Bangarra Dance Theatre

BANGARRA DANCE THEATRE STUDY GUIDE FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY Bangarra Dance Theatre pays respect and acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet, create, and perform. We also wish to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples whose customs and cultures inspire our work. INDIGENOUS CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (ICIP) Bangarra acknowledges the industry standards and protocols set by the Australia Council for the Arts Protocols for Working with Indigenous Artists (2007). Those protocols have been widely adopted in the Australian arts to respect ICIP and to develop practices and processes for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and cultural heritage. Bangarra incorporates ICIP into the very heart of our projects, from storytelling, to dance, to set design, language and music. © Bangarra Dance Theatre 2019 Last updated August 2019 WARNING Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this Study Guide contains names of and quotes from deceased persons. Photo Credits Front Cover: Deborah Brown, photo by Greg Barrett Back Cover: Deborah Brown, photo by Greg Barrett 2 INTRODUCTION CONTENTS Terrain is Bangarra Dance Theatre’s twentieth production and was the first full-length work for 03 the company by Choreographer and Associate Introduction Artistic Director, Frances Rings. 04 Using this Study Guide Landscape is at the core of our existence 05 and is a fundamental connection between Contemporary Indigenous Dance Theatre us and the natural world. The power of that connection is immeasurable. It cleanses, 09 it heals, it awakens and it renews. It gives Bangarra Dance Theatre us perspective. It reminds us of something beyond ourselves and it frees us. But more 10 importantly when we are surrounded by Introduction nature we begin to understand our place and how we are a very, very small part of 12 a much larger, much bigger picture. Creating Terrain Terrain is where spirit and place meet. 14 The Creative Team – Frances Rings, Choreographer, Terrain, 2012 16 Further Reading 3 Within Bangarra, and many Aboriginal and Torres Strait USING THIS Islander lives, there is a confronting duality: the balance of ancient and contemporary, STUDY GUIDE country and urban, saltwater and freshwater, success and sadness. Our culture and our stories are more important than ever. – Stephen Page, 2016 The purpose of this Study Guide is to lay the ground for an experience – an experience where inquiry, curiosity, emotion, imagination and response are free to be explored and expressed. In order to experience the dance theatre work Terrain, it is important to delve into the broader and deeper context of the work, taking into account what has gone Before, how we sense the Now, and how we use our experience to enrich the Future. The material in this Study Guide aims to lay the groundwork for how teachers and students might approach and discuss the dance work Terrain, and immerse themselves in its world. We hope you enjoy the experience. I believe storytellers play one of the most important roles in a society. They hold the history of the clan, the lessons learnt, they provide a vocabulary for change, they can entertain, educate, agitate, celebrate… storytellers excite a society, uniting them despite their differences by providing a single moment in time where you feel part of something bigger. – Wesley Enoch, ‘Smell the Air: The Nick Enright Inaugural Speech’, National Play Festival 2018 This Study Guide provides: — Viewpoints, perspectives and background information on contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance theatre — Information about Bangarra Dance Theatre, its history, and its current work — Support material for the study of the work Terrain (2012, with a focus on the creative processes, and Creative Team involved in the creation of the work — Additional reading/links to assist teachers and students in their experience and inquiry of the work Terrain CROSS CURRICULUM PRIORITY TOPICS/THEMES Aboriginal and Torres Strait Indigenous perspectives Islander histories and cultures Contemporary Dance Sustainability Design Literature GENERAL CAPABILITIES Music Critical and creative thinking Storytelling Intercultural understanding Australian Cultures Ethical understanding Australian Society Environmental Science LEARNING AREAS Geography The Arts (Dance, Music, History Visual Arts) Human Rights Humanities and Social Science Religion (History, Civics and Citizenship) Scientific Inquiry Science 4 CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS DANCE THEATRE form, and are able to celebrate the PERSPECTIVES, resilience of Australia’s First Nations people and their ancestors through VOICES AND the sharing of works that depict Indigenous stories, cultures and CULTURES perspectives. The concept of contemporary Indigenous dance theatre cannot It is important to consider the be understood as a categorised language we use when talking genre or a particular form because and writing about Indigenous it exists as part of a continuum that cultures in the context of art: responds to a diversity of culture when it is made, how it is made and and developing perspectives. Any where the source material comes contemporary Indigenous dance from. The general application production that incorporates and understandings of the terms music/sound, design and other ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ conventions of the theatre will can be problematic when critiquing inevitably have a deep purpose Indigenous dance theatre. By fixing and an essential spirit that is, and the term ‘contemporary’ to the will always be, about Aboriginal form, it could be argued that we are and Torres Strait Islander cultures. implying ‘post-colonial’, ‘modern’ While drawing on traditional or ‘non-traditional’. Yet with many stories and cultural ways of new works sourcing their inspiration being, Indigenous dance theatre from the Indigenous cultures that provides an important platform for have existed since ancient times, Indigenous people. It gives voice to what is ‘traditional’ and what is the experience of living in a modern ‘new’ can exist simultaneously. world that experiences constant This is often expressed by saying change, where the threat to cultural Indigenous Australian cultures are identityis relentlessly present. the oldest living, and continuous cultures in the world. The growth in availability of technical resources, an increasing number of performance venues, FORM, and the proliferation of new arts festivals and digital platforms, has ACTIVATION greatly supported the development of new Indigenous dance theatre, AND PROCESS as well as the careers of the many One way of exploring the creative artists involved. As more development of Indigenous dance new work is created, support for theatre over the last three or four the infrastructure and training that decades is to trace the journeys of underpins these forms has also some of the artists who have been grown, resulting in a critical mass significant contributors to that of professional artists involved in development. It should be noted producing high quality productions that while many opportunities have that increase the demand we been opened up for Aboriginal and currently see from audiences in Torres Strait Islanders to develop Australia and internationally. One in their choreographic work and of the most important outcomes of their leadership roles, the true force these developments is the fact that behind this development has been more Aboriginal and Torres Strait the commitment and determination islander people are able to see their of the individual artists themselves. Choreographer Frances Rings with cultures reflected in this unique Deborah Brown, photo by Greg Barrett 5 Artists and leaders like Carole Y. consider themselves activists, and ownership and other interests in Johnson, Stephen Page, Frances there is no doubt that their work has land have been closely associated Rings, Raymond Blanco, Vicki van had a significant impact on the way with human rights, where groups Hout, Gary Lang, and Marilyn Miller, non-Indigenous people have learned can show a perpetual connection are some who have paved the way. about Indigenous cultures and the to the land in order to justify their More recently Elma Kris, Deborah ongoing political struggle of First right to occupy. Brown, Yolande Brown, Daniel Riley, Nations people in the context of Mariaa Randall, Sani Townsen, Jacob post-settlement life. At a community level, the concept Boehme, Ghenoa Gela, Thomas of public, private, individual, or E. S. Kelly, Joel Bray, and Amrita The creative processes of any artist collective ownership of property Hepi are contributing to the ever- tend to emerge through a range of (e.g. land, a house, a business) has growing critical mass of Indigenous influences, discovery and personal developed over just a few thousand contemporary dance in Australia. experience. Yet for Indigenous artists, years. The right to own property these processes are more complex. that has a capital value, possesses Building a skills base has been Respect for cultural protocols, the certain features and resources, can both a challenge and a significant need for community engagement, be bought and sold for profit, and contributor to the development of and a strong commitment to enforce the protection of these interests Indigenous contemporary dance and care for traditional knowledge that and capacities by law, is the dance theatre. The establishment is shared, and/or provided through

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