MSTM, a new full length dance work co-created and performed by Martin del Amo, Sue Healey, Tra Mi Dinh, and Mitchell Christie will be performed at the Campbelltown Arts Centre early in November.
Named after the artists’ initials, MSTM is a layered and inventive collaboration between two choreographic pairings, Martin and Sue, and Tra Mi and Mitch.
Together, they form a quartet for the first time.
Spanning decades of experience, from established to mid-career, MSTM offer audiences a rare opportunity to witness artists of different ages, careers, and life experiences sharing the stage as equals.
“MSTM explores lineage and how dance and ideas echo through time, carried by bodies across generations,’’ says Sue Healey, who will be returning to the stage for the first time in a decade.
“It’s about choosing what to hold onto, what to release, and what to inherit from others. Even as things shift, traces remain. Nothing is ever entirely new; we are always in the act of passing something on.”
This intergenerational element extends to the creative team, featuring acclaimed sound designer Gail Priest, emerging lighting designer Frankie Clarke and seasoned costume designer Aleisa Jelbart.
MSTM explores what it means to collaborate.
What happens when four distinct dance artists create a work from scratch, each moving fluidly between the roles of choreographer and performer?
How do they retain their individuality while forging a collective presence? The work unfolds through shifting formations and unstable alignments, testing compatibility, navigating contradictions, and mapping the delicate interplay between chaos and order.
Audience experience is integral to the work. Echoing MSTM’s choreographic logic of negotiation and repositioning, the audience enters the theatre from backstage. Along the way, they move through an atmospheric threshold of projections, sound, and miniature performances before emerging into an ever-shifting theatrical landscape.
As the performers witness one another witnessing, the audience too becomes part of a charged field of observation, perception, and response.
“This work explores how we see each other and how the audience sees us,’’ says Martin del Amo shares.
“By meeting the audience at eye level, we are investigating the meaning of dance and collaboration. We have just as many questions as the audience.”
With only four performances this November, MSTM promises a rare and resonant experience that speaks across generations.
MSTM will perform at Campbelltown Arts Centre on November 6, 7, and 8 at 730pm, with a matinee performance scheduled for November 7 that includes a Q&A.