• Australian Government / Australia Council for the Arts
  • Brisbane Powerhouse Arts

“Athletic choreographic display… his performance is visceral.” The West Australian (for SDS1)

Ahilan Ratnamohan presents DRILL

Tue 23 Feb 12:45pm - 1:45pm

60 minutes Concert Hall, QPAC All Ages

Sweaty machismo gets a poetic makeover when art and sport collide.

Three athletes meet in a late-night, never-ending training session. A form of non-competitive competition unfolds before the audience. This is Ahilan Ratnamohan’s Drill, an exploration of the choreographic potential of athletic movement and training, a raw, stripped-back endeavour to transcend all human athletic capabilities and an attempt to find the perfect meeting point between art and sport.

It's like a football match, except strange things start to happen. It's like a dance, except there's no soundtrack and no dancers. There's no story, but there are lots of micro-narratives. Sweaty machismo gets a poetic makeover as sprinting, jumping, turning, pivoting, falling and accelerating merge in an undefinable training sequence that revels in exhausted euphoria. 

Image: Philippe Smets

 

Meet the artist

Ahilan Ratnamohan

Ahilan Ratnamohan is a performance-maker working with unorthodox forms and inspired by sport, film and language. After completing a film degree at Sydney’s University of Technology, he attempted to make a career as a professional footballer in Europe and since 2007 has been creating physical performance pieces.

He divides his time between Australia, working with diverse Sydney-based companies and artists, and Belgium. In 2013 he made his directorial debut with Michael Essien I want to play as you..., which has since toured extensively in Europe including to LIFT in 2014. Other works includeSDS1 and Star Boy Productions.

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