Bangarra Dance Theatre

July 8, 2018

Dark Emu

Playhouse Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane

24^th August to 1^st September 2018

Bangarra, entering their 30^th year, continue to present incomparable artistry, creativity, and performance excellence. Each original work breaks new ground taking spellbound audiences into territory not seen before. Small wonder the company is acclaimed and adored wherever they travel. Such is the unique place they hold.

With 65,000 years of enduring continuous culture, source material is rich. Indigenous astronomy has documented the ‘emu in the sky’. Astrophysicist Professor Alan Duffy, explored the differences in the way traditional European astronomy connects the dots of stars to form pictures attributed to Greek mythology while Indigenous Aboriginal astronomy connects not just the stars but also the black spaces in-between. Two different ways of viewing the same night’s sky.

The ‘emu in the sky’ stretches out in what Europeans call the Milky Way. The time of year when the emu rises just above the horizon is also the season when real emus lay their eggs. Remarkable timekeeping accuracy and important knowledge to survival.

Bangarra now turns to recent material for this new work. Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu, Black Seeds: agriculture or accident? published in 2014 disproved the long-held myth that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were nomadic hunter gatherers before European colonisation.

“Dark Emu is a response to the account of sophisticated farming, fishing and land care practices by Aboriginal people before European settlement,” said Artistic Director Stephen Page.

“We want to make people aware of the strength and resilience of Aboriginal people and celebrate their profound knowledge of agriculture and aquaculture, which belongs at the epicentre of Australian history.

“Dark Emu conveys the devastating assault on land, people, spirit and knowledge experienced by First Nations Peoples.

“We explore the reciprocal and interconnected relationship Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have with the environment, emulating agricultural practices from grain production, to a Bogong Moth harvest, to weaving fish traps with stones.

“With a focus on Yuin Nation stories, songs and language Dark Emu explores the life force of flora and fauna through fourteen interrelated dance stories set in four distinct worlds.”

Taking words off the page and creating a language of dance is no small feat. To transform the complexities of academic non-fiction writing sets even deeper challenges which began an intensive collaborative effort to realise Pascoe’s findings and bring his work to the stage.

Dramaturg Alana Valentine began to uncover the theatrical richness and develop the work as a dance structure. Choreographers Yolande Brown and Daniel Riley explored ways to physicalise through dance and movement clever story telling that gives meaning and respect to the stories, tradition and culture.

As the dance work takes shape the sound and image creators Jennifer Irwin costume creator, head of set design Jacob Nash, composer Steve Francis on soundscape, and Sian James-Holland lighting designer, work intensively to bring Bangarra’s unique vision to life. All these strings are pulled together under the watchful eye of Stephen Page, and guiding light of Baiame, the emu spirit.

And then there is the company of seventeen dancers each a unique contributor to the strength and dynamism of Bangarra. The physiology of the dancers is lean, athletic, articulated, sinuous, seemingly able to bend their bodies into the most impossible of shapes and positions. The images conjured in performance are uniquely their own. There is no other like them.

Each new performance Bangarra Dance Theatre confirms its place at the forefront of dance as leader, innovator, champion and beacon for Australia’s indigenous people. A company every Australian ought to proudly stand and cheer for.

As a white audience you are privileged. Open your senses. You are invited to enter a different world. Become immersed. Give yourself over. See through other eyes.

Bangarra reach deeply into your soul and stir a place rarely visited.

BOOKINGS: www.qpac.com.au