Synopsis

The Trilogy

Especially commissioned for MONA FOMA, The Trilogy is a riveting presentation of works from award-winning choreographer Phillip Adams that span over ten years of BalletLab; Amplification (premiered in 1999), Miracle (2009) and in 2011, the premiere a brand new third work, Above.  A triptych exploring death, transcendence, the after-life and apotheosis - The Trilogy was commissioned to celebrate the launch of the Museum of Old and New Art.

Miracle takes up contemporary concerns about religious radicalism and uses revolutionary evangelist groups from the 1960s and 70s to explore the dynamics of group behaviour, rapture and the desire to achieve an alternate, transcendent state of being through religion. 

Using the car accident as a metaphor for mental/physical disassociation, Amplification examines the thresholds of the human body's response to sound, light and physical impact. Developed through research conducted at a hospital emergency ward and the Melbourne morgue, Amplification magnifies the 1.6 seconds ‘disassociation' freeze time which occurs at the moment of impact. 

Reincarnation is the subject of the final chapter in The Trilogy. Above is an ebb and flow of transitional stages resulting in rebirth. Above commences where Miracle's finale leaves us, in a godlike state of levitation. Like a fairytale in the guise of a road move, Above tells of primal initiation rites, dreams of immortality and magical incarnations, as a metaphorical performance of ‘God becomes animal'. 

Above featured a short film (TOMB) by Matthew Gingold and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus in its original performance at MONA FOMA. It was performed by nine dancers.

"The most challenging and compelling contemporary dance currently around in our neck of the woods... Miracle is simultaneously riveting, bewildering, mesmerizing..." - Arts Hub

"Amplification resonates like a Gothic story book ballet… possibly the city’s best this year." - Lee Christofis, The Australian