It's a state many of us have experienced, when sometimes, through no fault of our own, we make a conscious shift or lifestyle change that sometimes leads to our downfall.
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The creators of dance and theatre often draw inspiration from these downfalls that become a mechanism for communicating states of mind common to most of us. For those involved in the arts they can be a mechanism for helping to get back on track.
Well-known for her tenacity and determination, choreographer Cadi McCarthy is one such artist, who investigates the human condition through dance. Her new dance work That Place In Between explores, in depth, these often disturbing states of being.
Two years ago, McCarthy became a mother. She says it was an emotionally challenging time, when she decided to put dance to one side for a while to focus full-time on being a mother.
But for someone who had relied on dance as a life support, "to dance or not to dance" became a burning issue, and McCarthy was confronted by something of an identity crisis.
She found herself asking, "Who am I ... really?", and "Who am I without dance?"
Since then, she has created That Place In Between, and says it is what got her through those challenging times. She investigates the emotional struggle and fragility of human interactions as well as the distress caused by relocation.
"When I left Buzz [Dance Theatre in Perth] I really thought I would be happy in full-time motherhood, but that's not what happened for me," McCarthy says. "I found it was impossible for me to leave dance behind at that time.
"Dance helps me to tackle life. When I started to feel lost and I didn't know where my place was any more, dance was the only way I knew how to cope and I was able to express my inner turmoil through dance. I decided to create this idea for a show about that emotion – that place in between something and something else."
Research was a big part of the process. McCarthy interviewed as many people as she could to find out about their states of dislocation - about the transitional periods in their lives, and ways in which they had dealt with it.
"I interviewed about 40 people between 14 and 80 years of age," she says. "It always came back to people talking about transition, instability - moving locations - and that came up more than anything else."
Another part of McCarthy's choreographic process was to take into account her performers' own experiences of change as a way of authenticating communication.
That Place In Between has given dancers Holly Diggle, Jake Kuzma, Amy Macpherson, James Wellsby and Kathleen Lott - through McCarthy's choreography - the chance to explore the range of facades we present when trying to stay in control and keep functioning during pivotal moments of transition.
"Voice has come into the soundscape though it may not be a narrative or through straight stories," McCarthy says. "In the first development [phase of the work] I was playing with the idea of stories being used as the soundtrack. I've got Rueben Ingall composing the music so together, we're still looking at how that idea might work."
Others involved with the production are Ashley de Prazer, a visual designer from Perth, who will create the film projections effects for the production and Canberra architects Townsend and Associates who have designed the sets.
"It's a definite Canberra contingent, and all the dancers are from Canberra or have worked in Canberra," she says. "Part of my philosophy has always been to provide work for Canberrans."
McCarthy has, at the same time, been working on another dance piece called Strange Attractor, a project developed by Canberrans Adelina Larsson, Alison Plevey and Jamie Winbank, that provides insight into how and why choreography is created.
McCarthy holds a Masters in Education, Diploma of Education and Further Education & Training and a BA in Dance. She freelanced as a dancer and choreographer in Canberra from 2003 to 2009 when she left to become artistic director of Buzz Dance Theatre till 2012. She now works in dance in both Newcastle and Canberra.
Community dance programs are important to McCarthy. She received, with Buzz, the largest grant for artist-in-residence programs in Australian schools and established Big Stretch, which won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Community/ Regional Dance at the WA Dance Awards and the 2010 Arts and Aboriginal Health Award.
She has also been an education consultant for the Queensland Ballet Company and the Western Australian Ballet.
Canberra audiences will remember many of McCarthy's full-length works – Awkward, Restless, Lick Sip Suck, Shambles and Grappling for the Edge developed at Chez Bushwick studios in New York.
And McCarthy's work hasn't gone unnoticed by critics either; she was the recipient of the 2004 and 2006 Canberra Critics Circle Award in Dance.
In 2008 a Churchill Fellowship gave McCarthy the opportunity to travel. She spent six months in Denmark, Britain, Germany, the United States and Canada experiencing the work of a wide range of companies including Mute Comp, Scottish Dance Theatre, Motionhouse, Tanzcompagnie Giessen, Snappy Dance Theatre, and Kate Weare Company.
The funding for what have been the creative development stages of That Place In Between has been from artsACT, and she plans to apply for additional funding to complete the work.
Her aim is to continue to make dance work that is accessible, with messages that reach out to the wider community. "I just like creating work about everyone's experience - things we can all relate to," she says.
That Place In Between is at the Canberra Theatre Centre on September 5 and 6 at 7pm, cadimccarthy.com.au.