2020 Darwin Festival - Intertwine first presented as a solo within a triple bill called North of Centre
2021 Darwin Festival - Intertwine performed as a trio within the Track's Seasons of Skin and Bark
2021 SPRING.LOADED.DANCE - Intertwine remounted as a solo for North of Centre in Alice Springs

Choreographed by Jess Devereux in collaboration with Kelly Beneforti
 

Kelly and Jess traveled to Mparntwe Alice Springs to present the third iteration of Intertwine. 
We had a chat with Kelly about the experience of returning to dance with Tracks and returning to this piece.

You’re currently rehearsing to perform Intertwine in Mparntwe Alice Springs at SPRING.LOADED.DANCE, a terrific dance festival initiative by GUTS Dance. How are you feeling about the trip?

I’m really excited to reconnect with the other dancers from North of Centre – Jocelyn Tribe, Putu Desak Warti and the crew from GUTS, and it feels really special to remount Intertwine.

SPING.LOADED.DANCE is also being performed in a warehouse, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this piece translates into a different place. I first performed it in a theatre, then it was performed as a trio outside in the dry season on Larrakia country as part of Seasons of Skin and Bark, and now it will be performed in this new environment on Arrernte country. I see this as another opportunity for the work to say something different, on a different country that has different light and shapes, and a different feeling. 

As you mentioned, this is the third time that Intertwine has been performed over the last two years. Has the piece shifted or changed for you between the first time you performed it and now?

When I performed Intertwine the first time, I was carrying and growing my baby in my belly, so I felt his presence in the work from the beginning. Jess too, through her care for my body and attention to how I was feeling, allowed his little being to influence the way I was moving. Now with Florian on the outside, my body feels different again, somewhat neglected I would have to say! But the approach to the work for me has become softer, less urgent. Jess and I often used the phrase ‘quiet ferocity’ in the making of the piece to describe the tone that we were looking for. Perhaps last year I was more in the ferocious, and this time more in the quiet.

It was also incredibly special for me to be in the audience at Seasons of Skin and Bark, and watch this piece unfold before me; to actually be able to sit back and just witness it. Of course, it had changed because Bryn (Wackett), Maari (Gray) and Ru’s (McElroy) personal performance styles and movements influenced it, so it had a new life - but it also had the essence of what I felt when I performed it so that was amazing to see. I also feel like it has now also given back to me which I feel very grateful for; I get to take what I saw with me in Seasons into this new rehearsal space to help generate for myself an entry point back into the work.

Intertwine is a solo work that was choreographed by Jessica Devereux and yourself, do you have any reflections on this collaboration and the experience of doing multiple remounts?

Well I guess every work has a unique group of people who come together to bring it to life and I've worked with Jess in lots of contexts and through lots of processes, but this is probably the most consolidated time that we've worked just the two of us.
Something very unique happened while we worked together in the studio on this piece and so coming back to it, even over just a few rehearsals, it feels like we've been able to hold that space of when we made the piece originally. It also still feels like it has a really strong energy lifeforce to it. 

 

2021 SPRING.LOADED.DANCE is happening this week in Mparntwe Alice Springs
2021 Seasons of Skin and Bark
2020 North of Centre