Saturday, January 23, 2010

Stepping out to a different Valley of old



Performance

Hey Scenester!
Visy Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse
Thurs to Sat January 28-30
Tickets: Phine 3358 8600 or visit
www.brisbanepowerhouse.org



Want to take a peek at the Valley entertainment scene in the years before it became the throbbing, hobnobbing, flashy, trashy entertainment precinct that it is today?

Or in the words of Claire Marshall “before Fortitude Valley had become a boganised tourist attraction and district of megaclubs.” Claire is the driving force behind Hey Scenester!, a contemporary dance, pop culture inspired work, looking at ‘scenesters’ and Fortitude Valley’s nightlife and playing at the Visy Theatre at the Brisbane Powerhouse in New Farm later this month.
Choreographed by Claire Marshall in collaboration with dancers and drawing inspiration from research, interviews, and observations in the Valley over the past 20 odd years - and they were pretty odd years by all accounts - Hey Scenester! is a flash back to Brisbane alternative, and indie clubs in the early-mid 1990s and explores club culture in Brisbane when “corruption was rampant, but self-expression was permitted”.
Explains Claire: “Embracing the gritty, dilapidated clubs that once existed, clubs that a gust of wind could easily blow over, or the Dean brothers could knock down overnight, Hey Scenester! is a tribute to a scene now gone – that many claim to have been part of, but than no one can remember the exact details of.
“ If you remember Funkyard, Mass, Bleach, or Pop Scene (to name just a few), Hey Scenester! looks at the good, the bad, and the ugly side of club culture and human behaviour – which transcend time and an era of a club.”
Claire Marshall was a recipient of the Ausdance Queensland Brisbane Front Program Choreographic Residency, which saw the first development presented in November 2009 at the Judith Wright Centre shop front space.
Hey Scenester! sees the Visy Theatre transformed into a non-traditional theatre space for the second installment of the work.
Hey Scenester! is billed as an eye-opening look at changes in nightlife and club culture in Fortitude Valley, exposing the scene and not so seen!