2020 Annual Report Bangarra Dance Theatre Annual Report 2020 | 1 Bennelong rehearsal photo, featuring (L to R) Elma Kris, Beau Dean Riley Smith, Rika Hamaguchi and Nicola Sabatino (Jan 2020) 2 | Connecting with Community CONTENTS Chair’s Report 4 Artistic Director’s Report 6 Executive Director’s Report 8 Company Profile 12 A Year in Review 14 Awards 16 Our Mission 18 Experiences 21 Connecting with Community 32 Youth and Outreach Programs 38 Russell Page Graduate Program 42 Returning to the Wharf 44 The Year Ahead 46 The Company 48 Partners 52 Patrons 54 Board of Directors 58 Governance 61 Image credits 63 CHAIR’S REPORT I was honoured to take on the role of Chair of guidance and leadership navigating our way Bangarra Dance Theatre in April 2020, after through this year. Our thanks also goes to acting as the Interim Chair for the previous Stephen Page, Frances Rings and all the five months. I have long admired the qualities Bangarra team for their agility, resilience, of kinship, respect, cultural integrity and energy and focus on connecting with our connection inherent in the company, and in audiences and caring for our Community. this challenging year I witnessed these values I acknowledge the support of the Federal provide the strong foundation for facing and NSW governments, and the many private adversity with resilience and strength. companies and individuals that support During the year we welcomed three new us. I would also acknowledge International Board members – in March we welcomed Towers, for providing such a welcoming back Lynn Ralph to assist Bangarra navigate temporary home whilst our studios at the COVID-19 impacts and new appointees Wharf underwent renovation. Returning to Richard Eccles and Ian Roberts who Walsh Bay was a fitting end to 2020, but we joined the Board in August 2020. It was an will miss the connection with the Barangaroo extraordinary time to join as we continued community in what was a serendipitous our connection online and met more alignment of culture and values. frequently so we could be responsive and Inspired by a major gift from Phil Rounsevell provide support to the organisation. Our and Nelson Estrella, we established our immediate priorities at the start of the Cultural Integrity Maintenance Fund. COVID-19 restrictions were to ensure that The Fund provides support to ensure we maintained a safe and supportive work continuation of cultural maintenance and environment for our Dancers and staff, preservation of songs and stories. preserved our organisational culture and protected the organisation’s cash reserves. Our return to the Wharf at the end of December 2020 was a joyful company event, Our new Executive Director Lissa Twomey, not just to celebrate a stunning new working in an unusual first week in a new role, joined environment, but to honour the contributions the company the very day the first COVID-19 of past board members, funders and public health orders were introduced. Lissa’s supporters to achieve this great milestone more than 25 years’ experience in the arts in the company’s journey. I thank the NSW and cultural sectors were immediately government for its vision and significant apparent and we are thankful for her investment in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. 4 | Bangarra Dance Theatre Annual Report 2020 Nicola Sabatino rehearsing for Bennelong (Jan 2020) As we emerge from 2020, our minds go to those communities in other parts of the world less fortunate than us. I would like to thank Tony Grybowski for his valuable contribution as Interim Executive Director and my fellow Board members for their expertise and determination to ensure Bangarra’s sustainability and continued evolution. The stringent measures the Board and our team put in place to respond quickly and effectively to the impacts of COVID-19 has meant that we are well placed to meet the challenges and uncertainty ahead. We continue to deliver our impactful work and connect in meaningful ways with our audiences and communities, though remain cautiously optimistic as we approach the 2021 world premiere of our new work SandSong: Stories from the Great Sandy Desert and cross borders with our national and regional tours. Phillipa McDermott Chair, Bangarra Dance Theatre Bangarra Dance Theatre Annual Report 2020 | 5 ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S REPORT 2020 saw Bangarra enter its fourth decade. Desert, a work which will honour and pay The company had just undergone a period tribute to Ningali’s life and legacy. Time on of regeneration and renewal, and we looked Country provides the cultural creative seeds forward to commencing a new cultural which Bangarra is then entrusted to carry creative cycle, which included returning home to cultivate further – all the while home to our newly refurbished studios on maintaining and tending the integrity Gadigal Country. of the cultural knowledge shared. All of Bangarra’s works speak to the When COVID-19 hit, the impact on the arts resilience and strength of People, Land industry was immediate and severe, but and Story, but in a year in which the as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Black Lives Matter movement entered the collective, Bangarra is innately resilient. international mainstream consciousness, Our immediate concern was to ensure and on the eve of the 30th anniversary the health and wellbeing of our extended of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Bangarra clan, and to provide the necessary Deaths in Custody, Bennelong in particular support so that the Dancers remained safe is a work which speaks to the core issues of and strong during lockdown. contemporary Australian identity, colonial Lockdown provided a valuable opportunity mythmaking, and the legacies of structural for reflection on our purpose, our obligations racism still experienced today. We were very within the community and our purpose grateful to have the opportunity to present within the cultural landscape of Australia. Bennelong at Perth Festival and to then tour What became quickly apparent was people’s to communities across regional Western need for continued connection, and the Australia, sparking reflection and dialogue. unique importance and role of storytelling Whilst in Western Australia, I travelled with as a conscious human medicine. Bangarra Associate Artistic Director Frances Rings, launched a new digital engagement initiative, Head of Design Jacob Nash, Composer Nandhu, which allowed audiences to journey Steve Francis and Community Engagement through Bangarra’s digital archive Knowledge Manager Libby Collins to spend time on Ground, we moved our Youth and Education Country with Wangkatjunga and Walmajarri workshops online, and – in collaboration Elders and representatives of Ningali with Sydney Opera House, the ABC, and Lawford-Wolf’s family for the development The Australian Ballet – streamed some of of SandSong: Stories from the Great Sandy Bangarra’s most iconic works, Bennelong, 6 Terrain, Ochres and Warumuk – in the dark dancer, Kiarn Doyle, to the company and night online. launched a new Russell Page Graduate Program Scholarship program in partnership We reached new audiences through two new with Sydney Dance Company, offering documentaries. FREEMAN, the inspirational scholarships for two early-career dancers, story of Cathy Freeman and her historic win Maddison Paluch and Edan Porter. at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which reached an audience of 1,450,000 and was the most In December we returned to our home watched documentary of 2020 on ABC iview. stomping ground at the Wharf. We are Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra, also had its enormously grateful to be able to resume world premiere screening. This film, which tells creating in a place that represents the the story of Bangarra’s evolution as a unique achievements and legacy of the many cultural foundation, was received with critical Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander acclaim and went on to win numerous awards. Creatives, Artists and Cultural Knowledge Holders from across Australia who, since A few days prior to lockdown, we welcomed 1997, have collectively created an incredible new Executive Director, Lissa Twomey, to 50 works on this site to date. I would like Bangarra. She and I immediately began to pay special tribute to my brothers, to work with the Board to ensure that the David and Russell, who inspire us always. company was able to emerge intact at the end of 2020. Sincere thanks to Lissa, our A final thank you to my creative collaborators Chair Phillipa McDermott, and my fellow Frances Rings and Jacob Nash, for walking board members for their steadfast leadership with me shoulder to shoulder throughout and governance of the company. this last year, and for their incredible wisdom, creativity, humour and grace. Within this The Dancers demonstrated incredible challenging start to the new decade we have fortitude and adaptability to working found strength in knowing Bangarra’s value in remotely, and I would like to thank them this world, in realising how important our voice all for their sustained creative curiosity is to the peoples and cultures we represent, throughout. Frances and I used time in and the message we send to the world. It gave lockdown to continue to workshop and us a tough goanna skin to know that even creatively develop SandSong: Stories from though we were isolated, we had strength the Great Sandy Desert, as well as learning in this together. We knew that if we could repertoire from the last 31 years – feeding stay connected to story and Country, then dancers’ bodies and minds with cultural when theatres eventually opened back up knowledge. Thank you to Sidney Saltner, and audiences and artists were able to come Sani Townson, Daniel Roberts, and the together in person again, our shared cultural Bangarra team who worked with passion resilience would allow us to walk forward, and commitment during such a difficult year. stronger together, into this changed world.