Dance triptych for Restless Youth

A dynamic collaboration between Sophie Hyde and Bryan Mason of screen media company Closer Productions and Adelaide’s acclaimed Restless Dance Theatre, Necessary Games was made specifically for the screen.

The 18-minute work won best short film, best non-narrative film, best editing and best production design at the South Australian Screen Awards during the festival.

‘We had a really great reception at the Adelaide Film Festival. Dance on film is still not very well understood, but the audience really responded to the quality of the work,’ said Sophie Hyde of Closer Productions and co-director of all three films.

Restless Dance Theatre is one of Australia’s leading youth dance companies, creating dance theatre and running workshops driven by participants with disabilities. The company works with young dancers with or without a disability. In September 2008,

Closer Productions developed the work with the previous Artistic Director of Restless Dance, Ingrid Voorendt. They turned the work into a triptych to show the different directions the company was taking. Ingrid brought in three co-directors and choreographers Paul Zivkovich, Kat Worth, Tuula Roppola for each of the works – Moths, Sixteen and Necessity – respectively.

The triptych forms a complete work to be screened as one piece, but the individual dance films can stand alone when screened separately. Each work explores a different take on intimacy and connection and the games people play.

In Moths two men collide in a dank night world, drenched with loss and heavy with hope. Sixteen is a coming of age game about the joy, nervousness, desire and intimacy of the different kinds of connections a young woman will, did or might have in her life. Necessity is a game between two girls eternally bound together as they trace their lives onto the walls of their room and try to get below the surface.

Restless Dance Theatre employs professional creative and technical teams and is achieving widespread recognition for the quality of its work.

Restless Dance Theatre receives funding from the Australia Council. Necessary Games received further funding from the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund and the South Australian Film Corporation. Necessary Games will screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival, 24 July – 9 August this year.