Semaphore is a compelling and intriguing exploration of signalling, communication and miscommunication. Using physical, visual and aural encoding systems – Semaphore, Morse code, pennants, lights and binary code – dancers and musicians synchronise in a complex choreography of bodies, music and illumination.
Presented by Zephyr Quartet in association with Vitalstatistix
Due to funding this performance season has been cancelled. We hope to present it in 2020.
Semaphore is a compelling and intriguing exploration of signalling, communication and miscommunication.
Using physical, visual and aural encoding systems – Semaphore, Morse code, pennants, lights and binary code – dancers and musicians synchronise in a complex choreography of bodies, music and illumination. Animations and archival recordings of World War II signalmen further augment Semaphore’s rich visual and aural composition.
Regimented physical formations, outbreaks of cascading melody, intricate interplays of light and sound abound; Semaphore is an ingenious visual and sonic experience created by award-winning composer Kate Neal, re-choreographed by Gabrielle Nankivell for Vitalstatistix’s home, the Waterside Workers Hall, and featuring Adelaide’s leading experimental string ensemble, Zephyr Quartet.
“Neal draws on visual and auditory codes such as Semaphore and Morse code and refigures them in extraordinary ways… a consummate feat in sound and dance.” RealTime
Winner, Performance of the Year and Instrumental Work of the Year, Art Music Awards 2016
Image: courtesy of the artists
About the Artist
Kate Neal is an artist with over 20 years experience as a composer, arranger, teacher, artistic director and collaborator. Since 2006 she has been incorporating extra-musical parameters within the notation of a musical score, such as physical gesture, design, light and choreography. In many cases, these works provide a variety of unprecedented collisions of unlikely visual and musical cues. In 2015/16 Neal was the recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship, allowing her to compose six substantial new works over two years. In 2013 Neal returned from the US to take a one-year position as Composer in Residence for the Four Winds Festival. From 2009-2013 Neal was a Graduate Fellow at Princeton University in the USA, and from 2007-2009 she was based in the UK
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