About Amelia’s Residency
A Certain Mumble is multicultural dance work that brings forth the perspectives and identities of Chinese Malaysian dance artist Janelle Tan and First Nations Gamilaroi dance artist Amelia O’Leary. It reveals multiple truths and stories of what it feels like to be an outsider in Australia, particularly as women from diverse backgrounds.
I expected to be exactly who I thought I was… I was going to be the stereotype that I felt was wanted from me and become the choreographer that I thought I needed to be.
But the further Janelle Tan and I went, the more we recognised the complexity of identity and choreography. This work puts us into a void-like state that pushes us into stories, feelings, things, places and people. A continual beading of life. A weaving of experiencing. Layers upon layers. Cabinets full of things. Becoming a work built from big yarns and listening.
From the yarns…
‘A sense of uncertainty but a mumble of confidence in themselves and each other.’ – O’Leary
‘My experience being in the middle, being the connection point, the incomplete bridge and I yearn for strength again.’ – Tan
‘Allowing for chaos and breath in a subtle awareness of grounding understanding.’ – O’Leary
‘I believe that humility enables people to see the world from a broader and more intimate sense simultaneously, enabling collaboration to occur with people and environment.’ – Tan
We’ll be showing ideas from this development at Out of Bounds in August 2022. A film version of A Certain Mumble will be released later this year and the full length live performance work will be performed in 2023.
– Amelia O’Leary
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About the Artists
Click the links for more about Amelia O’Leary and Janelle Tan