DIRt (Dance In Regional disasTer zones) is a an ongoing project initiated by East Gippsland-based, international dancer/choreographer, Rosalind Crisp in 2017. It asks how dance and arts practice can embody, understand and connect to unfolding environmental devastation in East Gippsland where widespread industrial logging is converting complex native forests into agricultural mono-crops and decimating local wildlife. Rosalind with multi-media artist Vic McEwan and facilitator Andrew Morrish will bring their work from Mt Delusion into relationship to the East Gippsland Art Gallery. They will share dance and video materials developed in response to the logging of Mt Delusion - a microcosm of 150 years of colonial practices.

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This project is assisted by the Regional Arts Fund. The Australian Government's Regional Arts Fund is provided through Regional Arts Victoria, administered in Victoria by Regional Arts Victoria.

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Rosalind Crisp is one of Australia’s most established dance artists, founder of Omeo Dance studio Sydney, choreographic associate of Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, honorary fellow of the University of Melbourne-VCA and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Dame of the Arts – France). Over thirty years she has developed a radical physical critique of dance, her current work is concerned with dance’s capacity to enact change in this time of extinctions. www.omeodance.com

Vic McEwan is the Artistic Director of The Cad Factory, an artist led organisation creating an international program of new, immersive and experimental work guided by authentic exchange, ethical principles, people and place. Working with sound, video, installation and performance, he is interested in creating new dynamics by working with diverse partners and exploring difficult themes within the lived experience of communities and localities. Vic was the 2015 Artist in Residence at the National Museum of Australia and the recipient of the Inaugural Arts NSW Regional Fellowship 2014/16 www.cadfactory.com.au    www.vicmcewan.com

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Andrew Morrish is a senior figure in the national and international improvisation communities and is sought after as a teacher of improvisation and a facilitator of dance seminars and conferences. He started improvising with Al Wunder's Theatre of the Ordinary in Melbourne in 1982. From 1987 to 1999, he was half of the duo "Trotman & Morrish" performing throughout Australia and the USA. Since 1999 he has focussed on his solo performing in Europe and Australia. In 2016/17 he was the recipient of the Australia Council Dance Fellowship.   www.andrewmorrish.com   
 

Image: Andrew Morrish, Mt Delusion East Gippsland