By Luke Voogt
Dancers aged seven to 25 and a 35-piece orchestra will recreate the struggles of the British suffragettes on stage in Geelong next weekend.
Shatter features 28 dancers from the Spark Youth Dance Company under the direction of 20-year-old Mornington Peninsula choreographer Alex Dellaportas.
Dellaportas, the group’s founder and director, said her passion for history, teaching and feminism inspired the show.
“I love the idea of teaching history but in a different way. Wwhen you teach history in dance and theatre it tends to stick more than in the classroom.”
Shatter follows the story of a young woman named Rosie, who is living through the suffrage movement.
In 90 minutes of dance the young performers recreate the struggles of the suffragettes, who smashed windows and went on hunger strikes for their right to vote.
The show features real suffragette quotes, which Dellaportas loved seeing her students learn during rehearsals.
“Most of them could now stand up and give a 30-minute presentation on the suffragettes,” she said.
Dellaportas hoped the play would give her students and audiences an insight into gender equality, a topic adults were often reluctant to discuss with children, she said.
“Gender equality is so relevant at the moment. Kids should be discussing that as soon they can talk.”
The company will perform Shatter at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre on 14 April as part of its first school-holiday tour.
“This is our first travelling adventure – we haven’t done anything like this before,” Dellaportas explained.
She created the non-profit company in 2016 due her disappointment in “the lack” of dance opportunities on the Mornington Peninsula after finishing high school.
“Once I left school I really wanted to try choreographing,” she said.
“There wasn’t really a course or company which would allow me to make the big, crazy performances I had in my mind.
“So I thought I’ll just make it myself.”
The company now has 40 dancers and Dellaportas has taken this year off university to concentrate on running it.
She choreographed Shatter with the help of orchestra conductor Joseph Lallo, while Melbourne-based designer Tamara Keane created the dancers’ costumes.
