Alexandra Harrison
Virginia Baxter
Rowan Marchingo and Alexandra Harrison
photo Daniel Bereholak
Rowan Marchingo and Alexandra Harrison
Alexandra Harrison performs with Legs on the Wall around Australia and internationally, including the Canadian co-production Flying Blind touring nationally in October-November. We first spotted her singular creativity in 2 works (Knots and Diffusion) which she wrote, directed and performed at B-Sharp 2001-2002. She also co-created Together which she performed with Rowan Marchingo. She is currently working with Legs on Eora Crossing, directed by Wesley Enoch, and Cloak of Feathers with Chris Drummond. Harrison was studying Anthropology at Macquarie University when she was waylaid by a 2-week workshop in acrobatics “just to keep me sane” and was hooked. Before this she had lived for a time in Canada where she lied her way into a dance-theatre intensive that gave her a new respect for bodies and articulation. Now she just wants to find as many ways as possible to communicate, to make movement meaningful and on the way, work out how to live, how to stay sane in the world. “I’m obsessive…don’t relax easily ….You have to figure out how to live, how to eat, how to stop yourself from being perpetually pissed-off—getting incensed at the waste when some poor waiter offers you a straw in a restaurant! And what the fuck can art do when nobody in Australia sees it.” She finds Australia a pretty embarrassing place to be at the moment. “What is happening? Everyone is complaining but nobody is doing anything.” Harrison’s at exploration stage, working on a new solo about sleep and narcolepsy with theatre director/writer Michael Piggott which we’ll hopefully get to see at B Sharp in 2004. Alexandra Harrison is an edgy, sexy and very skilled performer and choreographer who likes working in physical theatre, creating her own pieces while contributing to the development of Legs’ work. “Unlike a lot of forms, physical theatre is still undefined. So there’s space for someone like me and my ideas…The fact that it’s growing and unsure of itself makes it more exciting.”
RealTime issue #57 Oct-Nov 2003 pg. 13
