Dance part of east coast tour

The Peninsula Theatre hosted Remnants of Grace on Saturday, January 14, for one night only of short contemporary dance works which explored rhythms of grace through sounds, movement and film.

The group has been together for just over a year and is now touring the east coast between Sydney and Brisbane.

The group formed when founder Lucinda Coleman found herself faced with the task of getting rid of the old piano that belonged to her grandmother.

"What do you do with something that used to be functional and beautiful but is no longer seen to be so?" said Ms Coleman.

Ms Coleman said she decided to get her family and artistic colleagues together to demolish the piano.

"My children helped tear strings from the back, lever out keys and unscrew panels of timber," she says.

"I winced as it came apart.

"The children were enthusiastic.

"The remnant artists were curious.

"One artist took away the pieces of the piano to make dance costumes.

"Another artist began composing music on her own piano.

"I began to choreograph with the dancers and then worked with a filmmaker to shoot a short dance film about how a mother tells her daughter the story of her grandmother, using the piano and the dancers as the embodiment of melody, family and history."

The group was then invited to share the story of making new music at a primary school in Perth for which they installed and performed a 30 minute work using the pieces of the old piano, with the dancers dressed in remnants of it.

And so Remnant Dance was born.

Media Release, 12 Jan 2012 Jenny Dias, Gosford Council