Benjamin Curé

Lion Heart Dance Company has recently launched on to the Melbourne dance scene and is having it's inaugural production in just under a month. The show, "Table of Eight", is a narrative-driven dance work that tries to walk through some of life's complexities in an honest and open way. Our desire is to create powerful and purposeful work that delves deeply into the hearts of our audiences and encourages them to open up. We want to start conversations about things people just aren't talking about.

We have a history of creating stirring work, but now we need help stepping in to the future. As an emerging company, we lack financial backing of any kind, be it sponsors, generous benefactors or grants. We need the help of our extended community to bring this work to the stage and set a solid foundation for the company to build upon.

Without funding or financial support, the budget for this show consists of whatever is in the directors savings - no we're not kidding. We have worked incredibly hard to source many of the essentials for this show either for free or at minimal costs to ensure the artists performing in the show can be honoured financially for their time, efforts and ridiculous talent. The funds raised from this campaign will help to cover the costs of:

-> $500 - Marketing and Promotional materials (You can create the world's best show but it wont matter if no one's there to see it!)
-> $980 Venue Hire Deposit (This has to be paid before we've even sold a ticket!)
-> $520 Sets and Props (We need to cover the costs of purchasing a solid wood table and 8 chairs, plus their reinforcement - because the last thing we want is a dancer falling through a table mid-show)

Aside from the financial aspects of successfully creating and producing a show, I think dealing with the subject matter during our rehearsal process will probably be the greatest challenge. Death isn't an easy subject to talk about but it's one that definitely plays a major part in the show and I think for the dancers it's going to be incredibly challenging to try and wrestle with this concept without becoming too personally invested. 



I know for a number of them, they have their own journey's that they're going through with regards to death so it's definitely something that hits home. But, I also know that we'll work to find ways of engaging fully with this narrative, to keep it real and raw for each new audience we present it to while not getting bogged down in it. We endeavour to provide our artists with the necessary performance and acting techniques so they can keep what happens on stage, on stage - not take it home with them.