The Lobster

($20 Commissions Project)

Creator / Performer: Lisa Maris McDonell

Producer: Corey Zerna

The $20 Commissions Project and its performance offshoot, The Lobster asks:

What is an artist worth?

What does $20 worth of an artist's time look like?

How does $20 worth of an artist's time translate to artistic material?

To answer these questions, Proper Motion’s Lisa Maris McDonell approached choreographers from around the world and asked them to create a dance work worth $20 on her, a middle-aged mother of three from the suburbs of Wollongong.

The Lobster (after the Australian colloquial term for a twenty dollar note) is a show that weaves these $20 choreographies by some of Australia's most celebrated independent choreographers and choreographers from around the world (including the most in-demand female choreographer on the planet) with storytelling, video projection and $20 soundbites provided by professional musicians from the South Coast of NSW.

This is a performance that encourages audiences to consider the worth of artists and the arts within today’s world. It provides an opportunity for audiences to have an insight into the struggles of current day artists within a society that asks for everything to have a dollar value.

The Lobster and $20 Commissions Project have an accompanying webpage that outlines the process of receiving and realising the choreographers’ works.

https://www.propermotion.dance/projects/the-20-commissions-project

Creative Team

Creator / Performer: Lisa Maris McDonell

Producer: Corey Zerna

Lighting Design / Production Manager: Thomas Doyle

Choreographers: Anna Akabali (Turkey), Crystal Pite (Canada), Kay Armstrong (Australia), Lacina Coulibaly (Burkina Faso / USA), Henrietta Baird (Australia), Bubblez (Australia), Philip Connaughton (Ireland), Ryuichi Fujimura (Australia), Elizabeth Cameron Dalman (Australia), Gaby Hernandez (Mexico), WeiZen Ho (Australia), Helen Johnstone (Australia / UK), Ali Kenner Brodsky (USA), Lady Hart (Australia), Julie-Anne Long (Australia), Gabrielle Neuhaus (Israel), Meagan O’Shea (Canada), Nick Power (Australia), Annalouise Paul (Australia), Vivienne Rogis (Australia), Henry Torres Blanco (Mexico), Sue-Ellen Chester (Ireland), Susan Van Pelt Petry (USA), Emma Saunders (Aus)

Outside Eyes: Kay Armstrong, Drew Fairley

Music: $20 soundbites provided by professional musicians from the South Coast of NSW.

About Proper Motion

Proper Motion are based on the South Coast of NSW. Established during COVID lockdowns of 2020 during a time of crisis in the arts, Proper Motion was conceived to provide opportunity and visibility to regionally based dance artists and their projects. We aim to make world class work from a regional centre, giving audiences and communities from the NSW South Coast (and beyond) the opportunity to witness, experience and engage with contemporary dance making and performance. Proper Motion is of the belief that regional communities do not need to be “dumbed down” to in order to cater to their particular tastes when it comes to engaging with the arts. For this reason Proper Motion seek to uphold rigorous artistic exploration and experimentation within their practice and find unique and innovative ways to engage with and build regional audiences for dance. Proper Motion also aims to mentor and nurture new choreographic talent on the NSW South Coast. Established by Lisa Maris McDonell, whose experience and interests span choreography, performance, works for screen, therapeutic arts and Flamenco, Proper Motion endeavours to continue working across various modes of presentation and creation.

Proper Motion

About Lisa Maris McDonell

Lisa Maris McDonell is a dance artist whose practice embraces performance, choreography, video, sound, visual art and therapeutic dance. She is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Lisa has been creating and presenting performance works in various contexts in Australia and internationally for herself and professional performers since 1996.

Lisa's recent projects include Home Truths, supported and presented by Merrigong Theatre's Studio Sessions program. The work comprised of five solos for mature female performers, with video and original sound elements also created by McDonell. In early 2016 Lisa presented Five Kinds of Paradise at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre as part of CPAC's 2016 performance season. The work was the inaugural recipient of CPAC's GRID residency program with additional support from Tasdance and Arts NSW. A piece for five performers, the work included substantial video elements filmed in rural Tasmania. In 2017, Lisa was commissioned by Wollongong Art Gallery to create the durational work, Chamber Dances in response to the gallery's Bluescope Gallery space.

Lisa’s work for video has been featured and won prizes in film, dance and art festivals in Australia and internationally. She is a two time finalist of the Meroogal Women’s Art prize, with her video Women’s Work winning third prize in 2016. Her work Coal is Dead, saw her as a featured artist in the 2018 WomenCinemakers Berlin biennale edition.

In addition to her major performance works, in recent years Lisa has been involved in projects and residencies with Critical Path, De Quincey Co, Carriageworks, Big Ci, Tasdance, Sydney Living Museums, ReadyMade Works, Accessible Arts, Mirramu and Goulburn Regional Gallery. In 2018 Lisa was a finalist and recipient of a jury “special mention” in the first Competition for Mature Soloists under the umbrella of the Festival for International Contemporary Dance in Mexico City and in early 2020 Lisa travelled to Spain to participate in the Festival de Jerez with the assistance of an Ausdance Innovating Dance Practice grant.

Technical information

Running time 75 minutes
Touring party of 2
This work is designed for intimate black box style theatres but could be adapted for other spaces with suitable timber surfaced floor of minimum 9x6m.
Projector and sound system required (screen provided).
Provision for side light booms preferred.
Vision and sound provided via usb on the same file.
Full lighting plan available