WORK IN PROGRESS SHOWING
Temperance Hall Front Studio Resident Oliver Savariego presents a new solo work-in-progress, Slapdash.
Slapdash is a choreographic collage of stolen materials, and a personal processing of influence and context. The work rips, crumples, cuts, shoves, layers and smashes together movement materials sourced from Oliver's experiences and inspirations in dance. Leaning into inherent tensions in appropriative practices, choreography is corrupted through recollection, iteration, translation and digitisation, and definition between materials is smudged intentionally by their new, heavy handed author. Violence turns inward, and choreographic demands progressively shed layers of confidence, revealing a vulnerable, fallible person underneath the veil of performance object.
CREATED AND PERFORMED BY Oliver Savariego
PERFORMERS Oliver Savariego and Robert Downie
SOUND Robert Downie
DRAMATURG Marcus McKenzie
STUDIO CONSULTANT Rikia Bell
ARTISTS STOLEN FROM Andrew Treloar, Angela Goh, Anne-Marie May, Antony Hamilton, Atlanta Eke, Babette Mangolte, Boris Charmatz, Charlie Lee, Darren Gill, Deanne Butterworth, Dinu Corminboeuf, Eero Aarnio, Gemma Sattler, Gideon Obarzanek, Harrison Ritchie-Jones, Isadora Duncan, Jeff Busby, Jessica Goodfellow, Jo Lloyd, Julianne Moore, Justin Bieber, Kylie Minogue, Lee Osmond, Loie Fuller, Luci Young, Lucy Guerin, Lucy Guerin, Marcus McKenzie, Melanie Lane, Melati Suryodarmo, Michel Gondry, Molly McKenzie, Nana Bilus Abaffy, Oliver Savariego, Paul Thomas Anderson, Peter Rosetsky, Phillip Adams, Pina Bausch, Rafael Bonachela, Rebecca Jensen, Renata Sorrah, Rikia Bell, Robert Downie, Sandra Parker, Sarah Aiken, Shelley Lasica, Stuart Shugg, Trisha Brown, William Forsythe, Yvonne Rainer
DATE & TIME
Friday 1st May, 7 pm
LOCATION
Temperance Hall, Main Hall
199 Napier Street, South Melbourne
DURATION
50 minutes, followed by a post-show Q&A with the artist
ACCESSIBILITY
Temperance Hall's Main Hall is wheelchair accessible, there will be limited seating and audience movement throughout the showing.
CONTENT WARNINGS flashing lights, coarse language, references to violence, partial nudity
TICKETS
Pay what you can. Register here.
Oliver Savariego is a Temperance Hall Front Studio Resident for 2026.
Temperance Hall's Front Studio Residency offers six independent artists an artist stipend and two months of exclusive, unrestricted access to the Front Studio at Temperance Hall. At the conclusion of their residencies, artists present a public showing of their work in development, and receive professional photographic documentation.
The 2026 Front Studio Residency has been supported by the Neilson Foundation, the City of Port Phillip, and private donors.
OLIVER SAVARIEGO is a dancer and choreographer based in Naarm/Melbourne. His work questions and queers aesthetic values within dance, blends “high” and “low“ art and examines the lines between inspiration, reference and appropriation. He has been exploring transgressive choreographic perspectives since graduating from VCA in 2017, creating “Untitled” with Stuart Shugg in residence at Bennignton College, performing at Weisacres in New York City, and “Surface Area” with Chloe Arnott at Prahran Skate Park. He developed an online installation “Creche” in 2021, which was reworked for live performance in 2023 at Dancehouse. He is currently working on “Slapdash”, a solo work of choreographic collage, developed in residency at Lucy Guerin Inc.
Oliver has collaborated extensively within the Australian dance community. He is currently working with Lucy Guerin Inc, has performed with Phillip Adams Balletlab, Tasdance and Sydney Dance Company, and has worked with independent artists Shelley Lasica, Jo Lloyd, Melanie Lane, Sandra Parker, Harrison Ritchie Jones among many others. He is a proud collaborator in award winning projects, notably Phillip Adam’s Triptych which received 2023 Green Room Award for Best Ensemble, and Sandra Parker’s “Safehold”, winning the 2024 Green Room Award for Best Choreography.
Image credit courtesy of the artist, Oliver Savariego
