Choreographer Eva Crainean's challenge is in reaching an audience that sees dance as sheer entertainment and not, like her work, cause for introspection.
Crainean's upcoming piece of performance theatre, Visited Upon the Children, showcases her relatively new interest in Butoh - a dark, 60-year-old Japanese dance movement involving slower moves, often timed at odds with the music and married with exaggerated facial expressions.
Crainean uses the style to help tell a story about the traits and habits that parents pass to children, without the children knowing.
"It explores the question of whether we are able to break free from that, or are we stuck with it for life?" said Crainean, who thought of her estranged father when making the work.
Visited Upon the Children follows Crainean's 2011 work, Unravelled, which was well received by critics and by some in the audience who afterwards wrote to her saying they "could not sleep".
"The hard part is to sell the tickets to the show because it is different," Crainean said. "But those who come are changed, and absolutely love it."
Visited Upon the Children is at Illawarra Performing Arts Centre October 12-13. Tickets cost $29. Phone 4224 5999 to book.
