10 Nights in Port 2024 to feature dance work A Resting Mess by Daisy Sanders at Old Custom House

Daisy Sanders had enjoyed 18 months of working independently as a dancer after graduating from WA Academy of Performing Arts when anaesthetic during endometriosis surgery in 2015 triggered chronic fatigue syndrome.

“I was already very weary and sick, but the anaesthetic tipped it into a very difficult realm,” 33-year-old Sanders says.

“I slept 18 hours a day. I couldn’t really walk more than five minutes. I lost 15 kilos and all my muscle mass. It was a real intense illness experience and took me the best part of five to eight years to really recover.”

Sanders feared she would never dance again, before realising a modified way of dancing could actually help her recovery.

“The big thing with chronic fatigue is that you need to not rest too much and not do too much activity,” Canberra-born, Yokine-based Sanders explains.

“If you sleep too much, you get sicker, and if you exercise too much, you get sicker. So what I did with the dancing was listen to my body and dance a little bit and then rest. I could sort of swing between stillness and movement.”

This combination of stillness and movement proved inspirational for Sanders’ latest work A Resting Mess, where she is creator, performer and producer alongside a cast of nine other performers for its season at Old Customs House, Fremantle, on the 10 Nights In Port festival program.

A Resting Mess is the result of an eight-year development across a range of residencies in Canberra, New Zealand, Finland and at Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Blue Room Theatre and a component of Sanders’ return to study, achieving first class honours in 2017.

The immersive 75-minute evening dance performance is a playful and tender pattern of rest and energy, as the choreography features performers slipping and sliding between literal mountains of recyclable and household “mess”, accompanied by music played live by Josten Myburgh and Pavan Hari with original songs by Felicity Groom, sung in chorus by the cast.

The onstage mess was incidental during early development, merely as materials surrounding Sanders while she worked, until she realised they were quite fun to roll around in too.

“I’d have blankets and clothes on the floor to keep me warm when I needed to rest,” Sanders says.

“I started to see images of different types of mess, and the metaphor it creates for what we’re wrestling with or what we’re resting with. It became more of a work that’s commenting on the wider world. What are we all grappling with? How do we rest when things are busy and messy and chaotic and out of order?”

A Resting Mess is paired with six free afternoon sessions as a quiet community space for visitors to rest and reflect to music with Sanders, motivated by a six-month fellowship in community dance she did in New Zealand during 2023.

“I got to share my creative process as an artist with community groups and schools and people with long COVID and chronic fatigue, which was really powerful,” she says.

“It really helped me understand how this work engages community, how my practice and my way of being as an artist gives generously to community . . . It’s a community space and it’s the live show with all those incredible artists across disciplines.”

A Resting Mess is at Old Customs House, August 15-25, tickets and free afternoon session information at 10nightsinport.com.au.

More events heating up 10 Nights in Port

Six Seasons Gathering, Walyalup Civic Centre — Council Chambers, August 16-25, free

This exhibition by Noongar and Wadjala artists reflects the six Noongar seasons through artworks showcasing gathered and shared seasonal resources from the Walyalup Bilya area.

Cracked, Fremantle Arts Centre, August 22, free

The participatory ceramic workshop project and free exhibition will activate the FAC grounds with fire sculptures and a luminous trail of “community fires” built and lit by guests.

Sweat, Soak, Release, Neighbourhood Sauna, South Beach, August 15-25, ticketed

Unlock the power of ceremonial sauna practices from around the world in a two-part treatment designed to rejuvenate body and mind.

CaberGAY, Freo.Social, August 25, ticketed

Hosted by Cougar Morrison, CyberGAY features glitz, glamour and transcendent divas in a variety show of theatre, cabaret, circus and comedy.

Potluck Banquet, PCYC in Hilton, August 24, ticketed

Connect over food, stories and song at this dinner accompanied by the modern storytelling of Barefaced Stories and performances by the FAC Yeah! Community Choir, led by Natalie Gillespie.