Showtimes & Tickets

Oct 24 at 9:00PM | Oct 25 at 3:30PM

Running time: 45 mins

Single Tickets: $25.00 base fare (plus applicable fees)

Festival Pass (choose between 4-6 shows): See four or more Festival performances and save 15%! Choose from the six Festival programmes. Packages available while quantities last, so be sure to book early!

Program

A young Liam Francis was first inspired to dance after watching Kate Prince’s Into the Hoods, captivated by its electric hip-hop style. Soon after, he encountered Merce Cunningham’s RainForest and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Faun. Each of these aesthetic revelations marked a profound turning point, after which nothing felt quite the same.

Years later, Francis would find himself performing these masterpieces, discovering along the way that he had the right to love postmodern dance as deeply as he loved hip-hop.

In Lyre Liar, Francis traces the encounters that shaped his singular style and the unlikely intersections between them. With the support of a striking feathered companion, he creates a performance that is part dance portrait, part lecture-demonstration and part autobiography, illuminating both the joy and the burden of a life shaped by learning through imitation.

Liam captures how it feels to stare up at your artistic gods - the ones who inspired you to be here and do this - and then try to climb the mountain and walk among them. This is the experience of every artist you will see at our festival and Liam lays it bare to stunning effect.

- Robert Binet, Artistic Director & Co-CEO, Fall for Dance North

About Liam Francis

Liam Francis is an award-winning choreographer, dancer, and movement director working across dance, theatre and film. He has performed with leading companies including Rambert, Lost Dog, and ZooNation, and has taken on principal roles in works by choreographers such as Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Merce Cunningham, Sharon Eyal, Ben Duke, Wayne McGregor and Hofesh Shechter.

As a choreographer, Liam’s work explores hybridity, drawing on his background in contemporary dance, ballet, and hip-hop to create a distinctive movement language. His practice is driven by an interest in the body as a site of memory and transformation, often blending movement with text and theatrical structures.

Liam has presented his work internationally in cities including London, New York, Rotterdam, and Paris, and has been commissioned by organisations such as Rambert, Skånes Dansteater and Ballett Theater Trier.

Photo of Liam Francis
Photos by Lee Baxter and Danny Fitzpatrick

As a young man searching for my own artistic voice, I often found it easier to echo the voices of others, much like the Australian Lyrebird that mimics the calls around it. And dance, a profession built on both copying and creativity, became the perfect place for me (someone obsessed with imitation) to lose myself.

- Liam Francis