MANINYAS

Maninyas is a Violin Concerto originally composed by Ross Edwards in 1988, choreographed and performed by The Freestyle Orchestra incorporating group acrobatics, fire and aerial disciplines. The staging explores the ideas of human connection, physically and musically, in its many forms — performer to performer, performer to audience — as well as the inextricable connection between music and movement dating back to ancient times. Movement is dictated by the music as we visualise it, exploring the emotions it conveys and amplifying them physically. Very dance-like in places (for example Ross Edwards' signature dance-chant), and very still and meditative in others, the work was written in and heavily influenced by the natural environment and forest. In our staging, fire is used as a cleansing element, a function it has in both nature and ritual; costumes reflect colours of ocean water, greens, blues and earth.

According to the composer: 'I had an "up-feeling" in the piece. I'd been writing deeply introspective music and I suddenly noticed the outside world. It was just intensely ecstatic — the sky was blue, the warm air was full of shrieking parrots and an irresistible impulse to dance suddenly took over the music.'

The first iteration took place at Vivid Sydney in 2019, and from 2026 The Freestyle Orchestra are creating a completely immersive version of the work, 'exploding' the orchestra and allowing the audience to step inside the concerto, where the musical and acrobatic action happens in, around and inclusive of audiences. The Freestyle Orchestra works with Edwards to create a movement vocabulary matching his musical motifs. Elements of ritual are included with the use of fire and an extended, improvisatory cadenza with audiences participating in creating drones on instruments, holding speakers and moving around the work. This version also features spatial audio, improvisatory and participatory elements — creating new ways of engaging the audience not seen in traditional classical performance.