Wanna Dance - City People

In 2021, City People produced a COVID-safe opportunity for dance in our urban landscapes.

Wanna Dance is an interactive art installation that invites everyone to bring the city to life through art, music and dance.

A collaboration between some of Sydney’s leading designers, sound artists, choreographers and dancers, Wanna Dance enabled people to dance in our public spaces and reactivate our city.

Emma Saunders, Yee-Li Tee and Feras & Friends (image Anna Kucera)

Protruding from the rear of a heritage building in a Haymarket laneway were three exhaust vents unlike anything ever seen. Lights and sound from these brightly coloured vents beckoned passers-by closer. People stepped under a vent, the lights swirled to action, the music swelled and the laneway became a COVID-safe dance zone.

With music curated by one of Sydney’s best music programmers Tyson Koh (Loose Joints, FBi Radio), the soundtrack commenced each day with a meditation before roaming through various genres of dance music from around the world into the night, encouraging workout sessions, ballroom step-throughs, nightclub fantasies or whatever the listener desired.

Wanna Dance also featured six nights of curated dance performances and demos by some of Sydney’s most exciting new dance artists.

Yee-Li Tee and Feras & Friends (image Anna Kučera)

Awards

Select Media Coverage

Channel 9 News: 6 June 2021

Arts Friday 19 June 2021

Creative Team

For Wanna Dance City People assembled a team of artists and producers who have a demonstrated commitment to the public life of our cities. We are all creative practitioners who have extensive careers making the highest quality arts and cultural projects that largely take place in the public domain.

Many of us actively brainstormed together during August 2020 about how arts and culture can connect us in the public domain during COVID-19 and beyond. Download the report that City People wrote about that here. Wanna Dance brings that knowledge, experience and commitment together so that city lives can re-emerge, be revitalised and our communities reconnected.

Concept: Michael Cohen, Chris Fox and Emma Saunders

Creative Producer: Michael Cohen (City People)
Designers: Studio Chris Fox
Music Curator: Tyson Koh
Dance Curator: Emma Saunders
Dance Artist Lead: Feras Shaheen
Fabricator: Horne Art Studio
A/V Programming: Dan Nimmo
Technical Coordinator and Sound Design: Eugene Ward (City People)

Featured Performances
Feras & Friends
We Are Here
The Westies Crew
C+ Dance

Dr Michael Cohen

Michael is a highly accomplished developer of innovative, creative and compelling cultural programmes in urban landscapes. Michael’s extensive experience in place activation and management has involved diverse urban arts initiatives in Australia’s leading destinations. For eight years Michael was the Creative Producer at Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority where he led the development of major public arts initiatives and activation programme revitalisation for two of Australia’s most visited destinations: Darling Harbour and The Rocks. To this project Michael brings not only his skills as a curator and producer, but he brings a unique track record as an implementer of cultural projects within local and state government and within the arts and cultural sector. This includes major installations such as The Rocks Firewater (2009-10), The Rocks Windmill (2013) and Nomanslanding (2015-17). A founding director of Sydney’s Theatre Kantanka, Michael also has extensive experience in creating independent site-based works. Recent examples include The Bundanon Medieval (Siteworks 2017) and An Intimate Soirée (Panama Festival 2018).

Chris Fox

Chris is an artist and founder of Studio Chris Fox whose work bridges the disciplines of art, architecture and construction. Fox holds degrees in both fine arts and architecture and has been the recipient of many awards, grants and residencies such as the 2018 National Trust Heritage Award for the Most Outstanding Project of the Year. He is a Senior Lecturer in Art Processes and Architecture at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. He has exhibited in numerous solo, group and collaborative exhibitions in Australia, the USA and Europe, with an established sculptural practice of large scale public and private commissioned artworks; including recent projects ‘Interchange Pavilion’ (2020) for Mirvac at South Eveleigh and ‘Interloop’ (2017) for Transport for NSW at Wynyard Station.

Emma Saunders

Emma Saunders has been described as a “formidable” (Realtime, 2010) Australian dance artist who works as an award-winning director, dancer, choreographer, educator and curator. Emma is a co-founding member of the award-winning Sydney based trio, The Fondue Set, alongside Jane McKernan and Elizabeth Ryan, who have created 10 full length works including Green Room Award-winning No Success Like Failure presented at the Sydney Opera House (2008) and Dance Massive, Arts House (2009). In January 2020, she directed the large scale new work ENCOUNTER, commissioned by FORM Dance Projects and Sydney Festival – an outdoor site specific work involving 16 dancers and the 52 piece live Western Sydney Youth Orchestra made for Parramatta Park and the Four Winds Festival site (it was recently announced that ENCOUNTER has been shortlisted for an Australian Dance Award).

Tyson Koh

Tyson is a music curator that has been making a mark in Sydney for over fifteen years. Since 2008, he has hosted the popular FBi Radio show ‘Loose Joints’ as well as other programs on 2SER and 2MBS. Tyson was the producer of the ABC’s iconic music video program ‘rage’ for nearly eight years. He has worked as a programmer for events including the Commonwealth Games, FIBA World Basketball Championships, Sydney Festival and the Sydney Biennale. As a DJ he has played to both sweaty back rooms across town and large audiences at events such as the Big Day Out and Fuzzy’s Parklife. Tyson is also the founder and director of the Keep Sydney Open campaign.

Bujwak

Bujwak is an integrative art, design and fabrication studio led by Creative Directors Edward Horne and Charlotte Haywood. The studio works in artwork fabrication and installation, street furniture and public artworks, pop-up activation, and set, prop and costume design for film, television and performance. Some of their clients include the Biennale of Sydney, DARK MOFO, Splendour in the Grass, Sydney Festival, Sculpture by the Sea and the Commonwealth Games.

Eugene Ward

Eugene is a researcher with City People and a composer. For Wanna Dance he’s providing the tech coordination for the sound and light elements of the project. As a music producer he has previously been invited to collaborate on programs with organisations such as Sydney Opera House, Vivid, Information and Cultural Exchange and De Quincey Co. Eugene’s previous tech coordination includes sound design and installation for De Quincey Co as well as for outdoor performances by choreographer Patric Kuo.