News location:

Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: Bangarra still surprises

EVEN after nearly 25 years as Australia’s vanguard indigenous dance company Bangarra Dance Theatre still manages to surprise, move and inform.

Its latest work “Blak”, combining the choreographic skills and imaginations of Stephen Page and Daniel Riley McKinley is a cohesive, visually arresting and superbly danced creation.

Bangarra Media Call 087Presented in one act divided into three sections, the first section “Scar”, choreographed by Riley McKinley, commences with a group of young men dancing in a circle. A corroboree or an urban bonfire? Among screaming sirens, glaring headlights and cleverly stylised fights, they smear themselves with white paint and exchange T-shirts which they carry in their mouths like ceremonial regalia.

Brilliant lighting, a driving, evocative soundscape and the clever use of contemporary and traditional movement are fused by Riley McKinley to blur timelines and suggest the timelessness of the testosterone-fuelled behaviour of young men searching for identity.

No less affecting is the gentler second section, “Yearning”, superbly choreographed by Stephen Page, in which the women of the company dance a series of vignettes illustrating a grandmother’s grief over a young girl’s suicide, the loss of native language, domestic violence and the search for self-identity. For this section the costumes of Luke Ede are particularly beautiful.

For the final section, “Keepers”, the company, and the choreographers, combine for a spectacular ceremonial that begins around a huge rock belching smoke and cleansing water. Brilliant dancing from the entire company, a stunning soundscape and magnificent set and costume design combine in this powerful sequence, which ends with a spectacular curtain of sand, perhaps signifying the timelessness of the struggle for indigenous identity.

Despite the seriousness of some of the topics, “Blak” is a spectacular and celebratory work in which the dance and production skills of Bangarra Dance Theatre have seldom been better showcased.

 

 

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews