The Thing I want – Prologue

For the Immigration Museum, we collaborated with acclaimed Australian choreographer and dancer Shelley Lasica to create ‘The Thing I Want – Prologue’, a dance film initially presented as a 20-metre-wide video installation as part of ‘Dance Reel’, curated by Amrita Hepi and Zoe Theodore.

Lasica’s practice explores the possibilities of choreography beyond the traditional stage, often bringing dance into galleries and other spaces where movement can be experienced in new ways. We worked closely with Shelley to translate this approach into film, creating a work designed specifically for the scale and setting of the museum.

The film was conceived as a large-scale experience, with the choreography and camera working closely together to capture the subtle relationships between bodies, movement and space. The enormous projection allowed the dancers to be encountered at an imposing scale, surrounding audiences with the physicality of the performance.

Our collaboration with Shelley demonstrates our approach to dance film and cultural filmmaking, working directly with artists to develop moving-image works that extend their practice and can live within an exhibition environment.

Presented as part of Dance Reel at the Immigration Museum, the project brought together choreography, film and large-scale projection to give audiences a new way of experiencing Shelley Lasica’s work.