For many performing arts companies, 2020 is a year many would prefer to forget and yet it has also afforded companies time to pause, reflect and play around with ideas, at least in the mind’s eye.

“COVID has had such a big impact in our lives but everyone had a year to dream things up; big ideas and crazy ideas,” says Willoughby Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence Alice Chance, whose choral work Holy Dreaming has evolved to become a new arrangement for strings. More than that, its scope has enlarged to accommodate an aerialist/dancer from physical theatre makers, Legs On The Wall.

Alice Chance. Photo © Steven Godbee

“I’m open to collaboration and the idea of working in some form with Legs is awesome. There are lots of ways to interpret Holy Dreaming even though it’s an entity in itself. The work has duality and contrasts, and its evocation of the land and open spaces invites additional musical textures and layers.”

Premiered in 2019 by The Choir of Trinity College in Melbourne, Holy Dreaming was inspired by the prayer A Thanksgiving for Australia written by Indigenous Anglican priest, Lenore Parker, praying that Australians may “walk together in...