Jewish choreographer featured at Melbourne Fringe

Melbourne choreographer Aimee Raitman will present her new contemporary dance work, Not a Jam, as part of the Dancehouse x Melbourne Fringe Festival curated program this month. The work was selected by Dancehouse and will be staged over four nights, from October 14-17, at a North Carlton venue.

Not a Jam draws on the history and technique of Contact Improvisation, a dance form that emerged in the United States in the 1970s.

Raitman acknowledges that contemporary dance can be difficult for audiences to understand. The piece explores what it means to perform Contact Improvisation in front of an audience and asks whether it is the responsibility of the audience or the artist to “make it make sense”.

“Not a Jam is special, as it presents live sound composition as a third partner in the dance. The audience’s presence is vital to the performance, adding a special density to the space, which the performers are responding to, live,” Raitman told The AJN.

Raitman said the piece also spoke to the relationships that build a community, the importance of honouring a community’s lineage and history, and how meaning is found through nurturing and investing in those relationships.