Russell Page Graduate Program dancers announced

Young Aboriginal dancers Ryan Pearson and Baden Hitchcock, both from New South Wales, have joined Bangarra Dance Theatre for 2017, as part of the Russell Page Graduate Program.

The pair will perform in the premiere of Stephen Page’s Bennelong, at the Sydney Opera House in June and will join the company as it travels back to Country in the Torres Strait Islands in August. The two dancers will also join Bangarra on a major international tour to Germany in October, before returning to Sydney to perform in ONE’S COUNTRY the spine of our stories at Carriageworks.

The Russell Page Graduate Program is supported by a group of philanthropists and the Sherry-Hogan Foundation. The program is part of Bangarra’s commitment to building a strong platform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and artists and is named for the late Russell Page, a founding member of Bangarra who passed away in 2002.

Bangarra’s artistic director Stephen Page says the program is of critical importance to the evolution of Bangarra, because it ensures the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists are nurtured by current artists excelling in their craft. “As the only Major Performing Arts company in Australia with its cultural origins in this land, we have a duty to pass our knowledge onto the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander artists,” he says. “My brothers – Russell and David – and I were always connected through a shared desire to support new talent, which what the Graduate Program is all about. Watching young artists emerge and mature and observing the mentoring process in the studio is beyond rewarding for all of us at Bangarra.”