Performer Isabel Estrella has prepared for months to finally take her place as one of three dancers on an iceberg suspended over Cataract Gorge.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
THAW, running as part of Mona Foma 2022 and created by Legs on the Wall, will involve lone aerial artists taking turns performing on top of a sculpted 2.4-tonne block of ice hanging over the Gorge.
Estrella said she would be the last aerial artist to perform on the iceberg, with each person expected to perform for about two-and-a-half hours each.
"I would call it a cross between durational performance, dance and dance theatre," she said.
"There will be a mixture of some really physical skills, choreographic sections, and some really interesting still images as well.
"The Gorge is a beautiful backdrop and it's amazing to see the performers hold the space."
The aerialists have trained over an extended period of time to be ready for not only the performance component, but the physical component with harnesses and the slipperiness of the ice.
"We are in the harness for the whole time so we have been conditioning the body to be in that kind of space," Estrella said.
Sun safety is another key factor for the performers, with Launceston forecast to get to 29 degrees each day for the next few days.
There will be a pack on the iceberg with extra sunscreen, water, lip balm and more as a safety precaution.
"As a performer, it's probably one of the wildest things I have ever done," Estrella said.
THAW creator Joshua Thomson came up with the idea for the piece when the bushfires engulfed the East-Coast of Australia in 2019.
"It was about our natural world shrinking and eroding ... I thought about something that represented this space that we live on that completely disappears, and so the journey of this idea of ice and melting in a hot climate [was born]," he said.
"[The performer on the iceberg] embodies all of us, and that little blue iceberg is the little blue planet we live on out in space."
Mona Foma will run until January 25 in Launceston, and then move down to Hobart.
Artistic Director Brian Ritchie said there were more than 200 artists creating dozens of events for people to attend.
"From the outset of Mona Foma, we decided that we were going to create a kind of a utopian festival," he said.
"We want to give as many [artists] a go as we can, and that means casting a wide net artistically."
Mr Ritchie said Mona Foma 2022 was designed to be as COVID safe as possible.
What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor: