Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia's leading Indigenous performing arts company, is set to illuminate the stage at QPAC's Playhouse this August with the Queensland premiere of Illume. This ambitious new work marks Bangarra's first-ever visual arts collaboration, bringing together the distinct visions of Mirning woman and Bangarra Artistic Director, Frances Rings, and Goolarrgon Bard visual artist, Darrell Sibosado.
Running from August 1 to 9, 2025, as part of QPAC's signature Clancestry festival celebrating First Nations art and culture, Illume promises a powerful fusion of dance, music, and visual art.
Frances Rings expressed her excitement about returning to QPAC for Clancestry. "We are thrilled to be included in the program again and look forward to sharing Illume with Queensland audiences, celebrating First Nations arts, story and culture," she said.
Inspired by Sibosado’s Bard-Bardi Jawi Country on the north-western coast of Western Australia, Illume delves into the profound relationship between light and Indigenous cultural existence. The work explores how light has captivated and sustained First Nations people for millennia, serving as a central life force and a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds.
However, Illume also confronts the disruptive impact of artificial light pollution on land and sky. Rings and Sibosado's collaboration highlights how this pollution devastates First Nations people’s connections to sky country, limiting their ability to share celestial knowledge and skylore, and charting these impacts within the context of a climate emergency.
"This collaboration uses both choreographic and visual art perspectives in a unique approach that conveys complex themes about light, culture, and environmental issues," Rings explained. "I hope that by intersecting our artistic practices, we potentially create something more innovative and impactful that honours our First Nations cultural storytelling."
Darrell Sibosado shared his enthusiasm for the collaboration. "I’m very excited and honoured to be working with Frances and Bangarra. I first met Frances in about 1988 when we were both students at NAISDA College," he said. "I have watched her focus, commit and grow into the artist creator she is today, and I have always been intrigued by her movement style and the composition of her work."
Sibosado added, "My work is steeped in the context of where I’m from. I am enjoying the process of seeing how our different practices respond, merge and translate to express the rhythm and essence of my people and my country."
Bringing Sibosado's designs to life on the Bangarra stage is a talented creative team including set designer Charles Davis, costume designer Elizabeth Gadsby, lighting designer Damien Cooper, Wiradjuri/Gamilaroi man and composer Brendon Boney, cultural consultant Trevor Sampi (a Bardi Jawi man from Lombadina), and AV designer Craig Wilkinson.
Illume is set to be a powerful and moving production that invites audiences to step out of the shadows and into the phenomena of light, exploring its significance from ancient connections to contemporary environmental concerns..
The much-anticipated national tour of Illume will visit the following locations:
- Gadigal Country: Sydney Opera House, 4 - 14 June 2025
- Whadjuk Noongar Boodja: Heath Ledger Theatre, Perth, 10 - 13 July 2025
- Kinjarling: Albany Entertainment Centre, 18 July 2025
- Ngunnawal Country: Canberra Theatre Centre, 25 - 26 July 2025
- Meanjin: Queensland Performing Arts Centre, 1 - 9 August 2025 (part of QPAC's 2025 Clancestry festival)
- Garramilla: Darwin Entertainment Centre, 15 - 16 August 2025
- Wurundjeri Country: Arts Centre Melbourne, 4 - 13 September 2025
Photo: Ballardung Noongar dancer Courtney Radford. Photographer: Daniel Boud.