Nude Alien Cult Abducts Theatregoers!

Warning: this article will not even begin to prepare you for the BalletLab. There is dance, there is even Dance Massive, and then there is what Phillip Adams provocatively likes to call dance history. “You have to surrender,” he smiles, eyes bright. “And now I would like you to take your clothes off.” And All Things Return To Nature Tomorrow is not so much a double bill of new work by Adams and his creative partner Brooke Stamp but a voyage into the sometimes alien world of the live art happening. Part show, part ritual and just a little bit 'cult', it seeks to transcend the usual intellectual esoterica that typifies the avant-garde and involve us directly in a process that is at once pre-conceived and yet to be conceived. (You following me?) In this, it is organic; hence the 'nature' theme.

For Brooke Stamp, who BalletLab frontman Phillip Adams commissioned to create the Return To Nature half of the show, the blending of the esoteric and the natural sits at the heart of the work. “I didn't even know what the word 'nature' meant for me in my title but I've been reading so many different texts across physics and cosmology – I even went into Spinoza, which is a completely different kettle of fish… and I found that there were all these links to this eternal obsession we have with the essence of what nature is,” she says. Linking this back into dance practise was easier than you might think. “Something that really stood out for me was how in physics or cosmology they talk about sound or frequency or vibration as the original source of this explosion, this genesis of materiality,” Stamp explains.

American sound artist Professor Garth Paine will 'play' live during the event. According to Stamp, “Everyone across the music spectrum should come to listen to this experience, to witness this guru in action. To me, Garth is like the god of live electronic sound art. We are so lucky to have him come out here for this.” While Stamp explores nature, Adams is going down the alien abduction route with his piece Tomorrow. It is a work that will very directly involve the audience and, in addition, be performed completely nude. “As much as Brooke is coming from the substantial, I'm coming from the superficial,” he says. “She's the real deal and I'm the Hollywood future.”

Ever the provocateur, Adams has nominated Thursday 21 March at 9:30pm as Nude Night, in which even the audience will be asked to disrobe. In the tradition of Spencer Tunick he will “couple people up on the night and ask them who they'd like to sit with,” he says. “They can sit anywhere they want. They don't even have to sit in the bleachers.” As to whether nudity is a gimmick, Adams is frank. “You react differently in a choreographic situation without clothes on,” he continues. “I mean, the freedom. We did everything short of fucking one another in the arse. In fact, we almost did. In any other context I'd be sued; but that's the beauty of BalletLab.” Both Adams and Stamp insist that we will be free to “go away enlightened or enraged” because, as they contend, this is the true purpose of contemporary live art. “And dance?” Adams concludes. “Oh yeah, I remember that.”

WHAT: And All Things Return To Nature Tomorrow
WHEN & WHERE: Friday 15 to Saturday 23 March, Dance Massive, Lawler Theatre