Stephen Page, artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, has always said that "it’s the dancers who inspire the company's stories...”.
For the company's next major production, "OUR land people stories", three of the dancers are sharing “their heritage, their experience, their families and their origins with audiences,” alongside Page's own work.
Jasmin Sheppard’s Macq (first performed in 2013 during Dance Clan 3) explores the 1816 March of Macquarie – a historical chapter that decimated Sydney’s Aboriginal community. Many landmarks in Australia are named after Lachlan Macquarie, but just who was he?. Passionate and political, her work that will serve as an enlightening history lesson for many unaware of this brutal encounter, with The Sydney Morning Herald calling her debut “unforgettable.”
Daniel Riley and Beau Dean Riley Smith have created Miyagan (“our family”, pronounced Me-ya-gun), a poignant dance story mapping their cultural heritage from Wiradjuri country in New South Wales.
Related by a great-great grandfather, the Rileys got to know each other – and their family history – while dancing together at Bangarra. Miyagan explores the Aboriginal kinship system.
Page marks his 25th anniversary with the company with his new work Nyapanyapa, inspired by the life story and paintings of internationally acclaimed visual artist Nyapanyapa Yunupingu from North East Arnhem Land. Her works are held in private collections around the world and are housed in many major Australian galleries. It will be Page’s 23rd work for Bangarra, and part of an ongoing exploration of how to translate visual art through movement.
Page has long admired Nyapanyapa’s paintings – her work depicting being attacked by a buffalo as a child, a traumatic incident that left her largely mute, won her the 2008 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award – and her latest series of dancing girls sparked the idea for this creative exchange.
This fascinating triple bill will first be staged at the Sydney Opera House from June 16 to July 2, then at the State Theatre of WA from July 22 to 23, then at the Canberra Theatre Centre from July 28 to 30, at QPAC, Brisbane, from August 12 to 20 and finally in Melbourne at the Arts Centre from September 1 to 10.
Pictured: Bangarra's Waangenga Blanco.
Photo: EDWARD MULVIHILL
Photo by Edward Mulvihill
