Graham Jones

After working as a principal dancer with Ronne Arnold’s Contemporary Dance Company of Australia, 1968-1970, Graham joined the Ballet Rambert in London in the early seventies. He performed in works by Norman Morrice, Glenn Tetley, Lar Lubovitch and Christopher Bruce, and created several new pieces for the Company as one of its emerging choreographers. Following a period of study with Murray Louis, Merce Cunningham and Joyce Trisler in NY, Graham was inspired by the progressive winds of the Whitlam era to return to Sydney in 1975 and start his own company.

“Graham Jones’ “Cantate” I thought the most successful of all the works I have seen in this enterprising season. A danced Mystery Play which treats the events of Passion Week, it benefits from Christopher Bruce’s thrilling presence as Christ, from the quietly effective score by Michael Gibbs and - most of all - from a sureness and clarity of means and a sense of impetus in shaping its incidents.” (Clement Crisp, The Financial Times, London, 1973)

THE EARLY YEARS (1975-1984)

Kinetic Energy Dance Company was founded by Graham in May 1975, driven by his desire to express a contemporary artistic voice in a still young and culturally-cringing post-colonial Australia. He was inspired by uniquely Australian stories from the country’s history and emerging identity, and created an extensive body-of-work for his Company, with a team of associated visual artists and musicians, notably CONTRAPUN (music: Steven Levine), VISIONARY FIGURES and PAST CARIN’ (music:  Steven Levine, design: Merelyn Buzo), 3x3x3 and NIGHT CYCLE (design: Anthea Boesenberg), SKY (music: John Levine, design: Anthea Boesenberg), GALLERY DANCES (music: Mike Gibbs and James P Johnson, design: Charles Arnot and Merelyn Buzo), TWO VOICES (with poet Thomas Shapcott), INTERSECTIONS (music: Alister Spence, design: Lynda Holmes). Kinetic Energy opened the new Seymour Centre with a performance of Contemporary Dance at the York Theatre. They were resident there from 1975, until they moved to Liverpool Street in 1977, to establish the first Contemporary Dance warehouse studio in Sydney. There the Company ran classes, rehearsed, created, and presented informal performances. Some company members contributed new choreographies too, for example: Jane Pike, Mira Mansell, Shona Innes. The Company also pioneered site-specific events, notably at the Opera house, and in universities, colleges and public places. Public seasons were held at the Chapter House at St Andrews Cathedral, the Performance Space in Redfern, and at the Opera House. From 1978, the Company mounted annual seasons in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide, and toured to regional country centres, combining performances with residencies and workshops in schools, colleges and universities.

Desley Gardiner, writing in the December issue of Dance Australia, caught up with the company in September 1980 at the Cement Box Theatre in Brisbane: “Kinetic Energy are to be congratulated for the high standard of their work. Companies of this calibre are a must if modern dance in Australia is to develop and grow.”

In 1984, after seeing the company at the Open Stage in Melbourne, American dancer Lenny Choice wrote in the September issue of Dance Australia: “The work of the Kinetic Energy Dance Company is humanistic, intelligent and thoughtful. I enjoyed this company because of its strong individual identity, its quality of work and its fortitude in carrying on despite harsh financial difficulties.”

Jepke Goudsmit

After her studies at the Theatre Academy in Amsterdam NL in the early seventies, and a one-year stage at Jerzy Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium in Poland, Jepke worked with Dutch/EU based International Theatre Research Group KISS, under artistic director Jean-Pierre Voos. She was a core member and leading actress for eight years (1975-1983). KISS is renowned for its original interpretations of classics such as Agamemnon (Aeschylus), Electra (Sophocles), Orestes (Euripides), Salome (Oscar Wilde), and La Divina Comedia (Dante), and for its innovation in physical theatre and ensemble work. KISS toured extensively in Europe, Australia and the USA. Jepke played many principle roles, like Electra (in the Kiss-Oresteia), Salome/Herodias (in Kiss-Salome), Klytemnestra (in the Kiss-Oresteia), the White Whore (in The White Whore & the Bit Player by Tom Eyen), Virgil (in the Kiss-Komedie). Jepke also taught, directed and choreographed for KISS. She teamed up with Graham Jones in Sydney in 1984.

“The performance of Jepke Goudsmit in the dual role of Salome/Herodias was so strongly centered and skilled, it gave me great pleasure. Her vocal work in particular was quite awe-inspiring as she filled the space with rich vocal sounds, … carrying the audience on waves of liquid sound” (Ewa Czajor, Canberra Magazine, 1980)

“ ‘Electra’ introduced Jepke Goudsmit in the title role, and left me with a memory of a performance which achieved greatness. … For the first time in my experience, voice became a totally integrated aspect of the physical, just as movement is. Meaning was transmitted by the entire person.” (Ken Healy, The Canberra Times, 1980)

Makers, performers and co-directors

From 1985, Jepke & Graham became artistic co-directors and, in line with their vision to fuse dance and drama and their desire to deeply explore inter-disciplinary performance practice, they made a small but vital change to the Company’s name: Kinetic Energy Theatre Company and have since been leading the company to date.

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