Melbourne loves to claim it's the cultural capital of Australia but the truth is many of the city's stages and galleries are whitewashed.
This summer, however, our biggest arts institutions open their doors to performers and artists from Papua New Guinea to Pakistan, in the first Asia Triennial of Performing Arts.
From the post-war Japanese dance of Butoh to China's square dancing, it's a great opportunity to step outside the anglo-centric gaze and experience traditional and new art forms.
Asia TOPA's creative director Stephen Armstrong says the length and breadth of the festival – already under way and running into April – means it will be "impossible" for regular Melbourne arts patrons "not to be touched by Asia TOPA" simply by going to their favourite venues.
"We didn't want to put a limit on it," Armstrong says. "All of the works, we're not programming them [just] because they're from Asia ... The works themselves are original, entertaining, dynamic, confronting and beautiful, and communicating that is more important than guaranteeing [specific festival] dates."
The result is a program rich in history and diversity, with works both rooted in ancient tradition and with a contemporary twist. Many of the works are premiering and have been curated by the festival.
Here are our picks to help you navigate the program.
Born to Butoh
![Takao Kawaguchi performs?About Kazuo Ohno, a tribute to the great Butoh master, at Dancehouse as part of the inaugural Asia TOPA 2017.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170130043824im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/z/t/h/u/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1485478296941.png)
Takao Kawaguchi. Photo: Takuya Matsumi
The underground dance art of Butoh is just as powerful and shocking today as it was in Japan in the 1960s. While it has its roots in Japanese myth and traditional art forms, Butoh broke social taboos with sexually explicit content, the dancers wearing (if anything) ghoulish robes with their skin painted white. Originally called the "dance of darkness", the subversive art captured the horror of war with terrifying facial expressions and eerie, puppet-like movements.
The inaugural Asia TOPA presents not one but two Butoh events: Dancehouse's About Kazuo Ohno, where Takao Kawaguchi recreates the dances of the original Butoh master Kazuo Ohno; and Evocation of Butoh, a mini-festival of contemporary, short Butoh dances from Australian, Japanese, Malaysian and British artists.
About Kazuo Ohno, Takao Kawaguchi, Dancehouse, February 25 and 26.
Evocation of Butoh, Helen Smith/Yumi Umiumare/Tony Yap/Yumiko Oshioka, La Mama Courthouse, March 11 and 12.
China's many faces
![National Ballet of China's 1964 propaganda ballet The Red Detachment of Women is on at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, as part of the inaugural Asia TOPA 2017.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170130043824im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/z/r/1/g/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1485474736890.png)
Enduring legacy: The Red Detachment of Women. Photo: Supplied
Two very different dance events out of China reflect the use of art as both a propaganda tool and a way for communities to come together.
The National Ballet of China's The Red Detachment of Women is a cultural icon for the ages. President Nixon saw the show, about women in the Red Army, during his 1972 visit to China. Regardless of your views on Communism and propaganda, it's a must-see for the sheer fact you'll never again witness ballerinas leaping daintily in military shorts with machine guns.
Chinese square dancing, performed in city squares across China, goes back millennia but has been revived in recent decades as a cheap form of social exercise. More than 100 million people around the world are believed to practice it – including outside Melbourne Museum. The museum invites members of the public to come along and try it out in a free group lesson.
In theatre, award-winning Australian playwright Lachlan Philpott has teamed up with experimental Chinese director Wang Chong for the premiere of a new, bilingual work, Little Emperors, exploring the effects of China's One Child Policy on a whole generation.
And in visual arts, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art will be adorned in more than 50 neon signs from the streets of Beijing, in He An's electric Do You Think That You Can Help Her Brother?.
![He An's?Do You Think That You Can Help Her Brother? is on at ACCA as part of the inaugural Asia TOPA 2017.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170130043824im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/z/t/x/4/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1485478927100.png)
Electric: He An. Photo: Supplied
The Red Detachment of Women, State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, February 15, 17 and 18.
Chinese Square Dancing, Melbourne Museum, February 25.
Little Emperors, Beckett Theatre, Malthouse, February 9 to 26.
Do You Think That You Can Help Her Brother?, ACCA, February 11 to April 23.
India sings
![The Manganiyar Classroom is on at the Melbourne Recital Centre as part of the inaugural Asia TOPA 2017.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170130043824im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/0/7/2/q/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1485493753779.png)
Talented young people share their music. Photo: Supplied
You probably know the song Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, but many Anglo-Aussies won't have heard of AR Rahman – even though he's kind of a big deal. Described as "the soundtrack for a whole generation" of Indians, he's written dozens of Bollywood film scores and sold millions of records. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra plays his back catalogue for one show only with a series of guest singers, including Rahman himself.
For something more grass roots, director Roysten Abel (The Manganiyar Seduction) returns with the music of Rajasthan's Manganiyar tribe, whose folk traditions have been passed down through generations. The musical theatre show The Manganiyar Classroom stars a troupe of rebellious boys who are supremely talented and adorable to boot.
The Music of AR Rahman, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, February 16.
The Manganiyar Classroom, Melbourne Recital Centre, March 6 and 7.
XO State
![Macho Dancer (Eisa Jocson) performs at the Arts Centre's XO State as part of the inaugural Asia TOPA 2017.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170130043824im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/z/q/t/w/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1485474458690.png)
Eisa Jocson as Macho Dancer. Photo: Giannina Urmeneta Ottiker
In 2015 the Arts Centre held Supersense, a festival of Asia-Pacific arts events that tested the waters for Asia TOPA. It transformed the State Theatre into an underground club that wowed audiences.
At Asia TOPA the concept returns in the form of XO State, a five-night extravaganza of rotating international performers, curated by Chunky Move founding director Gideon Obarzanek and Filipino choreographer-dancer Eisa Jocson.
The State Theatre auditorium will be empty as punters explore the transformed stage and backstage areas, experiencing acts from post-rock and South Korean folk fusion band Jambinai to Papua New Guinea's Rebel Musik, and Jocson herself performing as a "macho dancer" in her gender ambiguous take on the young men who dance on Manila's streets for cash.
Festival goers can buy tickets to the daily Dusk and Dark programs, with an additional Daylight program on the Saturday.
Xo State is on at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, February 22 to 26.
Also see
![Rosanna Raymond collaborates with artists from the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia in?Lukautim Solwara (look out for the ocean), at ACCA, as part of Asia TOPA 2017.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170130043824im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/z/5/7/o/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1485400185463.png)
Back to her roots: Rosanna Raymond. Photo: Sarah Walker
Next Wave presents Samoan-New Zealand artist Rosanna Raymond and a team of indigenous collaborators from Australia and the Pacific in Lukautim Solwara (Look Out for the Ocean). Raymond immerses the audience in ancient regalia – think smoking ceremonies and tribal headdresses – in a one-night-only celebration of dance, art and tradition, on February 17 at ACCA.
Singaporean-Australia duo Daniel Kok and Luke George adorn themselves not with feathers and shells but with macrame, in the experimental dance-theatre show Bunny. A reference to the nickname for a person tied with rope in bondage, there's a lot of playing around and tying knots with brightly coloured rope, wrapping and unravelling, and exploring themes of trust and consent. On February 2-5 at the Meat Market, North Melbourne and presented by Arts House.
And in cinema there's Satan Jawa, a silent film about a young man who does a deal with the devil for love, from the director described as Indonesia's Tarantino, Garin Nugroho. The score will be performed live by the MSO and a 20-strong traditional Gamelan ensemble on February 24 at Hamer Hall.
![Daniel Kok in Bunny.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170130043824im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/z/4/u/8/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1485399740061.png)
Daniel Kok in Bunny. Photo: Chris Frape
0 comments
New User? Sign up