu. Image by Rainer Scheu Create Right
Drawing from art history and biology, Plastic Belly explores a post-apocalyptic existence through scenarios of power and control, freedom and dependence.
Plastic Belly is performed by two women; their fantasies and fears personified by the shape-shifting, ephemeral belly of a blue, plastic tarpaulin. Through birth and re-birth, the women emerge into the unknown, caught in a constant tension between a desire for intimacy and self-protection as they navigate the boundaries of their new future in this insular world.
Plastic Belly is a new dance work created by choreographer Courtney Scheu in collaboration with visual artist Itamar Freed.
Choreography | Courtney Scheu, Itamar Freed and dancers
Original music | Harel Tsemah
Dancers | Chloe Lanham, Courtney Scheu and Nadia Milford
Dramaturge | Liesel Zink
Film Director | Rainer Scheu
Cinematographer | Shane Keeffe
Drone Operator | Timothy Birch
Plastic Belly in Horizon Festival Homegrown 2020
This 35min site-specific film version of Plastic Belly was shot at stunning Third Bay, Coolum on Kabi Kabi country. Performed by Courtney Scheu and Nadia Milford this version has been adapted to respond to the current times, when human connection is more relevant than ever. Recent experiences due to the COVID-19 pandemic have traversed the emotional and mental impact of isolation, the fear of the unknown, and a deep desire for connection.
Plastic Belly explores the artists’ lived experience of this extraordinary time, navigating the boundaries of a new future and capturing the ever-present tension between the desire for intimacy and the primal need for self-protection.
Plastic Belly in Supercell Dance Festival 2020
"...a large blue tarpaulin... covers both completely, creating evocative, sometimes amoebic-like shapes, revealing one, then the other dancer, as they clamber in and out of its folds. The movement is simply fashioned, and the soundscape otherworldly. Well-constructed (Liesel Zink was dramaturge), Plastic Belly was very engaging" Denise Richardson, Dance Australia, Feb 2020
"I loved the use of the tarp, creative and versatile. There was a clear relationship between the three objects in the dance - 2 dancers and the tarp." Audience member, Supercell: Festival of Contemporary Dance Feb 2020
"Plastic Belly is a poetic unfolding of captivating sculptural forms. The work's gentle approach to important subject matter kept me inside the world that they carved with just two bodies, a well-worn plastic tarp and a pile of sand bags. I found beauty and significance in each progression of the evolving forms created by these elements and was totally captivated by the clever marriage of the visual and the soundscape." Audience member, Supercell: Festival of Contemporary Dance Feb 2020
Thanks to Phluxus2 Dance Collective through the indepenDANCE project 2018 and Blue Door Insider Residency.
The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Sunshine Coast Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Plastic Belly in Supercell Dance Festival 2020 at the Queensland Maritime Museum. Images by Ivan Trigo Miras