2NDTOE
2NDTOE is the product of a thirst to create a platform that provides emerging professional artists the opportunity to make boundary pushing dance work. Through fusing 2NDTOE’s other interests in pop culture, film and street art, members contribute to all aspe cts of performance, developing essential skills in creating, producing and performing live work.
In 2005 Adam Wheeler began 2NDTOE with a group of dancers and received Maximised support from Chunky Move to begin making work. Shortly afterwards, Adam shifted his focus towards working with young emerging artists and in 2007 Frankie Snowdon, Ben Hancock, Tyler Hawkins and Madeleine Krenek joined the collective, followed by Jorijn Vriesendorp and James Andrews in 2009 and Sydney Smith in 2013. In January 2012 Frankie Snowdon become Co-Artistic Director alongside Adam.
2NDTOE has contributed to the development of contemporary dance by taking over the dance program at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar, and between them teaching and choreographing at numerous schools across Victoria. Schools include, Chunky Move, VCA, Danceworld, National Theatre Ballet School, Ballet Theatre Australia, The Edge, Patrick Studios Australia, South Eastern Academy of Dance and Ministry of Dance. 2NDTOE have also run large scale community dance projects for young people in the Northern Territory and in 2012, Adam started Victoria’s flagship youth dance company, Yellow Wheel.
Under the umbrella of 2NDTOE, members of the collective have made and performed in numerous works and curated events including “Something Blew Stage 1” (2009), “Private Parking” for Next Wave Festival (2009) and Nat Cursio Co. (2013), “Something Blew” (2010) and “FAMILY” (2013).
As well as this, the Collective have choreographed and performed in numerous smaller scale projects for The City of Melbourne, The Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Le Scratch, Harvest Music Festival and numerous music video’s for artists including Architecture in Helsinki, Lowlakes, Nicola Lester, Gossling, Mantra, 360, Golden Features and Owl Eyes.
2NDTOE: The Lost Dance Project - TLDP
2NDTOE’S latest instalment, The Lost Dance Project is a cross-disciplinary artwork examining our place as humans within the advancement of technology and, how this infantile relationship needs to be nurtured and expanded. Created within the streets of Melbourne, TLDP invites the public to become a part of something greater than their own experience
Images: Pippa Samaya
CREDITS
2NDTOE - The Lost Dance Project
Secret Location Melbourne
12 July 2014
Artistic Directors: Adam Wheeler and Frankie Snowdon
Performers: Benjamin Hancock, James Andrews, Frankie Snowdon, Madeleine Krenek & Sydney Smith
Producer: Kristy Ayre
Photography/Paste-up artwork: Byron Perry
Lighting Design: Matthew Adey aka House of Vnholy
Sound Design: Alisdair Macindoe
Costume Design: Shio Otani
Production Management: Julia Truong
Identity/brand design: James McDermid
VIDEO
WRITING
"The contemporary dance makers of the 2nd Toe Dance Collective are at it again. Their new experiment, The Lost Dance Project, is more than just a performance. Aiming to re-connect us with our city, with art and with each other, Lost Dance makes the most of our social media-driven society in a compelling and innovative way.
Head over to www.2ndtoe.com and take a look at the new website. Do it now – go on, I'll wait.
Mysterious, no? Here are some clues. 2nd Toe has hidden seven paste-ups around the city of Melbourne. To gain entry to the show, you need to find a paste-up. Each artwork has its own unique code; take that and enter it on The Lost Dance Project website. You'll then receive an exclusive invitation to the pilot performance, held in a secret location on Saturday, July 12.
I'm psyched just writing about this. It's like a treasure hunt. And the best part? It's absolutely free!
For more information and up-to-date clues, follow 2nd Toe at www.facebook.com/2ndtoe, Instagram #2ndtoe or Twitter @2ndtoe.
Since gaining much-needed funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, City of Melbourne and the Besen Foundation, the collective has been busy bringing its imaginative idea to life. Now at the pointy end of the development, the creators have spent 12 weeks executing their well-laid plans.
After spending time in the studio generating choreography for a short dance work, they hit the streets of Melbourne to engage in location rehearsals.
“These council-approved ‘lost’ spaces act as pop-up rehearsal venues,” says 2nd Toe Co-Founder Frankie Snowdon. “This allows both the general public to view small snippets of the work being brought to life, and for the existing studio material to be affected and adjusted to suit its new public locations.”
This project is a pilot version of a larger experiment. “We needed people to interact with the artworks and social media in order to find out whether it will work and what needs to change,” Snowdon explains.
The Lost Dance Project invites people to become part of something “much larger than their own experience.”
Get involved with this unique experiment by searching for those hidden paste-ups in the city!."
2NDTOE 'TheLost Dance Project'
PASTE UP IMAGES
2NDTOE - Family
FAMILY is a collection of dance solo works by 2ndToe Dance collective that explore notions and concepts of family on a universal scale. Each piece pulls apart and examines how each artist has been influenced and shaped by his or her own experiences. Audience members are invited into an active exchange comprising all things fundamentally enjoyable and important about being surrounded by other Folk. Watch, eat, drink and share this special event.
CREDITS
2NDTOE - Family
Revolt Artspace
28 August - 1 Setember 2013
Choreographer/Performers: Benjamin Hancock, Frankie Snowdon, James Andrews, Madeleine Krenek
Artistic Directors: Adam Wheeler
Producer: Kristy Ayre
VIDEO
2NDTOE - Something Blew
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something BLEW.
Something Blew invites us to examine the current socio-climate, which allows perversity, sexual confusion and shallow respect in companionship to alienate and abuse one of our primary needs, LOVE.
CREDITS
2NDTOE - Something Blew
Selected Works Season
Theatre Works St Kilda
27 October - 6 November 2010
Direction and Choreographt: Adam Wheeler and dancers
Performers: Benjamin Hancock, Frankie Snowdon, James Andrews, Madeleine Krenek, Tyler Hawkins, Emily Ranford, Rebecca Jensen, Adam Wheeler
Project Management: Moriarty's Project
Lighting Design: Rose Connors Dance
Sound Design: Alisdair Macindoe
Costume Design: Chloe Greaves
Dramaturge: Luke George
VIDEO
WRITING
"The last 2ndToe season at Theatre Works was a pro-am affair, with one half performed by the collective, the other performed by secondary students who worked with the pro dance-makers. The ‘pro’ piece was ambitious but overwrought and messy. The ‘Am’ stuff, while simple, was disciplined and powerful.
After the jump is my Herald Sun review of the latest season, Something Blew... cos Luke George asked so nicely. I probably should add, up front, that the season is now closed, so don’t get your hopes up.
Something Blew -- a revised version of a piece first seen last year -- sees 2ndToe at its absolute best. There’s a real sophistication in the staging, and evidence of an instinctive and exciting theatrical imagination. It’s an hour-long physical theatre piece about hooking up, making out and breaking up; about love, sex, commitment and its death...
It begins with a barefoot bride (Emily Ranford) standing in an elaborate white dress, complete with veil and train. The elegant bridal party stands in a line against the wall behind her. Over the next several minutes the bride is cling-wrapped. Mummified. Turned into a cocoon. It’s an often-seen gimmick of late, but it works miraculously well here. First the gentle movement of the bride’s fingertips is restricted then, eventually, everything except her breathing is stopped.
The piece then fractures into spin-off stories -- from past and future -- perfect shards in a magnificently-lit kaleidoscopic whole. The metaphors are well calculated, both evocative and provocative.
Something Blew isn’t especially memorable choreographically, but the quality, intensity and unity in performance -- by the entire cast of eight -- more than compensates. It’s an extraordinary achievement from an indie company. Do see it."
Evocative and provocative: Something Blew by 2ndToe Dance Collective
Chris Boyd The Morning After 12 November 2010