In Conversation With Rising’s Hannah Baker and Gideon Obarzanek

Rising returns from June 1 to 16. This year’s iteration is its longest yet, with a packed program of performance, music and art taking over central Melbourne.

Rising co-artistic directors (and co-CEOs) Hannah Baker and Gideon Obarzanek joined us on the podcast this week to talk about combining art forms in unexpected ways. They chat about a dance show set to transform the Immigration Museum, and the Shouse concert you don’t want to miss.

On bringing various art forms together

Baker: “The program is quite heavily focused around Melbourne Town Hall this time. We’ve got a number of venues that sit around that – the Capitol Theater, Max Watt’s House of Music – as well as extending out to the Arts Precinct and beyond. But in the Town Hall, on the central weekend, we’ve got a program called Day tripper. And that really is about handing the reins to us to curate a day out for you. It’s a mixture of music, dance, visual art (and) film, all happening across a city block under one single ticket.

It’s about trying to bring those art forms together. I think that’s what Rising does that’s quite different from many other festivals. Being able to see contemporary dance, right up against Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) or Asha Puthli, an Indian disco diva. So there’s that mixture of known quantities and a sense of discovery as well.”

On showcasing dance in unexpected spaces

Obarzanek: “Chunky Move has a new show, You Beauty, and I think what’s really extraordinary about this experience is that you’re invited into an inflatable with the dancers. So you’re like a fly on the wall, inside this very strange and intimate world. That’s (happening)in the Immigration Museum. I think that is one of the exciting things about the festival – you can see things that are somewhat familiar, but in a very different light.

Melanie Lane, another great choreographer, is doing a new work, Arcadia, at the Substation. And Lucy Guerin Inc is doing a new, intimate work called One Single Action. It’s really fantastic; two extraordinary performers, and a hammer and glass sphere. I won’t tell you… you can guess what might be happening in this show.”

On Shouse’s thousand-person, interactive concert

Baker: “They’ve got this project called Communitas, and it’s about bringing people together to be part of making music. It’s this decentralized idea of ​​music making. Originally, in churches and cultural festivals, there wasn’t such a clear line between performer and audience –in the folk tradition, everyone’s involved.

They’re trying to bring that kind of spirit, by building this traveling music school. They’re working with kids and families all over the city to build up this concert that will take place in St Paul’s Cathedral on the last weekend. There’ll be around 1000 people involved in that, and absolutely everyone is in the band. Everyone wants to be part of that music-making experience. They’re going to record that concert and then split the proceedings with everyone who participates. It’s quite a radical and generous idea.”