No Bones About It

Take 206 bones and make them dance. This is the challenge currently consuming one of Australia's brightest young choreographers, Larissa McGowan, as she puts the finishing touches on her first full-length work, Skeleton.

Brisbane-born McGowan has been on an upward trajectory ever since she graduated from the VCA as the Most Outstanding Talent and joined the internationally-lauded Adelaide-based Australian Dance Theatre. Green Room gongs, Helpmann Awards and SYTYCD guest spots ensured her star kept rising. With Skeleton set for twin seasons at both the Adelaide Festival and Melbourne's Dance Massive event, it's a key career moment. “Yeah, I've been trying not to think about that too much,” she admits.

Although Skeleton is not her first foray into choreography, Larissa McGowan is fully aware of its significance. “This is my first full-length work but, in saying that, I'm wondering what full-length actually means. I know I get impatient after about an hour.”

As the title suggests, the work seeks to peel away the skin and get down to the bones. “I think with all of my work I've been interested in one body system or another,” McGowan explains. “I like how that informs the kind of movement you can make; but also not make... As part of our research we looked into what happens when certain bones break or age. What happens to the body and our capacity for movement? How would this then influence a dance piece?”

While admitting that this might sound “a bit morbid” McGowan insists that the work is actually a high-velocity piece with incredibly intricate staging involving the use of “X-ray screens”. To help her keep such a technically precise work coherent she engaged theatre director Sam Haren. “There's no narrative with this, it's just reflections and memories and ideas and so it's been really great to work with him because he's been able to help us with flow, with how things kinda lock together.”

However, amidst the precision and the bones McGowan still manages to insert her love of pop culture. By utilising objects like BMX bikes, skateboards and high heels she juxtaposes the transitory and disposable nature of pop with the near permanence of the skeleton. “That's just it,” she enthuses. “Y'know, these objects, they were just things I grew up with. They're part of memory, really. It's really interesting how kind of skeletal memory is too and how it gets sketchier as you get older.”

Perhaps paralleling her penchant for pop culture is McGowan's commitment to the 'e' word – entertainment. “I've always wanted to make work that was fun. I've never really been into what you might call self-indulgence. It's good if an audience can feel that they get something. I think they get more involved that way rather than just staring at beautiful movement all night.”

Just to make things a little trickier for herself, McGowan also appears in Skeleton alongside her friend Lisa Griffiths and three young male dancers from Adelaide. Describing the boys as “really good movers”, she can't help but allow herself a joke at their expense. “Yes, it's three young boys working with two experienced women; and we've definitely been moulding them.”

Luckily for the lads, they are in very good hands. Maybe the experience will even improve their bone structure.