THE FONDUE SET PRESENTED BY PERFORMANCE SPACE

THE FONDUE SET

Imagine a glamorous lady. Now imagine that lady falling down a flight of stairs. This is roughly the feel of The Fondue Set in action. They explore traditional ideas of dance, performance and live music, before totally subverting them. After forming in November 2000 at the Omeo Dance Studios in Sydney, the Fondue Set have created and performed works including Soft Cheese (2001) and Blue Moves (2003) for the One Extra Dance Company, and featured as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival (2003). They performed Love And Other Indoor Sports as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, The (Set) Up at Performance Space (2006), and Evening Magic II: Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough at Performance Space (2007). Most recently, The Fondue Set completed a creative development with UK choreographer/director Wendy Houstoun on a new work, No Success Like Failure. This piece premiered at The Studio, Sydney Opera House and toured to Campbelltown Arts Centre and Art House, North Melbourne Town Hall in 2008. No Success Like Failure returns to Melbourne in 2009 as part of Dance Massive and will also be presented at IPAC, Wollongong in October."

FESTIVAL FIRST NIGHT WORK
THE HOOFER

The Hoofer is a relentless unison routine, a large scale choreography for non-dancers working so hard to get it right that it becomes a hilarious exercise in absurdity. It is a cross between a ‘skank’ and a soft shoe shuffle that is stuck on the spot and stuck in time. It illustrates The Fondue Set’s exploration of dance techniques, and their understanding of an awkward body. They work against the idea of dazzling the audience with skill and tricks, but dazzle them nonetheless with an ongoing and almost ritualistic virtuosity.

The Hoofer evolved from an exerpt of The Fondue Set’s work The Set (Up) performed in Japan and at The Studio, Sydney Opera House in 2006. In Japan, they taught the choreography to 14 university students, and realised the potential for an en masse version. Since then, The Hoofer has been performed with 30 volunteers in CarriageWorks’ foyer for Performance Space at NightTime #2, and as an event within their work, Evening Magic II: Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough at Performance Space in October 2007.

PERFORMANCE SPACE

For 25 years Performance Space has operated as an international contemporary arts centre based in the inner west of Sydney. It is a hub for artists and audiences committed to research and development, imagining new possibilities for groundbreaking work, and testing the limits of performance. Performance Space produces and presents contemporary arts that explore the intersections between performance, visual cultures, new media and sound. They create space for artists and audiences from across the street and around the world to come face to face in live encounters, intimate exchange and interactive events. Throughout the year, the works are presented in four seasons across the spaces at CarriageWorks.

JANE MCKERNAN

Jane McKernan is a founding member of The Fondue Set, creating and performing in all their works. Jane has also performed with Rosalind Crisp, Padma Menon Dance Theatre, Eleanor Brickhill and with performance group, Version 1.0. In 2007, she worked on Nalina Wait’s Dual, which was performed as part of LiveWorks at Performance Space (2008). Jane participated as one of five choreographers in Rosalind Crisp’s National Dance Lab at Dancehouse, Melbourne; and undertook a Performance Space residency to focus on new solo work in collaboration with Brian Fuata and Lizzie Thomson. Jane has performed her solo work at Performance Space, Sydney as part of the Mobile States Emerging Choreographers Season (2002) and at Dancehouse, Melbourne as part of the Dance Card season, as well as at Omeo Dance Studio, Sydney. Jane received a grant from the Goethe Institut to travel to Berlin in November/December 2006, where she took part in a residency at Tanzfabrik with Andrew Morrish, and performed in Paris as part of Les Crocodiles at Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson.

Elizabeth Ryan

Elizabeth Ryan is a Sydney based artist and a founding member of The Fondue Set. Since graduating from UWS Nepean with a BA in dance, Elizabeth performed with various independent artists before spending several years living in the UK. There she performed and gave workshops around Scotland with te Pooka Performance Company. Since returning to Australia outside her work with The Fondue Set, Elizabeth has been pursuing an improvisation practice performing in many improvisation evenings at Omeo Dance Studio and Performance Space, performed in several short dance films, participated in The National Choreographic Laboratory with Rosalind Crisp as mentor, and performed in Version 1.0’s work From a Distance. She worked with Dean Walsh on the first, second and third stages of his new work Back from Front, and performed in the premiere in May 2008 at Performance Space.

Emma Saunders

Emma is a Sydney-based dance artist and founding member of The Fondue Set. Outside The Fondue Set, Emma received a research grant through Critical Path to explore and further develop her solo practice. This instigated her latest solo work, Pavlov’s Dog, which was then performed as part of the “We Like Short Shorts” season at Dancehouse, Melbourne 2007. She has presented her earlier solo work Lost Property at Omeo Dance Studios, Sydney and later remounted this for 18 women and performed at the Seymour Centre, Sydney 2006. In 2006, Emma participated in the National Choreographic Laboratory with Ros Crisp as mentor as part of Critical Path. She has performed in Unfinished Business: X Marks the Spot with Version 1.0 at The Studio, Sydney Opera House (2005). Emma has also performed in Crowds with Chunky Move (2004) and presented many solo improvisations at Rushing for the Sloth, Omeo Dance, Sydney and The Big Schloss, Performance Space, Sydney. Emma currently lectures in Dance at the Australian College of Physical Education and is a board member for Ausdance NSW representing NSW based independent dance artists.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT THIS COMPANY'S WEBSITE HERE.

For more information about The Fondue Set’s 2009 No Success Like Failure tour click here.

To book tickets to upcoming shows presented by Performance Space click here.