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Bangarra Dance Theatre

Bangarra Dance Theatre at Australian Human Rights Commission event in 2011
Formation	1989; 35 years ago (1989)
Founder	Carole Y. Johnson, Rob Bryant, Cheryl Stone
Purpose	Indigenous Australian contemporary dance company
Website	https://www.bangarra.com.au/

Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance company focused on contemporary dance. It was founded by African American dancer and choreographer Carole Y. Johnson, Gumbaynggirr man Rob Bryant, and South African-born Cheryl Stone. Bangarra (pronounced bungurra) means "to make fire" in the Wiradjuri language.

Stephen Page was artistic director from 1991 to 2021, with Frances Rings taking over in 2022. The company has received many Helpmann Awards as well as other accolades. To date (2024), Bennelong (2017) and Dark Emu (2018) have been Bangarra's most successful works, playing to huge audiences around the country.

History

Bangarra Dance Theatre was founded in October 1989 by Carole Y. Johnson, an African-American modern dancer and founder of the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA), Rob Bryant, a Gumbaynggirr man and graduate of NAISDA, and Cheryl Stone, a South African-born student at NAISDA.

Clive Joseph Robin "Rob" Bryant (later known as Uncle Rob Bryant), born in Bellingen, New South Wales in 1947, was a retired leading aircraftman of the RAAF and a Vietnam veteran. Stone had been born in South Africa, growing up in Cape Town and moving to Australia as a teenager in 1969. She participated in the six-week Black Theatre workshop established by Johnson in Redfern, Sydney, in 1975

Johnson toured Australia in 1972 with American choreographer Eleo Pomare and his company, and remained in Australia. In 1975, Johnson became the founding director of the Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Scheme, now known as the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA).

Johnson had a three-part plan for Aboriginal dance in Australia. It was to establish a school to give academic qualifications, and train dancers as members of a student and graduate performing company that would also teach. It would further provide a path for the dancers to other dance-related areas, including choreography, tour management, and all front and back of house skills. The other key aim was to maintain authentic cultural continuity, friendships, and close ties to traditional communities. Johnson mentored Stone, who studied alongside the dancers. She planned the formation of Bangarra Dance Theatre and, in 1989, became its founding artistic director. Bangarra is a Wiradjuri word meaning "to make fire".

Stephen Page has been the artistic director since 1991. Bangarra's first full-length show, Praying Mantis Dreaming, was produced in 1992. In 1994, Page, with Bernadette Walong as associate director, created Ochres and productions have followed annually since 2000. All have been successful within Australia and some have toured the United States and the United Kingdom. The group also made significant contributions to the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. The opening ceremony was co-directed by Stephen Page along with Rhoda Roberts, and Page co-choreographed a segment called Awakening, which was narrated by Ernie Dingo.

Bennelong (2017) and Dark Emu (2018), were Bangarra's biggest ever works, playing to around 70,000 people across the country. Dark Emu was co-created by Stephen Page with former Bangarra dancers Daniel Riley and Yolande Brown, inspired by Bruce Pascoe's book of the same name. It became the most successful production in Bangarra's history, and was highly critically acclaimed.

In 2019, the company marked its thirtieth anniversary with the launch of a digital archive and exhibition called Knowledge Ground.

In early December 2021, Page announced that he would be stepping down from the role of artistic director in 2022, handing over to Frances Rings, former dancer and choreographer with Bangarra and later associate artistic director. Bangarra's last performance with Page as director was Wudjang: Not the Past, which premiered at the Sydney Festival in January 2022 before touring to Hobart and then Adelaide as part of the Adelaide Festival in March 2022.

In 2023, Rings, a Kokatha woman, was choreographer and artistic director for the company's new work, Yuldea. It tells the story of the South Australian town of Ooldea, which was settled in the early 20th century as it was close to the water source known as "Yooldil Kapi" by the Aboriginal groups who lived in the area, including the Kokatha, Mirning, and Wirangu peoples. Rings' father, a German migrant, worked on the railway, and her mother was born nearby. Yuldea has four acts – Supernova, Kapi (Water), Empire, and Ooldea Spirit. The creative team included Gamilaroi astronomer Karlie Noon, and musical duo Electric Fields, and Bangarra's chief composer, Leon Rodgers. The voices of people from Yalata were recorded for the last track.

Waru – journey of the small turtle, directed by Stephen Page and written by his son Hunter Page-Lochard, premiered in Sydney in 2023, and ran for two seasons before going on tour from 26 June to 9 November 2024. It was the first children's work performed by Bangarra, and won Best Production for Children in the Sydney Theatre Awards in 2023.

People

Page brothers

• Stephen Page AO, artistic director 1991–2021
• David Page (1961–2016), composer and musical director
• Russell Page (1968–2002), dancer

Others

• Raymond D. Blanco, who featured in the film Jindalee Lady (1992), was former Head of Culture and Training Operations at NAISDA, and the first Indigenous Australian to lead a dance company when he took over the reins of the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre in 1991
• Lillian Crombie, dancer
• Ella Havelka, dancer
• Elma Gada Kris, dancer and choreographer
• Banula Marika, dancer and musician
• Ningali Lawford-Wolf
• Daniel Riley, dancer and choreographer, artistic director of Australian Dance Theatre from 2022
• Frances Rings, dancer and choreographer, artistic director from 2022

Works

• 1992 – Praying Mantis Dreaming
• 1995 – Ochres
• 1997 – Fish
• 1997 – Rites (with The Australian Ballet)
• 2000 – Skin (Spear, 2015 film, based on this)
• 2001 – Corroboree
• 2002 – Walkabout
• 2003 – Bush
• 2004 – Unaipon
• 2004 – CLAN
• 2005 – Boomerang
• 2006 – Gathering with the Australian Ballet
• 2007 – True Stories
• 2008 – Mathinna, based on the life of Palawa girl Mathinna
• 2008 — Rites (with The Australian Ballet)
• 2009 — Fire – A Retrospective
• 2010 – of earth & sky
• 2012 – Terrain
• 2013 – Blak
• 2014 – Patyegarang and Kinship
• 2015 – lore
• 2016 – OUR land people stories
• 2017 – Bennelong
• 2018 – Dubboo - life of a songman
• 2018 — Dark Emu
• 2019 — Spirit
• 2023 – Yuldea
• 2023 – Waru – journey of the small turtle

Discography

Albums

Films

• Jindalee Lady (1992), featuring then lead dancer Raymond Blanco. This was the first fiction feature film directed by an Aboriginal director (Brian Syron).
• Spear (2015) – drama film directed by Stephen Page, based on the live performance Skin (2000).
• Firestarter – The Story of Bangarra (2020) is a feature-length documentary film about the dance company, directed by Nel Minchin and Wayne Blair. It covers 30 years of Bangarra's existence, charting the story of the three Page brothers' (Stephen, David and youngest brother, the dancer Russell) roles in the development of the company. The film had its world premiere as the closing night film of the Brisbane International Film Festival on 11 October 2020, and eight days later won the Adelaide Film Festival's Feature Documentary Award.

Awards and nominations

The company has received the Helpmann Award for Best Ballet or Dance Work a number of times.

Australian Dance Awards

The Australian Dance Awards recognise excellence and promote dance in Australia. They are awarded under the auspices of the Australian Dance Council (Ausdance) for performance, choreography, design, dance writing, teaching and related professions. they commenced in 1997.

Deadly Awards

The Deadly Awards, (commonly known simply as The Deadlys), was an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community. They ran from 1996 to 2013.

Helpmann Awards

The Helpmann Awards is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia since 2001. Note: 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards

The Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards commenced in 1984 and recognise outstanding achievements in dance, drama, comedy, music, opera, circus and puppetry.

See also

• Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern
• Dance in Australia
• NAISDA Dance College
• National Black Theatre (Australia)

References

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Further reading

• "Bangarra Dance Theatre". Ausstage. Flinders University.
• "Bangarra Dance Theatre Australia". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust.
• "Carole Johnson" (podcast and text). Delving into Dance. 17 September 2017.
• "Johnson, Carole (1940-)", Trove, 2012
• Tan, Teresa (13 December 2019). "Bangarra Dance Theatre marks 30 years with digital archive and exhibition". ABC News. ABC Arts. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

External links

• Bangarra Dance Theatre
• Knowledge Ground

• Contemporary dance companies
• Dance companies in Australia
• Organisations serving Indigenous Australians
• 1989 establishments in Australia