STORIES TO TELL
Enriching and enlightening audiences in Istanbul and Paris with performance rich in culture, beauty and storytelling, Bangarra Dance Theatre returns to home shores and heartland.
After enriching audiences in Istanbul and Paris, Bangarra Dance Theatre returns to home shores and heartland.
It’s twilight in Istanbul, a city basking in a balmy Indian summer. The rooftop bar of Mama Shelter, a hip hotel with locations in cities around the world, including Paris and LA, affords panoramic views of this bewitching city, a confluence of ancient Asian traditions and cutting-edge European style.
The dancers of Bangarra Dance Theatre are lounging gracefully on daybeds, sipping cocktails and unwinding. Only 24 hours earlier they were performing before Turkish dignitaries, heads of business and dance makers on stage at the 2,000-plus seat Zorlu Center, Europe’s new state-of-the-art theatre.
They have one more show, then it’s on to the next stop: Paris. They’ve been invited to the French capital by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to perform in the Australian embassy, their first appearance in this city of high fashion and tastemakers whom they are hoping to impress enough to be invited back. Afterwards, Australian ambassador Stephen Brady will host a VIP reception on the balcony of his Harry Seidler-designed apartment.
But it is the homeward stage of the tour that has the dancers really fired up. From Paris they will journey to the red dirt and broad starry skies of north-east Arnhem Land where they will dance on an outdoor basketball court before 600 Indigenous community members. This is what nourishes their soul.
It is 25 years since Stephen Page took over as artistic director of Australia’s only national Indigenous arts company. It has come a long way since Page choreographed his first work in the Police Boys’ Club in inner-Sydney Redfern in 1992.
Over the decades Page has unobtrusively worked away, earning the trust of Australia’s myriad Indigenous communities, gaining their acceptance and their willingness to share with him the unique stories of their people and their land, which Page then translates into dance for the rest of the world to see. A contemporary company, Bangarra doesn’t only celebrate the evocative stories of country, of hunting, weaving and initiation. The bleak reality of Indigenous Australia in the 21st century is
also delivered in uncompromising style: stories of drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and discrimination.
Bangarra has worked hard to earn its iconic status, which sees the company continually called on to perform at official government and corporate events, in addition to taking its message to remote and regional Australia and beyond. The statistics speak for themselves. In its 26 years this not-for-profit has toured 67 international cities, more than 50 regional towns and presented 37 new productions. This year’s new triple bill, OUR land people stories, is co-choreographed by Page and marks his 23rd work for Bangarra.
Page himself is impressive. The multiaward-winning choreographer has worn many different hats – director of the 2004 Adelaide Festival of the Arts, director of the Indigenous section of the Sydney Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies, film director and choreographer of dance and theatre.
It may be a quarter of a century that Page has led this company, but he has no desire to leave, and the board sees no hurry in replacing him. Bangarra dances to a different beat. “Every time I go out bush they say: ‘You gotta be there for 100 years – 40,000 years of culture, why are they all making a big deal of 25 years?’”
Backstage at the Zorlu Center it’s organised chaos as the expectant buzz of the audience grows ever louder. Two makeshift change rooms have been set up side of stage. So quickly do the dancers need to change and paint up there’s no time to return to their dressing rooms. One costume change requires the female dancers to wash off full yellow body paint, so sponges and buckets are placed around the floor. As they prepare to go on they perform their own pre-performance rituals: one listens quietly to music, another paces nervously, yet another quietly marks out her steps.
They’re an impressive lot, this family of 16 dancers. Senior dancers Deborah Brown, Waangenga Blanco and Daniel Riley are choreographers in their own right; Rikki Mason is a former junior world champion in karate; while Jasmin Sheppard has performed with numerous arts companies and is also an emerging choreographer. Elma Kris is the revered elder of their group. Unlike most dance companies, where 30 is getting dangerously old, age and experience are valued above all else in Bangarra, and the younger dancers speak of Kris in hushed tones.
But no matter what their backgrounds, together these dancers are inseparable, keenly aware of the importance of the message they’ve been entrusted to convey. Even after 25 years, Page feels Australia has a long way to go when it comes to celebrating its Indigenous culture. Sitting in an open-air cafe overlooking the Bosphorus and Blue Mosque, towering majestically above the old town, Page observes that the dancers often feel more at home in a city like Istanbul than they do in their own country.
“Australia is so fragile in its racism and discrimination,” he says. “The whole Adam Goodes things showed that we really have to accept we’re a racist country. Yet we don’t like to say that we are. I always call it the ‘innocence of discrimination’ because we want to change that culture, but …” He trails off, then brightens when talk turns to the way his dancers have soaked up this ancient city, where they have bathed in the hamams or found quiet solace in the mosques. “When we go to countries that have that old cultural existence we feel connected because of where we come from. We’re a contemporary company that thrives on religion and heritage, or our Indigenous religion, which is our creation stories, so when we find that strong similarity it stabilises our spirit.”
The company has previously performed to rousing receptions in regional Germany, the Hague and Budapest, where they received no less than 13 curtain calls. In the dance meccas of London, New York and Paris praise is more hard-won. “That’s where we’re judged the most harshly, where we think we’re not good enough,” says Page, yet recalls the positive response in both New York and Washington.
And now Paris. “In a city like Paris you can’t afford to bring something that isn’t world-class,” Ambassador Brady shares with me later in his embassy apartment, resplendent with handpicked Australian artworks. “There are magnificent cultural performances almost every week in Paris and the embassy has the opportunity around once a year to put on something really substantial, where we invite the political, business and official heavies of France. It’s got to be something that stands proudly.”
Ambassador Brady recalls a Bangarra performance he attended while working with former Governor- General Quentin Bryce. “It was one of those moments where you just fall in love with the performance, the message, the authenticity of the performers,” he says. “I made a mental note that if ever I was in the position to give them exposure, I would.”
There is pressure to succeed. “What we’re doing is challenging a rather old stereotype that an Australian quartet or dance theatre can’t be every bit as spectacular. Parisians know their dance, their theatre. They’re not gushy.” Which makes the effusive response Bangarra received in Paris even more remarkable, along with coveted invitations to return for a dedicated season.
For Brown and fellow senior dancer Tara Gower, performing in cities like Paris and Istanbul is a chance to challenge themselves on the global stage. More importantly, they recognise the inevitable truth that international accolades result in more acceptance back home. “If you’ve got the backing of the world to say: ‘Yes, your culture is important’ then you get the support of your country, because I think we’re taken for granted at home,” Brown says. “It’s a very important message. You’re carrying the weight of your history and ancestry, trying to clear a pathway that’s been made so messy by a confusing history, so that future generations can be proud. Because there’s still a huge self-esteem issue.”
There will always be more stories to tell, more adventures to share and Page knows he’ll never hear it all. “My Bangarra family keeps me afloat and will always inspire me,” he says. “You’re learning every day. And every day you’re fulfilled.” OUR land people stories opens at the Sydney Opera House on June 17 before touring nationally. Go to www.bangarra.com.au.
“WHEN WE GO TO COUNTRIES THAT HAVE THAT OLD CULTURAL EXISTENCE WE FEEL CONNECTED”