Performance: LIPS
LIPS: Live in Public Spaces
taking-on being human in public
LIPS is Camilla Maling and Ineke de Graaf - a site-responsive dance improvisation duo performing around Melbourne since 2017.
LIPS explores the myriad ways of being and moving in public and the life of a public space.
Negotiating their way through an audience in flux, LIPS attune to a bubbling, perambulating live space. Using gesture, dance, sound and voice, They are perpetually adapting and recalibrating to compliment, contrast or highlight who they’re with and the environment they’re in. Their choreographic sense, spatial design and structural considerations come alive in a public context.
What is it to be really human in public or is this only reserved for our private lives? Do we even want to be fully seen? How aware are we of the spaces we inhabit? How do we shape our identity in public and how does public space shape our identity? How do we create a sense of belonging?
LIPS explore what's under the surface, between your steps, unspoken along the white lines and alive on the streets of Melbourne - exploring the richness of public space, responding to what's there and risking what's allowed. LIPS is taking-on being human in public and the inherent contradictions, repressions, freedoms & diversities.
WHO
Melbourne based multi-disciplinary movement performer Ineke de Graaf and embodiment educator, therapist and performer Camilla Maling have been collaborating since 2013. The WonderLab Project (TWLP) was their first incarnation. It wondered at the marvel that we are, the curiousness of how we behave and move, and the dance of this relationship. TWLP considered moving as fundamental to living - crucial to understanding our environment, our community and ourselves. This shared passion drew Ineke & Camilla together and they produced various community-based works, events and access points to engage people in this conversation. A sonic art compilation series HumanHuman grew out of this ongoing inquiry and LIPS took form in 2017, actively continuing today.
WHERE
LIPS has performed around Melbourne within formal settings - symposiums, festivals and music gigs and of their own devising - alleyways, outside town halls, rubbish filled alcoves, Coburg mall, in Carlton Garden, along the Merri Creek…
A location is chosen for its dynamic intersections, durable overalls are donned - LIPS arrive at the designated spot, scope it and begin. A series of scores, parameters and timeframes are set as they go, in duet together and of course with the space and all it entails.
See a collection of performance videos and pics…