[Past Event] Midsumma Festival: ANIMALISING; [Past Event] BECOMING ANIMAL / INTENSE / IMPERCEPTIBLE

A psycho-physical, primordial trance ritual performance and open workshop.

Two dancers, Tony Yap and Jack Riley, with a 40-year age difference, come together to showcase striking contrasts and surprising similarities. These contrasts arise from differences in age, traditional cultures, and dance styles, whilst their similarities lie in their shared intensity-focused aesthetics and involvement in queer sub-cultures.

The performance of Animalising delves into the themes of sexlessness and nakedness, combining them with a captivating trance-like intensity. Back from shamanistic bull-trance rituals in East Java, Indonesia, the dancers draw out their animalistic natures into states of possession.

Mas Agus Riyanto is the supreme trance-master, inducing the dancers into trance zones as he whips, and they morph to become animals, intense and imperceptible. Additionally, Reuben Lewis spells the ritual by creating and composing a third element, developing the sonic-choreographic trance-scape.

Please note, this event includes nudity and intermittent loud sounds. Not suitable for children.

Opening Ritual

Agus Riyanto, a Javanese bull-trance shaman, has created a ritual that evokes benevolent spirits/energies. The ritual invites everyone to participate and converge for spiritual well-being at the Abbotsford Convent.

Wednesday 7 February 2024, 6pm – 7.30pm
Sacred Heart Courtyard
Free

About the Workshop
This trance workshop is an introduction to an ecstatic trance practice of Bantengan — Bull Trance Rituals — in Indonesia. Through reframing and reimagining the traditional form, we explore the intensity of the transformative experiences of becoming animal, becoming intense and becoming imperceptible.

Saturday 10 February 2024, 10am – 3pm
Industrial School

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Artists details

Dancers Tony Yap and Jack Riley
Musician Reuben Lewis
Trance Master Agus Riyanto
Producer Taka Takiguchi 滝口貴
Videographer Adele Wilkes

Accessibility

The Sacred Heart Courtyard and Industrial School are wheelchair accessible.

This program is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, as part of the Convent’s 2024 Midsumma Festival program, and by LGI through a studio residency at WXYZ Studios.