The River is a site-responsive contemporary dance work set within a natural riverside amphitheatre on Bunurong Country.

Performed at dawn and dusk, when light and water are at their most alive and shifting, this intimate duet invites audiences into a shared experience at the edge of the river - where choreography, landscape, and sound unfold together in real time.

Two dancers move within the environment itself, their bodies responding to the rhythms, textures and forces of the site. Surrounded by flowing water, changing light, and a live sonic landscape, the work traces how romantic relationships move through us over time, carving emotional pathways much like rivers shape the land.

Tender, physical, and deeply atmospheric, The River explores love as a force of attraction, resistance, erosion, attachment and change. Bodies converge and drift apart across the riverbank, shaped directly by the currents of place and weather, with movement emerging in dialogue with ghost gums, water surfaces, and shifting ground.

At times delicate and still, at others urgent and expansive, the choreography holds both intimacy and distance - echoing the push and pull of connection, and the ways we are formed through relation to others and to place.

Continuing Zoë Bastin Dance’s ongoing exploration of storytelling through contemporary dance in public space, The River is an invitation to gather at the water’s edge and experience performance not as something watched from afar, but something lived within.

It is a work about what it means to hold and to let go, and how bodies carry memory, longing and transformation over time.

About Zoë Bastin Dance

Zoë Bastin is an Australian choreographer, performer, researcher, and educator whose interdisciplinary practice sits at the intersection of contemporary dance, visual art, and critical theory. Their work examines how bodies are shaped by and resist systems of power through queer and feminist methodologies. 

Zoë completed a PhD at RMIT University in 2021 on the philosophy of the body and currently lectures and supervises research projects at RMIT, VCA, and Deakin University. They are the artistic director of Zoë Bastin Dance, leading a company dedicated to research-led, collaborative performance-making.

Lucy Foster – Photographer 

Audience 

Please dress warmly and appropriately for weather conditions, as temperatures may drop at dusk.

There is no walking involved once you arrive on site, with paved pathways leading directly to the designated seating area.

Some seating will be provided, including chairs, with additional informal picnic-style seating on mats and blankets. Audiences are welcome to bring warm layers or blankets for comfort.

Acknowledgments

The River is by Zoe Bastin Dance commissioned and presented by Wyndham City Council. This project has been Fringe Funded and has been made more accessible with support from Access Fringe.

Key Dates 

Program Launch – 7 August 

Flash Sale 1. 7 August – 10 August

Flash Sale 2. 8 September – 10 September