The piece brings together the talents of choreographer Lee Serle, legendary composer Elena Kats-Chernin and the dancers of north Queensland contemporary dance company Dancenorth.

The genesis of the work is peculiar with the music being commissioned by a range of organisations including the Australian Festival Of Chamber Music and two separate dance pieces being commissioned to be performed with it.

The first was Rambert Dance Company in London, which premiered its piece in September last year.

Now Serle has taken Kats-Chernin's composition and places his own stamp on it.

Titled Three Dancers, Kats-Chernin's piece drew its inspiration from the Picasso painting of the same name, a surrealist-inspired painting featuring three dancers locked in a macabre dance combining love, sex and death.

After initially drowning himself in the music and paiting, Serle said he elected to move away from a narrative driven piece inspired by the music or painting and cut his own choreographic path that pushes against the music.

"I decided to approach this dance very abstract in a way," he said.

"The painting and the piece of music are both emotionally loaded, so I decided to create an abstract piece of dance that works against that."

Serle's works have been performed in Australia, the USA, France and Lebanon and he has been commissioned to create works for Sydney Dance Company, Lucy Geurin Inc and the Lyon Ballet Opera but the experience for Three Dancers was very unusual for him.

"Usually when I choreograph I work alongside a sound composer, the music and dance are created simultaneously," he says.

"I don't usually work in this way (where the music is pre-written) so it has presented some challenges but it has also had some very interesting outcomes."

It is also Serle's first time choreographing to chamber music, another experience he has found interesting.

"The works I make are generally to experimental sound," he says.

"This has been very different because the structure of chamber music is very clear and very set and often I worked against going with that."

Three Dancers also marks his first work with DanceNorth, a company he says has been a joy to work with.

"They are incredible dancers, it has been a real pleasure working with them," he says.

"The process has been a real collaboration with the dancers where I have set a lot of improvisation and choreographed blocks myself, so there has been a real combination of things in this work."

Three Dancers will premiere as part of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music's Concert Crawl on July 31.

Information is available by visiting www.afcm.com.au/

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