One woman thunderously flops onto the floor, time and again, collapsing to the boom of ominous music, her feet tied coyly with red ribbons. In the trendy Sydney suburb of Newtown dancers rehearse – all of whom unapologetically self-identify as fat. But, in a world dictated by size 0 fashion models, glossy advertising, and a billion dollar diet industry, can we ever consider fat beautiful? She wants the audience to shed their assumptions about fatness and allow themselves to become entranced. “Just putting a fat body on stage is a statement,” Champion acknowledges. You are in awe of the sense of these bodies moving.” Director Kate Champion of Force Majeure, the pioneering Australian dance company behind the show, agrees: “The body speaks volumes. “ to bring out the inherent unique movements of bigger bodies,” says the production’s artistic associate and fat activist Kelli Jean Drinkwater.
The show hopes to challenge not only the way that we think about fat bodies – but how we see them. Nothing to Lose, which premieres at the Sydney Festival on 21 January, is breaking boundaries by putting seven plus-sized dancers on stage. What begins as grotesque – a bulbous, bulging body – slowly, gradually transforms into something more graceful. Rope cuts into a dancer’s copious flesh and distending rolls of blubber create a swollen, moving sculpture.
