Javanese dancers head to Rainbow

live performance by graceaful

East Javanese dancers, the haunting sounds of traditional Indonesian percussion instruments and projections of unique Mallee landscape images will all feature at an event at Rainbow this month.

Oasis Rainbow will host the free afternoon event on April 28 to mark the final performance of its six-day Embodied Landscape project.

The project involves 16 visiting East Javanese artists from Sampang Agung Centre for Performing Arts.

The afternoon will also include more than a dozen visiting performance artists, regional Aboriginal dancers and Rainbow’s answer to White Night – a projector bike that beams huge and colourful images onto buildings, roads and silos.

Embodied Landscape creative director Dianne Dickson said the project, part of Rainbow’s Small Town Transformations Project, offered an opportunity for both the East Javanese visitors and Wimmera-mallee people to share their culture, experiences and knowledge.

Ms Dickson, who first met the performers while in Asia for an art festival several years ago, said there were many similarities between Rainbow and Pelem, where the performers lived.

“Both are remote small towns with great community spirit, connection to and reliance upon the landscape and a strong passion for their heritage and traditions,” she said.

“While one is on the tip of an Australian desert and the other in rainforest highlands, I am sure we will have many common threads and plenty to share over a very exciting week.”

Ms Dickson said the visitors would arrive at Rainbow on April 23 and participate in a range of activities including visits to Pella church, Lake Albacutya and Nhill, as well as Aboriginal cultural activities, a community dinner and an Anzac Day service.

“This will all be in a lead-up to the biggest day of their visit – our Saturday Embodied Landscape event,” she said.

“We have a range of visiting artists keen to travel to Rainbow and participate in pop-up performances and I know everyone will be simply blown away by the presence, sounds and grace of the East Javanese visitors when they take to the stage.

“We will be filming their workshops and activities all week and on the last night these videos and images will be beamed onto buildings and other surfaces with Oasis Rainbow’s new projector bike.

“This will be an event like no other and I encourage people from right across the Wimmera to take the opportunity to see and hear these amazing overseas and Australian performers.”

People can call Adelle Rohrsheim on 0431 820 493 or email oasis-rainbow@hotmail.com for more information. Small Town Transformations is funded by the State Government and delivered by Regional Arts Victoria.