An essential fixture of Sydney’s summer calendar, the 2020 Sydney Festival will place for three big weeks from January 8 to 26.
Central to the program is "Blak Out", which brings to the fore the art of First Nations communities across Australia, Canada, Aotearoa, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. As part of this focus, Jimmy Chi and Kuckle’s exuberant Aboriginal musical Bran Nue Dae will receive a major revival, 30 years after its premiere, with legendary Australian actor Ernie Dingo reprising his role as Uncle Tadpole.
On the dance program is hip hop dance innovator Nick Power’s brand-new collaboration, Two Crews, which brings together the all-female Parisian act Lady Rocks and Sydney group Riddim Nation. Meeting for the first time, the crews will present a high-energy cypher dance battle, set to music by Sydney composer Jack Prest.
At Parramatta’s Prince Alfred Square, 16 young dancers from FORM Dance Projects and 48 musicians of the Western Sydney Youth Orchestra will perform ENCOUNTER, a joyful site-specific work produced by Fling Physical Theatre, and celebrating the extraordinariness of growing up in Western Sydney.
Also in the line-up is Romances Inciertos, un Autre Orlando, an opera-ballet love letter to centuries of Spanish culture from the extraordinary talents of French choreographer François Chaignaud and dramatist Nino Laisné with a four-piece Baroque band.
Again from overseas, Canadian choreographer Dana Gringas, and her multimedia dance company Animals of Distinction, is bringing Frontera, a “monumental” new dance work that makes use of intricate staccato light fields and projections.
The festival is Wesley Enoch’s fourth as artistic director. “Sydney Festival brings to our city the newest works from the world’s most adventurous artists,” he said when unveiling his program. “We unearth the interesting, the new and the exciting. Wherever there is a debate to be had, a diversity of opinion or the need to speak the neglected story, Sydney Festival is there. We are proudly diverse. We are equal parts cultural ambition and celebration.”
For the full program go to www.sydneyfestival.org.au.