Be Awake for a new day
Meditative, sensory, natural experience — with soundtrack
HOW many times have you seen something awe inspiring in nature and imagined a soundtrack to it?
Whether it is a full symphony orchestra, a jazz combo or even the sound of a single instrument, it certainly fires the imagination — which is precisely what Awake does.
Awake is not an entertainment or a dance piece. It is not a “get-up-andgo” early morning gee-up.
Instead, Dancenorth has stepped out of the box with a meditative sensory experience, which is essentially a perfect response to what is happening in our lives at the moment.
This pandemic has changed so much in our society as governments have attempted — with varying success — to respond to something that has no precedent and we, as individuals, try to make sense of something that has rocked the very foundations of our society.
The most interesting by-product of this social distancing (a misnomer if ever I heard one — it should be Unsocial distancing) is that the isolation has forced us to be more contemplative and introspective in the way we approach life.
This is precisely the space that Awake occupies.
The premise is a strange one.
Be on The Strand before 5am for about an hour.
Bring your chair or a picnic blanket, and a keep-cup of tea or coffee (obligatory for that time of the morning if you are organised enough) and witness the dawn breaking.
Every audience member is given a headset (COVID-SAFE, of course) and makes themselves comfortable looking east across a calm Coral Sea with Magnetic Island to the left and the lights of Townsville’s port to the right.
Then — on this day, anyway — orange streaks appear in the sky on the horizon as the heavens begin to light up, changing colours every minute as the sun begins the new day and nature’s light show shines out.
There is the odd spit of rain; seabirds flit across the water; on schedule the Magnetic Island ferry glides out of the port; a couple of kayakers move steadily across the water; and all to the accompaniment of a gentle and non-intrusive soundtrack that only we can hear.
For 45 minutes, we watch the
dawn break to this meditative original score by Tom Snowdon and Willaris. K, which has been created especially for this project.
The soundtrack is a perfect accompaniment — a reflective combination of music and the
birdsong sounds of the dawn.
It is time to sit still and think. It helps us to realise what we take for granted and to appreciate the simple joy that can be gained from just “being”.
Characteristically, what is interesting in Awake is the audience’s reaction at the end.
No one jumped up and left. Instead, it was a slow and contemplative drift away, with some sitting still for up to 15 minutes comfortable in their individual response to what they had just experienced.
>>Awake will be presented on the Surf Club headland at The Strand from 5am to 6am every day, until October 31