Yolande Brown is presently dancing in Bangarra Dance Theatre’s premiere of Terrain. Her time with the company has brought many extraordinary and wonderful experiences, including the ability to reconnect with her Aboriginal roots. Through Bangarra’s regional touring program, she has visited many Aboriginal communities, including her grandmother’s home in Augathella, near Charleville. One of the highlights of her career has been “dancing out bush with the women from the central desert, and also with the Yolngu the people from Yirrkala (NT) where I was adopted into a family during one of our cultural exchanges”.
Looking at Brown – creamy olive skin, big brown eyes, blunt Sylvie Guillem fringe – it’s hard to pick her as Aboriginal. And it’s not surprising, since she lays claim to English, Welsh, Irish and French ancestors. Her main claim to an Indigenous background is through her maternal grandmother, whose mother was a traditional woman from the Bidjara clan in central Queensland. Her grandmother lived with the family and Yolande was very close to her.
“I was always brought up to be proud of my indigenous heritage,” Brown says. “My grandfather would say, ‘you’ve got Aboriginal blood running through your veins’. He was her second husband and very proud of her cultural heritage.”
Brown not only has multiple backgrounds, she also has multiple skills to draw on. She sings, plays piano and is a gifted scholar – a recipient of the Australian Students Prize for Excellence – a scholarship awarded to the top 500 Australian high school students.
But to back-track: Brown grew up in Brisbane. Her parents were professional musicians – her mother was a singer/guitarist and her father also sang and played piano.
“I have always loved dancing. When I was really little I used to dance up and down the aisles of the supermarket to the elevator music.”
She studied tap, jazz and cabaret, but piano and singing came first and she eventually completed her C.Mus.A AMEB in piano performance. She was also a “dedicated”, straight As student at the selective Brisbane State High School, which accepted her on the strength of not just her academic but her piano and athletics record. “I was always off to zones and regionals for long jump, high jump, hurdles.” It wasn’t until her piano teacher asked her what she planned to do with her future that she began thinking seriously about dance as a career. After an interview at QUT, she realised she had to get more serious about dance technique. “So I ended up gaining the skill base and got in.”
After graduating in 1998, she was invited by Stephen Page to join Bangarra in 1999. “Fourteen years later I’m still here!” she laughs.
This is an extract from 3D Dancers in the June/July issue of 'Dance Australia'. OUT NOW!