Australia Dancing - Gordon, Paige (1968

Gordon, Paige (1968 - )

Green, Jon: Portrait of Paige Gordon teaching at Buzz Dance Theatre studios, c. 2002

Paige Gordon was born in Subiaco, Western Australia, and began her movement training in callisthenics. Later she took up ballet with Kira Bousloff and then went on to study dance at tertiary level at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Her first professional engagement was with the Meryl Tankard Company in Canberra in 1990. She worked with Tankard until 1992 appearing in Nuti, Kikimora, Court of Flora, Songs with Mara and Chants de mariage.

In 1993 she began working in Canberra as an independent artist and shortly afterwards set up Paige Gordon and Performance Group. Gordon's creations for Paige Gordon and Performance Group, which she presented in a variety of traditional and non-traditional dance spaces, included Shed ? A Place Where Men can Dance (1994), The Coast (1995), Three Trees (1995), Paper City (1996), Party! Party! Party! (1996), Aves (1997) and Raising the Standard (1998).

Gordon was appointed artistic director of Buzz Dance Theatre, Perth, at the end of 1998 and took up the appointment in 1999. With Buzz Gordon revived Paper City and Raising the Standard and created several new works for young people, including Rumpelstiltskin, which toured to South Africa in 2001. She left Buzz Dance Theatre in 2003.

Bibliography:

Edited extracts from Paige Gordon's oral history interview for the National Library of Australia are published as 'Theatres of life' in Brolga 17 (December 2002), pp. 7-15. See also Michelle Potter, 'Paige Gordon: observing life in Canberra and beyond' National Library of Australia News: Canberra Arts Supplement, March 1997, pp. 54-56.

Research Materials

Ephemera | Oral history | Picture | All

Seselja, Loui: Dancers from Paige Gordon & Performance Group rehearsing Gordon's 'Shed - a place where men can dance', 1996

Seselja, Loui: Dancers from Paige Gordon & Performance Group rehearsing Gordon's 'Shed - a place where men can dance', 1996 (Picture): Paige Gordon & Performance Group; Location:; National Library of Australia; PIC NL380/B frame 53
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Interview with Paige Gordon, 1998 (Oral history): Interviewer: Michelle Potter; Interviewee: Gordon, Paige; Audiotape; 145 mins; Paige Gordon discusses her new appointment to Buzz Dance Theatre and talks about her aspirations for the future of the company and for herself. She also talks at length about her time with the Meryl Tankard Company between 1990 and 1992 giving her analysis of Tankard?s working methods and of the collaboration with Regis Lansac. She discusses some specific Tankard works in which she appeared including Nuti and Kikimora. She then speaks about the formation of her own Canberra company, Paige Gordon and Performance Group, for which she created work between 1993 and 1998. Some of the specific works to which she refers are Three Trees, Shed, The Coast, Aves, Party! Party! Party!, Paper City and Raising the Standard. Gordon also talks about funding for dance companies and the funding situation in Canberra and speaks about her childhood and education in Perth and her dance training with Kira Bousloff and at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.; Bousloff, Kira Abricossova ; Tankard, Meryl ; Meryl Tankard Company ; Nuti ; Lansac, Regis ; Buzz Dance Theatre ; Paige Gordon & Performance Group ; Kikimora; Location:; The Keep Dancing! Oral History Project; National Library of Australia; TRC 3730
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Seselja, Loui: James Berlyn rehearsing Paige Gordon's 'Shed - a place where men can dance', 1996

Seselja, Loui: James Berlyn rehearsing Paige Gordon's 'Shed - a place where men can dance', 1996 (Picture): Paige Gordon & Performance Group; Location:; National Library of Australia; PIC NL38019/CT, Frame 15
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Green, Jon: Katrina Lazaroff, Bridget Fiske and Rachel Usher in Paige Gordon's 'Fracture', Buzz Dance Theatre, 2003

Green, Jon: Katrina Lazaroff, Bridget Fiske and Rachel Usher in Paige Gordon's 'Fracture', Buzz Dance Theatre, 2003 (Picture): Buzz Dance Theatre; Location:; National Library of Australia; PIC/8562
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Lansac, Regis: 'Kikimora' - Roz nagging, 1990

Lansac, Regis: 'Kikimora' - Roz nagging, 1990 (Picture): Scene from Meryl Tankard's work Kikimora created in Canberra for the Meryl Tankard Company. The dancers in this scene are (from left to right) Leisa Shelton, Carmela Care, Roz Hervey, Paige Gordon and Alison Brazier.; Meryl Tankard Company ; Hervey, Roz ; Lansac, Regis ; Kikimora; Location:; National Library of Australia; P503/19
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Seselja, Loui: Paige Gordon and Performance Group rehearsing 'Shed - a place where men can dance', 1996

Seselja, Loui: Paige Gordon and Performance Group rehearsing 'Shed - a place where men can dance', 1996 (Picture): Paige Gordon & Performance Group; Location:; National Library of Australia; PIC NL38019/A, B and CT
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Green, Jon: Photographs by Jon Green, 2001-2004 (Picture): This portfolio of twenty digital images documents a range of choreographers and dancers working in Western Australia. Artists represented include Melissa Aurisch, Louise Chalwell, Jayne Cooper, David Cranson, Simon Dow, Connor Dowling, Jacinta Ross Ehlers, Callum Hastie, Benazir Hussain, Emiliana Lione, Milos Mutavdzic and Nicola Wade from West Australian Ballet; Paul Blackman, Paige Gordon and Tim Rodgers of Buzz Dance Theatre; Nanette Hassall of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts; and independent artist Olivia Millard. The collection also contains images relating to Phillip Adams and his Melbourne-based company BalletLab.; West Australian Ballet ; Buzz Dance Theatre ; Millard, Olivia ; Hassall, Nanette ; Adams, Phillip ; Hussain, Benazir ; Dow, Simon ; BalletLab; Location:; National Library of Australia; PIC 8823/1-20
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Programs, Paige Gordon & Performance Group (Ephemera): A small collection of programs, flyers, media releases and newspaper clippings. The collection relates to performances of Three Trees (1995), Paper City (1996), Party! Party! Party! (1996), Aves (1997), Raising the Standard (1998), and To the Wall.; Paige Gordon & Performance Group; Location:; National Library of Australia; PROMPT Collection (Access through the Petherick Room)

Research Materials Top

Other resources

Find more about Gordon, Paige in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia
Collection - OzLife