Rinse
What is it about the beginning that remains intoxicating? The persistent lust for the initial thrill of a romance, scene, theory, relationship, meal, country — the opening lines. Through movement, text and choreography, Rinse identifies the multiple beginnings that take place to form part of a whole. As Amrita Hepi explores the living archive contained in her body, the thrill of the new gives way to inertia, and beginnings subtly turn into endings. Philosophical and political, expert and ordinary, factual and intimate, measured and explosive, Hepi’s brilliant solo work weaves together a wide array of stories, rhythms, and dance techniques.
A dancer and choreographer of Bundjalung (Australia) and Ngāpuhi (Aotearoa/New Zealand) descent, whose work is known and celebrated from Oceania to America, Hepi becomes an essayist, exploring dance as a source of memory and resistance with playful wit and style.
About the artist
Amrita Hepi (Melbourne + Bangkok)
Amrita Hepi is a rising star in the international contemporary dance scene. Over the past few years, she has been in widespread demand thanks to her talent, rigour, and remarkable ability to make complex choreographic and performative ideas recognisable.
Media Coverage
“Amrita Hepi crosses boundaries of visual art, dance and performance, making her one of the most in-demand artists of the moment.”
Emma Pegrum, The Saturday Paper (Australia), 05-11-2022
“People’s Choice award winner Amrita Hepi’s work Rinse was the standout performance and work of the night. Her simultaneously spoken/danced narrative moves seamlessly from the “beginnings” of time, and of the world itself, to her own personal journey as a dancer of colour finding her path as an artist.”
Geraldine Higginson, Dance Australia (Australia), 20-03-2020
“Hepi is a consummate storyteller who uses body and dance to create paths towards understanding identity and representation.”
Monique Grbec, ArtsHub.com.au (Australia), 20-12-2022
“Using hybridity and the extension of choreographic or performative practices, Hepi creates work that considers the body’s relationship to personal histories and the archive. Her practice engages in a wide range of themes including the ourbouros, the ‘itness’ of a thing, violence, magpies, magic, touch, doom, spectacle, the idea of ‘make-believe’ and the uncanny.”
Nithya Nagarajan, LiminalMag.com (Australia), 07-12-2020
“Amrita Hepi is a lady of innumerable talents. If there’s someone we’d want to call a perfect embodiment of what our generation stands for, she’d be it.”
Madeleine Woon, The File (Australia), 13-03-2017
“An intimate solo based on a dynamic improvisational score, Rinse travels from end to end of an origin myth, positioning personal narratives in relation to dance, art, feminism, cannons, the void, desires, popular culture and colonial history.”
DanceLife.com (Australia), 16-03-2020
