Bangarra Dance Theatre: Contemporary Aboriginal dance company

We dance when there's a big ceremony like an initiation ceremony…, we dance when there's a death in the family. We celebrate life and death through dance. —Kathy Balngayngu Marika, Aboriginal elder and Bangarra Dance Theatre dancer [7]

Bangarra Dance Theatre is one of Australia's most successful Aboriginal performing arts companies, fusing Aboriginal culture with contemporary dance. The company celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009.

'Bangarra' means 'to make fire' in the Wiradjuri language of south-east Australia and is reflected in the company's logo. Their artistic director and choreographer is Stephen Page who danced with the Sydney Dance Company before being appointed in 1991.

Frances Rings, who has been with Bangarra since 1993, started as a dancer, then became the contemporary dance company's choreographer. She moved on from Bangarra in 2005 to work as a freelance choreographer in Australia and the United States.

"I love that dance has a healing quality. The most tragic stories can become something beautiful," Rings says [1]. "At Bangarra, I love that the dance is not shoving things down your throat saying, 'Yeah, you white people have done this and that'. Instead it's saying we've got this amazing, beautiful culture here. We've had social issues, we've had genocide, we've had these things happen to us but look at what we have now. We can tell our stories with the majesty and poetry that the best dance can deliver and through a contemporary dance language that also holds the traces of a culture that is thousands of years old.

"I can see we have a responsibility to these stories and every time we perform them and pass these stories on, it changes people's lives.

"When you sit down and see a Bangarra show, you don't realise you've just been given a 50-minute history lesson, you just feel like you've been taken on a journey and it comes back to you in waves... You remember things from the show when you're making a cup of tea the next day."

Dance doesn't always have to be a high octane bash-and-bang performance. It's also about subtlety. —Frances Rings, Bangarra choreographer [2]

The dancing grounds are where we connect with our ancestors, where our heritage, language and identity are passed on. —Phillemon Mosby, Torres Strait Island regional councillor [3]

Bangarra timeline of performances

Year	Performance
1992	Praying Mantis Dreaming Praying Mantis Dreaming tells the story of a young Aboriginal girl on her journey from her traditional homelands to the city. The Spirit of the Preying Mantis Dreaming watches over both worlds, guiding and protecting the Aboriginal inhabitants, and encouraging the girl to seek her cultural heritage.
1993	Ninni (no further information available)
1995	Ochres Ochres is a work in four parts which explores the mystical significance of ochre, inspired by its spiritual and medicinal power. Chapters: Prologue - Yellow - Black - Red and White.
1997	Fish Fish celebrates the seas, the rivers, the swamps and the wealth of life and mystery they contain. Chapters: Swamp - Traps - Reef. Rites (no further information available)
1999	The Dreaming Steeped in the cultural heritage of Aboriginal people The Dreaming combines ancient myth with electrifying movement and music from the contemporary urban world. It journeys across Australia's sweeping landscapes and waters resonating with the spirit of the country and its people.
2000	Skin Skin is about the complexities of Aboriginal kinship. It is about accepting and respecting it - and that it is still alive. Chapters: Shelter - Spear. Awakenings (no further information available)
2001	Corroboree (no further information available)
2002	Walkabout Walkabout traces an extraordinary history of indigenous struggle and survival from the early missions and stations of outback Australia to the neon soaked streets of our modern day cities. Rations and Rush (double bill) (no further information available)
2003	Bush Bush is inspired by the Dreamtime creation stories of Arnhem Land. From the last breath of sunset to the first finger-light of dawn, the audience enters a mysterious and secret space - reptilian creatures slither from dark caves, a moth emerges from its cocoon, the land erupts pushing up mountains and carving waterholes - the world is being born.
2004	Clan: Unaipon and Reflections (double bill) Unaipon is inspired by the life and vibrant intellect of Aboriginal inventor, writer and philosopher, David Unaipon, who is featured on the Australian $50 note. Reflections brings together excerpts from milestone works such as Ochres, Fish and Skin which are woven together into one sensual and emotive theatrical experience.
2005	Boomerang Caught between two worlds - one ancient, one modern - a family returns to their traditional land to rekindle the sacred wisdom of the past for future generations. Spirit The majority of Spirit features highlights from the company's sell-out production Bush, as well as treasured moments from Bangarra's vast repertoire.
2006	Gathering An electrifying meeting place between Indigenous Australian culture and contemporary Western dance, this landmark production brings together dancers from Bangarra and The Australian Ballet. Gathering is made of two dance works - Rites and Amalgamate - and explores contemporary and ancient Australian cultures with drama, imagination and physicality.
2007	True Stories: Emeret Lu and X300 (double bill) Emeret Lu ('Very Old Things') - the passion and energy of the traditional people of the Torres Strait Islands. Choreographer Elma Kris explores her peoples' love of the land, the sea and their unique culture with an exuberance handed down from generation to generation. Between 1955 and 1963 a series of British atomic explosions were conducted on Maralinga, Tjarutja traditional lands in the remote western areas of South Australia. The code name of the test site was X300. This work powerfully and spectacularly explores a landscape assumed vacant but which in reality became a contaminated desert which poisoned the people.
2008	Mathinna Inspired by a young girl's journey between two cultures, Mathinna traces the fragmented history of a young Tasmanian Aboriginal girl removed from her traditional life and adopted into Western colonial society, only to be ultimately returned to the fragments of her original heritage. At Oyster Cove, Tasmania, a colonial settlement from the 1800s, 47 Aboriginal people, including the young Mathinna, were incarcerated. Mathinna was forced to move to Oyster Cove in 1847 along with the other Indigenous people who had been relocated to Wybalenna on Flinder's Island after being compulsorily and officially removed from their traditional lands across Tasmania by the colonial government of the times. At Oyster Cove, Mathinna took to heavy drinking, which contributed to her tragic death by drowning in 1852. She was only 21 years old.
2009	Fire - A Retrospective Fire - A Retrospective features the most memorable and potent elements of the company's repertoire during this extraordinary and dynamic artistic period.
2010	Of Earth and Sky This double-bill shows Artefacts which was inspired by the history between man and object and is choreographed by Frances Rings. Daniel Riley McKinley's Riley is his first choreographic endeavour for Bangarra and celebrates Indigenous photographer Michael Riley.
2011	Belong Belong features two dance theatre pieces: ID by Artistic Director Stephen Page draws upon his personal experiences of observing contemporary Indigenous people tracing their bloodlines, re-connecting with their traditional heritage and living modern Aboriginal lives in a challenging urban society. About by dancer and choreographer Elma Kris was inspired by creation stories from Saibai Island, located in the Torres Strait between the Australian mainland and the island of New Guinea. Elma Kris weaves a contemporary fusion of song and dance, reflecting the exuberance of Torres Strait Islander cultures.
2012	Night Sky Night Sky is a collaboration between Bangarra and the Australian Ballet Company, Australia's national ballet company, as part of their 50th Anniversary celebrations. For the first time The Australian Ballet help tell a traditional Aboriginal story – that of the night skies of Arnhem Land, beginning with the first evening star. Terrain Inspired by the landscape of one of Australia's greatest natural wonders Terrain explores the metamorphosis and timeless beauty that is Lake Eyre.

Bangarra has always been to me the embodiment of my contemporary Aboriginal culture and identity. —Prof Larissa Behrendt, Aboriginal lawyer and Bangarra board member [4]

Fact: Bangarra has a special 'paint up' room where ochre and paint is applied for the performance. The entire room is covered in black plastic to protect the décor and has to be mopped down every night [6].

Fact: Dancer/choreographer Daniel Riley McKinley is covered from head to toe in grey paint at the beginning of Artefact, and has only one minute and forty-five seconds to remove it backstage before he has to re-appear in another section of the work [6].

For more information and performance schedule check out www.bangarra.com.au.

[1] 'Fire starters', SMH Spectrum 8/8/2009 p.7 [2] 'Rooted to the earth, talking through the body', Arts Yarn Up, Summer 2008 p.9 [3] 'Displays highlight strength of culture', Koori Mail 505 p.54 [4] 'Bangarra's fire burns brightly', Koori Mail 447 p.3 [5] Bangarra Songlines newsletter, April 2010 [6] Bangarra Songlines newsletter, August 2010 [7] 'Strong in her culture', Koori Mail 513 p.21