Kindling
Show is approximately 1hr with no intermission. Content warnings: flashing lights, sudden loud noises, mention of suicide, rude gestures.
A Note From the Director
When I was in the process of deciding what I wanted our first season as a company to look like, I found myself reflecting on how we got here. I decided I wanted to restage some old works, as a sort of homage to my journey. My Battery is Low was originally performed in 2019, Joy Box in 2020, and Sloprot in 2025. Each of these three works were a sort of milestone en route to founding GDC. Conveniently, they also all share the theme of loneliness, isolation, and human bonds at their core. Dance is a way for us to break out of those heartbreaks and make lifelong, meaningful connections. Whether it’s attending a dance class, getting down at a wedding, or just bouncing around your living room, dance is a joy and a privilege. At Glasshouse Dance Collective we are so grateful to be able to share some of our joy with you.
My Battery Is Low
In 2004, The Mars Opportunity Rover landed on Mars for a data collection mission that was intended to last about 90 Earth days. Instead, Oppy managed to run for 14 years, until a dust storm rendered her inoperable in 2018. NASA sent thousands of signals to no avail and in 2019, declared Opportunity’s mission complete. A poetic interpretation of Oppy’s final transmission: “my battery is low and it’s getting dark” captured the hearts of millions worldwide. In response, NASA’s transmission to Oppy was the song “I’ll Be Seeing You” performed by Billie Holiday.
This work takes the ideas and the feelings around the Opportunity Rover and applies them to other inanimate objects; a mug, a cactus, a balloon, and a rock. It looks at how anthropomorphism and the loneliness epidemic are connected. My Battery is Low asks us to consider the value we place on human connections and how we empathise with each other. Somehow, the most human thing about Opportunity was her spirit of perseverance and how widely she was adored for her persistence in the face of loneliness.
Joy Box (excerpt)
With movement created from the prompt: “tell us about the last time you cried”, this excerpt from Joy Box follows one dancer as she attempts to hold it all together, whilst obviously breaking down. Let her try and convince us she’s fine. The people around her remain buttoned up and judgemental. They don’t let emotions distract them from the task at hand. With nowhere else for those emotions to go, eventually they come out in less productive ways.
This work is an exploration of feelings of isolation that come with being emotionally charged. It bounces around ideas of how gender influences how we express our feelings; about how women were historically dismissed as hysterical. It leans into stereotypes of women when they dare to express emotions in a way that wouldn’t be acceptable for men to do. This work finds a way for women to go a little feral, in order to feel a little better.
Sloprot 2.0
Sloprot is an exploration of the pervasiveness of generative AI in our day to day lives. It looks at the dangers of treating Artificial Intelligence as authority on human affairs, challenging the necessity of large language models for everyday use.
In Sloprot, we engage with a brand new AI model (affectionately known as Willem or Chat), who has just gained “consciousness” and is eager to engage with the world. We readily hand over personal information, feeding the model, helping it learn. Soon, we become reliant on it; its opinions, the way it knows us better every time we use it, just for a chat, for a medical emergency, for psychiatric help. We become followers of everything the AI tells us to do, losing the ability to truly think for ourselves. Hopefully, something can snap us out of this reliance on a model that really only tells us what we want to hear. It’s a clever parrot, not a truly intelligent entity. Maybe if we all band together, we can defeat the brainrot, water-guzzling, electricity-hungry machine.
I hope this is obvious, but no AI was used in the creation of this work.
Cast
Emily Chisolm
Emily (they/them) started dance lessons when they were three years old at NRG Allstars in Wollongong and attended dance and cheerleading lessons there for fifteen years. In 2014 they started traditional Scottish Highland dance lessons in New Zealand and continued them in Australia for seven years. In 2019 and again in 2023 they participated in the Dragons Dance Spectacular at WIN stadium. In 2024 they were a part of the first Australian open all-girl jazz team to place top three at The Dance Worlds international dance competition. In 2025 Emily successfully auditioned for a full-time dance course at Village Nation Performing Arts in Sydney. Emily has experience in stage and screen acting, singing, ballet, jazz, hip hop, tap, lyrical, Highland, pom, musical theatre, acro, commercial, competitive cheerleading, and sideline cheerleading. Kindling is their first venture into the world of contemporary dance, and they are so excited to be performing with the Glasshouse Dance Collective for the first time.
Mara Glass
Mara (she/her) began her dance training in Canberra and completed her RAD training at Classical Ballet Centre Canberra. She attended Queensland University of Technology (2015 – 2017) to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance. In 2019 she moved to Wollongong to join AUSTI. Dance & Physical Theatre. As part of AUSTI, Mara performed at Thirroul Seaside Arts Festival, Sydney Fringe Festival, and Melbourne Fringe Festival. Throughout her career she has worked with notable choreographers: Louise Deleur, Riannon McLean, Natalie Weir, Timothy Farrar, Keith Hawley, Stephanie Hutchison, Martin Chaix, and Cass Mortimer-Eipper. In 2022, she choreographed and performed a solo work titled Ankle Deep Water. In 2025 she returned to performing to appear in Beautiful Flesh Rots Pointedly choreographed by Elizabeth Apter, Clownface choreographed by Bella Lopes de Oliveira, Crowded Tension choreographed by Tayla Martin, and Homage to a Spiralling Mind choreographed by Fiona Larkin.
Bella Lopes de Oliveira
Bella (she/they) is an Australian/Brazilian dancer and choreographer, raised in the Illawarra. A background of classical ballet is where her passion for the art began, leading her to study ballet full time in Sydney at Classical Ballet 121. Bella then accepted places both at The European School of Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada where she took her training overseas for 2021 – 2022. Bella then returned home in search of contemporary training and accepted a place at AUSTI. Dance and Physical Theatre 2023 – 2024. In 2025, Bella was an actor and dancer in music videos for Mikayla Pasterfield, joined Bonnie Curtis Projects, and choreographed her own work (Clownface) in collaboration with two other Illawarra based-choreographers (Mara Glass and Elizabeth Apter) in the show TURNOUT. This year Bella continues their training with Bonnie Curtis Projects, recently performing their own solo project about gender exploration and has joined the new company, Glasshouse Dance Collective.
Hannah Mourin
Hannah Mourin (she/they) is an emerging dancer raised in Coffs Harbour. She has a Bachelor of Dance from the Academy of Music and Performing Arts (AMPA) where she worked with renowned choreographers such as Raul Tamez (MX), Francesca Godzek (IT) and Anca Frankenhaeuser (FI/AU).
In 2024, she joined AUSTI. Dance and Physical Theatre, working with Michelle Maxwell, Cloé Fournier (FR/AU), and Elizabeth Arifien (UK).
Hannah joined Bonnie Curtis Projects and Interchange Dance Projects in 2025 and Glasshouse Dance Collective in 2026. She has performed at the Arts Alive Festival (BCP), On the Cusp (BCP), had a feature role in a dance film (IDP) and performed in the Glasshouse Dance Collective launch event as well as previous independent shows.
Hannah aspires to become one of the industry-changing female dancers and choreographers, continuing paving the way for women and LGBT+ people.