Pre-Professional Year 2017: Working with Lucas Jervies

“When you are asked to try everything you have ever done all at once, at first it seems like an impossible task with an unattainable outcome. However, handing over the task to your body in a movement stream of consciousness surprisingly opens up a world of grounded, abandoned and explosive language.

The past two weeks with choreographer, Lucas Jervies have enabled me to unveil new qualities and styles beyond my habitual self. I have learnt to aim for total mental and physical engagement in even the most subtle of choreographies. In tasks that seem impossible I committed to putting my body in charge and investing in the process rather than the product. Some of these tasks involved transporting ideas from other genres of dance into “our world”. What we found was an unpredictable and sophisticated movement language that accentuates physical form.

We also took movement from common childhood activities to explore how far our trained bodies could push such simple universal movement. Tasking these ideas both individually and in duet challenged my pre-conceived notions of genre and expanded my knowledge of what contemporary dance encompasses.” – Alex Mencinsky, Pre-Professional Year 2017 student.

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Lucas Jervies is a choreographer and Sydney Dance Company collaborator. He is currently working with our Pre-Professional Year students on a new work for their graduation performance, PPY17Revealed. PPY is proudly supported by Lexus Australia.