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Gripping: A performance by Australian artists at the Hue Festival. — Photo courtesy of Australian Embassy |
HA NOI — Australian performing artists have been wowing audiences at this month's Hue Festival with music and physical theatre shows. The festival's highlights from Down Under include performances by composer Darrin Verhagen, an experimental theatrical show titled Fire Moves Away by a group of young artists from Sydney and fire dancing and physical theatre from The Carnival of the Divine Imagination performing arts troupe.
The Carnival of the Divine Imagination have been performing around Australia and across Asia for the past eight years. The troupe's new show, called Elixia, combines circus acts with an innovative visual style that includes costumes that glow in the dark thanks to UV lighting. Similar in style is the Fire Moves Away show, which offers audiences a chance to see some modern dance from Down Under.
Australian composer and musician Verhagen, who is a lecturer at the RMIT University in Melbourne, will dazzle festival-goers with a show of electronic music that combines modern sounds with multi-media visuals, including video art, a genre that's still relatively new to Viet Nam.
Australia will also showcase another aspect of its culture at the festival with the South Australia Wine and Food Show, which promotes links between the two festival cities of Hue and Adelaide.
Australia is proud to have left a distinct impression at each Hue Festival. In 2008, the Australian artistic group Wellspring worked with Hue artists to create Dragon and Phoenix, a large-scale sculptural work depicting two symbolic animals important to Vietnamese spiritual life.
At the 2006 festival, featured Australian contributions included sculptures by artist Clare Martin, a ground-breaking play A Story of a Kangaroo at the Huong River by Vietnamese-Australian director Le Quy Duong and the Wellspring production Two Dragons Playing with Lotus on the Huong River.
Australian ambassador Allaster Cox said he is proud to be introducing Australian artists to Vietnamese audiences at such a highly reputed festival.
"The Hue Festival has established a reputation already as Viet Nam's leading cultural event and we are pleased that this year's festival will feature a large Australian presence, furthering strengthening links between Hue and Australia," he said.
People hoping to see some of the Australian artists can still catch them at the festival. Elixia will be showing on Friday and Sunday at the An Dinh Palace, while Verhagen and the Fire Moves Away show will play the Hue City Cultural House tonight. — VNS