info I contact
advertising
editorial schedule
acknowledgements
join the realtime email list
become a friend of realtime on facebook
follow realtime on twitter
donate

magazine  archive  features  rt profiler  realtimedance  mediaartarchive
back

Archive Highlights


 Da Contents H2

RT PROFILER 7, 12 NOVEMBER, 2014
November 12 2014
Obituary & Archive: Margaret Cameron

The other side of Nightfall: Margaret Cameron & Ian Scott
Virginia Baxter


July 2 2014
Speak Percussion

November 20 2013
Jon Rose

November 20 2012
branch nebula

July 3 2012
liquid architecture (updated)

March 20 2012
clocked out - archive highlight

November 8 2011
the NOW now

May 10 2011
art & disability: new geographies of the body

November 6 2009
dance on screen

October 26 2009
animation

September 21 2009
australian indigenous film

August 21 2009
keith armstrong, media artist

July 17 2009
liquid architecture

June 29 2009
rosie dennis: the truth hurts

 

rosie dennis: the truth hurts


Rosie Dennis’ strong reputation in the performance world has been built on the success of 20-30 minute, intense and fast-paced dance/performances, described in RealTime as "manic", "electric" and "obsessive-compulsive."

But her latest work, Fraudulent Behaviour, is twice the usual duration and, with her distinctive style adapted to a more sustainable, often whimsical and, at points, almost meditative pace, it marks a departure for Dennis.

Exploring the human predisposition for hurtful lies and harmless un-truths this work has an ironically honest quality, both in content and delivery. Yet there is a strong sense of the surreal in Fraudulent Behaviour. Through bizarrely down-to-earth conversations with a rubber duck and long-time invisible friend Elvira, and child-like storytelling via a rudimentary puppet show, Dennis breathes life into the truism that ‘truth is stranger than fiction.'

Amid these exchanges—Dennis and duck, Dennis and audience, Dennis and neurotic Dennis—subtle nuances, rhythmic repetition and a sharp sense of humour highlight the infinite instances in which we utilise deception. “I love that, I lurve that, I LOVE that”, she exclaims, and we snigger, caught out, wondering the number of times and ways we have already said that today.
Set detail, Rosie Dennis, Fraudulent Behaviour, Performance Space Set detail, Rosie Dennis, Fraudulent Behaviour, Performance Space
photo by Heidrun Löhr
But Fraudulent Behaviour goes beyond simply illustrating Nietzsche’s proposition that “we need lies in order to live", which Dennis writes on her whiteboard. A makeshift snow-globe, flashing Hotel Tropicana sign and the duck’s fake flower lei are some of Dennis' numerous kitsch references to the notion of Paradise. They suggest that our web of lies (large and small, to ourselves and others) constructs a false reality, an idyllic destination far more attractive than our inescapable, internal one.

In an interview in 2006, "Confessions of a fast talker," Dennis described herself as “difficult to program" due to her falling between categorisations of dance and theatre, and the reluctance of arts organisations, especially in Australia, to schedule short works. The idea of producing longer, 45-60 minute performances was an issue of creative integrity: “I don’t want to do that, I want to be true to what I enjoy,” she explained.

It seems fitting then, that a work about our relationship to truth asks if Dennis is still being true to herself by making it. Of course, what Fraudulent Behaviour serves to illustrate is that we need lies in order to live, because truth is subject to change. Only lies are reliable.

confessions of a fast talker
keith gallasch talks with improviser rosie dennis

anamorphic srchive: the rosie dennis file
martin del amo

rosie dennis: one from the heart
winnie love

Rosie Dennis, Fraudulent Behaviour, Performance Space Rosie Dennis, Fraudulent Behaviour, Performance Space
photo by Heidrun Löhr


Rosie Dennis, Fraudulent Behaviour, Performance Space, Carriageworks, Sydney, June 11-13

Fraudulent Behaviour, video excerpt © Rosie Dennis, Sam James 2009, reproduced with the permission of the artists.

© Josephine Skinner; for permission to reproduce apply to [email protected]

Back to top