<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>332275</docID> <postdate>2024-11-02 08:23:46</postdate> <headline>Illume: Capturing light and Country through dance</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-332276" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/bangarra-e1730496151653.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533" /></p> <caption>Bangarra Dance Theatre has collaborated with a visual artist to produce a new work, Illume. Photo: supplied</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Keira Jenkins</strong> in Brisbane</span></p> <p><strong>Darrell Sibosado's Country on WA's Dampier Peninsula has a particular "vibration".</strong></p> <p>And this is the vibration the Bard man from Lombadina community, 200km north of Broome, aims to capture in his art practice.</p> <p>"There's a pulse to it and that's what I'm always trying to do, what I'm always trying to replicate," he told AAP.</p> <p>Sibosado's people are renowned shell carvers, a practice passed down through generations.</p> <p>The riji, or pearl shell designs, represent the scales shed by Aalingoon, the Rainbow Snake, as he rests on the ocean surface, containing traditional knowledge and beliefs.</p> <p>"That's where my practice originates from, and that's what I do today, basically lift the etchings we've traditionally done on shell or mother of pearl," Sibosado said.</p> <p>"Our traditional carvings are quite small and most of them are in museums ... so what I'm trying to do is take that and put it in a more contemporary space and make it a bit accessible to everyone."</p> <p>Inspired by his work, choreographer and artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, Frances Rings sought to collaborate with Sibosado.</p> <p>The result of the collaboration is Illume, combining the two mediums of dance and visual arts, exploring the phenomena of light.</p> <p>The exploration of light is an important one, and opens up numerous themes to explore, which Rings said will be fleshed out with the Lombadina community.</p> <p>"Some of the themes we're inspired by, that we're looking at exploring is some of the environmental concerns we have around light pollution," she said.</p> <p>"We're obviously in a climate emergency, and the impacts of that affect our ability to see the night sky and to see the sky lore and sky Country, and it's unregulated.</p> <p>"That's deeply concerning to us and to elders and communities ... Light pollution affects knowledge systems of migration patterns and seasons."</p> <p>It's the first time Bangarra has collaborated with a visual artist, Rings says.</p> <p>"I hope it will create a multi-dimensional kind of experience, where we get to integrate dance and visual arts," she said.</p> <p>"Those incredible design elements of lighting, of music and set design elements that work alongside and represent this incredible First Nations cultural storytelling in contemporary form."</p> <p>While Sibosado said he hopes the finished product represents the feeling of his Country, while his works add another layer to the magic of a Bangarra performance.</p> <p>"What I'm hoping with this work... that it will vibrate like my Country vibrates," he said.</p> <p>"Trying to make sure that audiences walk away actually feeling the essence and the rhythm of my Country.</p> <p>"It's all salt water so our whole culture up here is all directed and moved according to the way of the ocean."</p> <p><em>Illume will tour the country, beginning in Sydney on May 25, before heading to Perth, Albany, Canberra, Brisbane, Darwin and Melbourne.</em></p> </body>