The Farm

 

“The Farm is one of the following:

a) a reality competition television franchise that originated in Sweden

b) a CIA training facility near Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S

c) a contemporary dance-theatre company located on the Gold Coast with roots in Berlin

d) a song by Aerosmith

If you guessed any choice other than c) then you are probably in the wrong place…”

“Sometimes brash, always bold and insightful, The Farm’s contemporary performances shows a unique ability to connect with anyone, from dance aficionados to theatre virgins, and has been described as the ‘gateway drug to contemporary performance’. Our company is built on a choreographic legacy that spans 20 years.” - About The Farm

Gavin Webber

Gavin is one of the Artistic Directors of The Farm, a company based on the Gold Coast, whose work has been described as the gateway drug to contemporary dance.

He started dancing late after many lost years spent hitch-hiking, skiing, writing, camping and studying. Eventually he decided to make art instead and joined Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre and following that, Belgian company Ultima Vez.

Throughout his career Gavin has worked between Australia and Europe and was Artistic Director of Dancenorth from 2005 to 2009. He took the company from regional Australia to national and international touring and then left for Europe once again to join PVCtanz in Germany. He has been nominated twice for a Helpmann Award, was awarded the Sidney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award in 2017 and had a sandwich named after him at Lucia’s Coffee shop in Adelaide in the 1990’s.

In 2018 The Farm won a Helpmann for TIDE, in 2019 a Drover’s Award for Cockfight and in 2020 an Ausdance award for TIDE. Gavin still writes, camps and studies but the hitch-hiking and skiing are over for the time being at least.

Kate Harman

Kate Harman is an Australian dancer and choreographer. Her work orients around the notion of the body as a container for personal, genetic, and cultural memory, an archive of sorts, containing limitless realms of possibilities. Her practice, at its core, looks to relieve the dancers and the audiences bodies from the constraints built by political, cultural and aesthetic hierarchies. 

Influence from her years working in Germany within mixed genres has resulted in her work taking various forms (performance, installation, durational performance and participatory works made with young people and amateurs).  She is a founding member of Gold Coast company The Farm and with them has created the works Cockfight, The Ninth Wave, and Helpmann Award winning TIDE.

Her practice currently focuses on the notions of authenticity and connection, in the context of performance. This is focused through a view of the body as a container of histories and stored experiences both personal, genetic and socio-cultural. 

Kate completed her training at QUT and has worked as a collaborator and performer with La Boite Theatre Company, Dancenorth, PVCtanz (Germany), KLARA theatre (Switzerland), David Pledger and Ochre Dance Company. 

Her individual works and those with The Farm, She is driven by a desire to connect to anyone, from dance and theatre virgins to aficionados and professionals. 

Her works have been presented nationally and internationally in the contexts such as Dance Massive, Darwin Festival, Bleach Festival, Supercell Dance Festival, Festival 2018 (for the Commonwealth Games) The United Kingdom through Dance Touring Partnership, and GAM, Chile..

 

Join Gavin & Kate for “Collaboration in Choreographic Practice” at QDEC23

Workshop description

In this discussion/presentation we will celebrate The Farm’s collaborative way of working to inspire people to be part of something greater than themselves. This is not just a creative practice but a way of being in the world. We will talk about how we do it, why we love it and acknowledge the difficulties we face in a world that asks you to “be your own brand”. Using examples from a number of collaborations over 25 plus years, and the experience of creating with young people as part of our Greenhouse Youth Ensemble, we’ll dive into the way we work together and answer the ultimate farming question: who the hell runs this thing?

Ausdance Queensland