Community Workshop lead by Alex Clouston of The Omega Point at Coburg Courthouse as part of 'I want to Dance with Somebody' artist residency program August 2025, featuring Chelsea Byrne.
PROPOSED WORKSHOPS
We will host three free workshops in the preceding weeks engaging community members in the themes of the work.
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These events are planned with the following aims: showcasing a provocative new work; engaging Merri-bek audiences in urgent contemporary issues including ecology, technology, and community; and establishing the Omega Point collective as a sustainable artistic endeavour into the future.
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The workshops invite participants to explore music, movement, creativity, and what it means to create in a time of global destruction. They will engage people from diverse backgrounds, fostering connection and skill-sharing between emerging and established artists, and involve participants in exploring humanity's relationship with its past, its future and the natural and artificial world.
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These workshops offer audiences a chance to engage with and reflect deeply on the themes of the work, how they relate to their own lives and how creative practice can be meaningful in a time of global upheaval. While they will stand apart from the performance, the workshops also have the aim of providing audiences with conceptual context for the performance. They will also enable audiences and performers to make deeper connections than would be possible in a purely performance-based context.
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Alex Clouston is a highly experienced workshop facilitator and is Creative Learning Facilitator at Arts Centre Melbourne, teaching and creating workshop programs for diverse young people and adults including people with disability and additional needs.
Art as Play
This workshop encourages participants to explore creativity through play, breaking down the idea that you need to be “skilled” or “serious” to make meaningful art. Through interactive exercises; including experimenting with Alex’s O'connel's sound rig, making music from found objects and fun and acccessible group theatre improvisation games and singing jam, participants will discover how curiosity and playful engagement can spark personal expression- facilitated by Alex O'Connell, Alex Clouston and Mark Conroy.
Art in Times of Crisis
Focusing on well-being and reflection, this session invites participants to explore the ethical, social, and personal dimensions of art-making during challenging times. Through creative writing, story-sharing exercises, and facilitated discussions, participants will consider the value of art in navigating historical, social, and personal crises, reflecting on how creativity can sustain and empower communities- lead by Mark Conroy.
Art as an embodied practice
This workshop emphasizes the connection between movement and voice. Participants will engage in warm-ups, vocal improvisation, and group exercises inspired by Meredith Monk’s methods to explore how physicality can generate sound, music, and expression. Facilitated by Alex Clouston the session encourages embodied experimentation and collaborative and playful performance.
All photos from the COMMUNE film, directed by Alex Clouston, this film will have it's premiere screening as part of this launch