“There is beautiful complicity between the performers Alice Dixon, Melissa Jones and Caroline Meaden, an exactitude to their changes in rhythm and a palpability to their imagination in the forms they manifest. The three druids listen through extended moments of regenerative stillness. A primitive bounce precedes an escalation into tangled trios and exhausting orbits where the performers seem to throw their energy, their presence to and fro from inside and out of the circle.  Suddenly, perhaps too suddenly, it is over, and they have left.”

- Tamara Searle, Dance Informa

Blizzard emerged out of a period of professional development for Alice Dixon, Melissa Jones and Caroline Meaden and was later consolidated into a new dance work under the direction of Natalie Cursio.

“Blizzard is a dance/sound work placing three bodies in a stark environment. These animal/human bodies are acute listening devices; they are (as a group and as individuals) sites of study/questioning/curiosity, at times manifesting the quietness and concentration of a nature documentary and at other times exploding, burning bright.

In its broadest sense, Blizzard is about listening. It is about absolute awareness and attention, employing an animal-like intuition and instinctual relationship to time and to cues for action.

Blizzard invites the audience to experience the work sensorially. It could be seen as a dance work, a sound work, a visual art work - or all of the above. I'm not interested in dictating or moralising but wish to open up space and time for interpretation and contemplation.” - Natalie Cursio

People

Direction: Natalie Cursio

Choreography: Natalie Cursio with Alice Dixon, Melissa Jones and Caroline Meaden

Performance: Alice Dixon, Melissa Jones and Caroline Meaden

Lighting Design: Travis Hodgson

Costume Design: Eugyeene Teh

Presented by The Substation

Development Supported by Lucy Guerin Inc, Chunky Move Maximised, Dancehouse, The Substation, City of Melbourne, The Besen Foundation, City of Port Phillip Cultural Development Fund and Darebin Arts Speakeasy

Awards: Green Room Award nominations for Best Ensemble Performance, Concept and Realisation, and the Shirley McKechnie award for Choreography, and an Australian Dance Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance

Images by Rachel Roberts

Review by Tamara Searle, Dance Informa: https://dancemagazine.com.au/2013/08/nat-cursio-blizzard/

Review by Jordan Beth Vincent, the Age: https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/dance/driven-down-by-the-storm-20130731-2qzct.html