New Artist in Residence & National Gallery of Australia

I discovered some great news that, by sheer coincidence, an old friend of mine is taking over from me at Thirning Villa as Artist in Residence in March. We worked together many years ago on a theatre project based around the stories of young migrants. It was a very powerful show.
Here is a link to her website : ) www.vanbadham.blogspot.com

After my drum and dance classes at Thirning Villa this week, both of which I am loving, I am off to Canberra for a Dance Theatre performance at the National Gallery of Australia. I will be dancing, singing, drumming and performing my new piano work 'Kandinsky'. Exciting : ) Here is a link to the NGA website.

More information here www.mariantheloucataris.com

Dance at Thirning Villa for 4 Weeks

Rhythm and Dance
with Marianthe Loucataris

Explore Hilal Dance body work and movement with a focus on the rhythmicity of the body. 

Hilal Dance training is a holistic practice of integrating, body, mind, emotion. It is a means of training for life- of developing strength, fitness, flexibility and increasing our ability to express ourselves physically. It develops a means of feeling at home, strong, flexible, expressive and joyous in our bodies !

For total beginners as well as dancers experienced in any form of dance, yoga or physical practice from tai chi, contemporary, folk or cultural dance.

Venue :  Thirning Villa

Dates :  Feb 1 - February 22

Tuesday Evenings
6pm- 7pm Body Work and Beginners Dance
7pm - 8pm For those experienced in dance, movement, rhythm from diverse backgrounds.

Bookings Essential

Anthia Hart   Community Development Worker
260 Liverpool Road Ashfield NSW 2131
Tel (02) 9716 1866

Back from the Pacific Islands

I just returned from an impromptu trip to the Pacific Islands. It is so beautiful out there. The oceans vastness eased my soul. Put things in perspective. Time, thought and space coalesced into a gliding totality. Shifting silently through the great expanse, every single worldly ambition and fretful desire oozed out of my big toe :) There was some time to think and write ...when I managed to drag myself away from staring into the vast blue. For now here is a photo. There are more on my flikr site.

Children's Drum Circle Workshops

Today I did 2 workshops at Thirning Villa for the School Holidays through Children's Services. It is great to work with children and their parents. Drum circles offer a wonderful way for children and parents to share in an enjoyable activity for both of them. There will be weekly workshops leading to percussion making and playing workshops and a performance at the Carnival of Cultures on the 20th of March. There will be ways for people of all experience to participate. If you are involved in the Rhythm Arts and would like to be involved. Send me a message and we can see what we can dream up : )

I have just been updating my drumming blog. It has some information on the nature of my Rhythm and Drumming Program. Here is a snippet.

Rhythm and Drumming : An introduction to World Drum Circles
A rhythm and drumming program which uses rhythm, movement, percussion, vocals and drums to explore the wonder of playing music in a group.

An engaging and fun introduction to World Beat Drumming. The program explores how to communicate through rhythm using drums, bodies and voices. Inspired by the world drum traditions including from the Middle East, Africa, India and Latin America this program taps into a cross cultural meeting point fantastic for the diversity of contemporary Australia.

Click here for more details on this program and a small video snippet of the Primary School Troupe.

New Release and progress....

I have just released my second album -betwixt- It is a compilation of works created for theatre, dance, film and installation 2000-2010. It is a trance inducing, evocative, ambient, sound based collection with bowed piano, piano, sounds, voice and digital explorations. It is a digital only release. I am currently working on a limited edition hard copy version. Let me know what you think : )

Light Portal

I have just posted some thoughts on the nature of being an artist. I am in the process of refining my ideas on collaboration,improvisation, performative context. I am interested in contributing to the emergence of a new/old model of being an artist. A framework Karl Cronin has referred to via Wassily Kandinsky and others as 'Total Art'. I am partly working on these themes as I wil be hosting a series of forums- improvised cross artform jams as part of my residency. You can have a read of where I am up to with it on my blog here. I will post details here when I have teased it out a little more : )

OLDER an Ashfield Youth Theatre Production at Thirning Villa

By a wonderful convergence, the local Youth Theatre in Ashfield which I had identified as a possible site of collaboration, happened to stage a production at Thirning Villa in my first month. After making contact with the Artist Director, James Winter I then had a chat with the Director of the current production, Aimee Falzon and embarked on a creative process to supply music and sound design for the production. It was a really beautiful and evocative piece and I am looking forward to exploring further collaborative possibilities. Here are some samples. Enjoy!


Cue 7 by audio.narcissist

Drift excerpt by audio.narcissist