In Yolngu painting, bir’yun describes the brilliance, shimmer and shine of a pattern that seems to move before the eyes, animated by the essence of ancestral forces.
This is the inspiration for Vicki Van Hout’s Briwyant, a work of choreographic dexterity and interdisciplinary innovation that brings to the stage an experience both ageless and fleeting; a moment of connection.
Dance, dynamic projections and a layered, textured soundscape will transport you well beyond the confines of the theatre into a realm of literal and figurative stories. With precision and a wholly original vision of Indigenous dance, Van Hout evokes, with compelling conviction, a future for the form that teams humour, history and raw physicality.
Vicki Van Hout is a Wirradjerri woman born in Wollongong on the NSW south coast. An independent dancer, choreographer and teacher she trained at the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association – now the NAISDA Dance College.
In the early 90s she moved to New York and trained with leading modern and post-modern dance artists before returning to Australia in 1996 to perform with Bangarra Dance Theatre.
Vicki creates contemporary dance layered with Indigenous cultural information and imagery, her works to date having explored matrilineal kinship systems and welcome to country protocols.
Van Hout will perform in the work alongside Henrietta Baird, Raghav Handa, Rosealee Pearson, Beau Smith and Melinda Tyquin.
‘Briwyant’ will be held at the Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, Melbourne from July 4 to 14. See here.