Back From Front is a new full-length dance and physical theatre work which explores the experience of returned soldiers and particularly the impact of their wartime experiences upon future generations. How do ordinary people overcome the extraordinary experience of war, and how are these traumatic experiences integrated into ordinary post-war family life?

In responding to these questions, Back From Front conveys - through movement, text, original sound compositions and direct video imagery interplay - the ramifications of war as perceived through social, familial, individual and global perspectives in post-war eras. Back From Front was developed in collaboration with the performers and informed by the advice and research of Mr Graham Walker, Honorary Research Officer for the Vietnam Veterans Federation of Australia. Back From Front is highly physical and visually imaginative in its approach to the subject matter. The production uses spoken word, dance, video imagery and music to elucidate and comment on the effect of war. The set features high tech projection screens which enable video imagery to saturate the visual environment of the work - a comment on how our lives are often inundated and manipulated by the media. Back From Front reflects on the emotional anxieties associated with wartime experience and is derived from examples of the bravery and hope exhibited by ordinary people grappling with the aftermath of war in extraordinary ways.

Dean Walsh
Dean Walsh commenced fulltime dance training as an adult. He recently returned from a Japanese tour of his solo work 'unspeakABLE' as part of the 2006 Australia / Japan Dance Exchange, which work was subsequently performed in The Studio, SOH. In 2002 Dean received the prestigious Robert Helpmann Scholarship which took him to Europe to research and collaborate with numerous artists leading to a two year engagement with DV8 Physical Theatre and a five month engagement with No Apology Co: in Amsterdam. Since 1991, Dean has worked as dancer/choreographer with Darc Swan, Big Bang Theory, Graeme Watson, Kai Tai Chan, Sidetrack Performance Group, Nigel Kellaway (The Opera Project), Nikki Heywood, ADT (Age of Unbeauty), Stalker Theatre Co and Opera Australia (Andrea Chenier. During this time, he has also created 17 solo works touring many of them nationally & on four occasions internationally. These works include Rosario, Hardwear pt1 & pt2 (TestosTerrain), Hysterical Headset, Subtle Jetlag, Toffee Apple, Porcelain Steel, Graffiti Hope, Retro Musclesong, Grounded On Air, unspeakABLE and the acclaimed full-length work Flesh: Memo (International Gay Games Cultural Festival 2002). He is currently working with Stalker Theatre Co on a new full-length dance/aerial work Mirror Mirror, is movement consultant on Sofia Woods' solo Blurred Lines, and is choreographer for Floyd Collins (Kookaburra National Musical Theatre Co). In 2005 Dean received an Australian Dance Award nomination for Most Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer for his solo Grounded On Air and in 2002 won this same award for Age of Unbeauty (ADT). He is in the process of setting up a new performance company and community support platform called TheHumanHive in collaboration with an exciting new space in Sydney called The Last Bastion of Civilisation.

Contact:
Joanna Fishman
49 Dowling Street
Kensington NSW 2033
Fax +61 2 9697 9494
Mob 0412 220 206
joannaf@exemail.com.au
www.myspace.com/thhdw