Image credit Tim Standing
SILENCE - 2024 Tour
SILENCE by Karul Projects
SILENCE is an urgent call for TREATY, highlighting the stories and struggles of Blak communities since colonisation. Through SILENCE, Karul Projects take their place in the lineage of fierce First Nations makers calling for Sovereignty.
Choreographed by Thomas E.S. Kelly, SILENCE is a powerful dance performance, featuring seven performers on a stage slowly engulfed in dirt, representing the call for Land Back.
Is this the Commonwealth of Australia? Yes? This is your Landlords speaking!
Through raw physicality, humorous skits, and a power anthem soundtrack, we disrupt the silence of a 250+ year struggle. The same questions echoed through generations. SILENCE pulls the Treaty conversation out from under the rug and slams it back on the table. Because the conversation about a TREATY cannot be silenced in Australia.
Funny and irreverent and reverberating with power… If you think you know Australian contemporary dance, you haven’t seen SILENCE. With thrashing live drumming and a raw aesthetic, Thomas E.S. Kelly has combined intimate storytelling with significant moments in Australian history as SILENCE interprets an ongoing conversation for a new generation.
There’s SILENCE between the stars as the Emu travels across the night sky. There’s SILENCE in the dancer’s energy when they hit the cut, the rupture between rhythms and movement creating a vibrational glitch for the spirit world to enter. It’s also the deafening SILENCE under White noise.
We have marched across our Country. We have had promises made and promises broken. We stand on a stage, to the beating of a live drum kit, as bodies thrash through white noise to continue the conversation. Towards action. Towards resolution.
Jhindu Lawrie’s audacious rock drumming full of dynamism, grunge and raw power calls back to Thomas E.S. Kelly’s choreography, in brash, yet vulnerable and visceral scenes, with Kelly’s trademark charm and wit interspersed in between.
Karul Projects is an emerging First Nations professional contemporary dance company based on Minjungbal Country, founded in 2017 by Thomas E.S. Kelly, Minjungbal-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri and Ni-Vanuatu, and Taree Sansbury, Kaurna, Narrunga and Ngarrindjerri.
Image by Simon Woods
Tour dates and locations:
THE MAJ, Boorloo (1-2 MAY)
His Majesty’s Theatre (Perth)
1 & 2 May 2024
60min duration, no interval
Ages 12+
Water based haze, dirt, dust and strobe lighting will be used in this performance.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audiences are advised that this show references people who have died.
About Karul Projects
Thomas E.S. Kelly and Taree Sansbury, met at NAISDA Dance College on the Central Coast of New South Wales in 2009. They have worked professionally together ever since, creating their own dance-theatre works, choreographing and performing for companies nationally. Thomas and Taree created Karul Projects in 2017, to create more opportunities for employment and skill building for First Nations artists.
Creatives / Cast:
Thomas E.S. Kelly (Choreographer/Writer/Performer) Minjungbal-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri and Ni-Vanuatu
Taree Sansbury (Rehearsal Director/Performer) Kaurna, Narrunga and Ngarrindjerri
Vicki Van Hout (Choreographic Dramaturg) Wiradjuri
Alethea Beetson (Dramaturg) Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi and Wiradjuri
Jhindu-Pedro Lawrie (Percussion Composer/Performer) Mirning and Wuthathi
Benjin Maza (Performer) Yidindji, Birri Gubba, Meriam Mer and Tanna Island
Glory Tuohy-Daniell (Performer) Indjalandji-Dhidhanu and Alyewarre
Keia McGrady (Performer) Githabul Migunberri-Yugumbeh
Olivia Adams (Performer) Wulli Wulli
Tamara Bouman (Performer Understudy) Birpai
Sam Pankhurst (Music/Sound Designer)
Karen Norris (Lighting Designer)
Selene Cochrane (Costume Designer)
Header image by Gregory Lorenzutti
The national tour has received financial assistance from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.
The Perth presentation is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland's Grow Market Development Fund.
SILENCE is produced by BlakDance. The premiere production in 2020 was co-commissioned by BlakDance, HOTA Home of the Arts, City of Gold Coast, Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Brisbane Festival, with support by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
The Other Side Of Me - WA / NT Tour
THE OTHER SIDE OF ME - Gary Lang NT DANCE COMPANY
Following the success of their 2022 show Waŋa, NT Dance Company offer a powerful, moving dance duet that navigates the limits of physical expression.
Image by Paz Tassone
The Other Side of Me by Gary Lang shares the tragedy of Stolen Generations through the heartbreaking story of one man stranded between two families, continents and cultures. This achingly intimate dance duet confronts the destruction wrought by Motherland and colony still felt by First Nations people, but offers the redemptive beauty of singing his spirit home.
West and Central Australia Tour locations 2024
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Saturday 27 April 7:30 PM
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as part of Red Earth Arts Festival - REAF 2024
Friday 10 May 8.00 PM
Dance Workshops:
Thursday 9 May 3:30 - 4:30 PM
Thursday 9 May 5:00 - 6:00 PM: ‘Join the Company’ intermediate-advanced dance workshop
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Friday 17 May 7:00 PM
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as part of Garrmalang Festival
Studio Theatre
Wednesday 22 May 7:00 PM
Thursday 23 May 7:00 PM
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Saturday 1 June 7:30 PM
About NT Dance Company
GARY LANG ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Born in Darwin, Larrakia man Gary Lang is a NAISDA graduate and alumnus of Bangarra and Dancenorth. Since 2002 Gary Lang has choreographed 9 seminal works in the Aboriginal dance canon, including GOOSE LAGOON, Mokuy, Waŋa (Spirit), Forbidden, Milnjiya, Milky Way' — River of Stars created with the Western Australian Ballet. In 2013, he was honoured with the distinguished Australia Council for the Arts’ Dance Board Fellowship.
Creatives / Artists:
Gary Lang (Choreographer) Larrakia
Josephine Crawshaw (Cultural Consultant) Kalkarindji
Jesse Norris (Cultural Consultant) Torres Strait Island descendent
Banula Marika (Cultural Consultant, Songman) Yolŋu
Erica McCallum (NT Dance Company General Manager)
Elizabeth Rogers (Project Manager)
Noelle Shader (Rehearsal Director)
Laura Fish (Co-Creator, Dramaturg, Writer)
Liz Pavey (Co-Creator, Dramaturg)
Chandler Connell (Performer) Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal
Alexander Abbot (Performer)
Tyrel Dulvarie (Performer - Margaret River + Perth) Yirrganydji
Janet Munyarryun (Voice Artist) Yolŋu
Samuel Pankhurst (Composer/Sound Designer)
Arian Pearson (Sound Designer) Yolŋu
Samuel James (Video Artist)
Joseph Mercurio (Lighting Designer)
Jennifer Irwin (Costume Designer)
BlakDance (Tour Producer)
The story is based on actual events. However, names, incidents and timelines have been changed for dramatic purposes. All characters depicted in the production are composites or fictitious. Any similarity to the original story, or of fictitious characters to an actual person, living or dead, is coincidental and unintentional.
The Other Side of Me is produced by Gary Lang NT Dance Company with the tour produced by BlakDance. The national tour has received financial assistance from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
The production is a collaboration between Gary Lang NT Dance Company and Northumbria University, UK. It has received financial support through the Northern Territory Government, Regional Arts Australia, the British Council, Creative Australia, Brisbane Festival and Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
The work premiered in 2023 in Darwin Festival at the Darwin Entertainment Centre.
The Complication of Lyrebirds
by Jasmin Sheppard, Tagalaka and Kurtitjar
Date Premiered: January 2021
The Complication of Lyrebirds is a 55 minute First Nations contemporary dance work designed to break away from the social expectations of what it means to look or sound Aboriginal.
What if colonisation denied your family access to their culture? What then makes you Aboriginal? The lyrebird adopts the calls of others to appear attractive, yet there is an authentic identity to the bird that is no mere mimic.
Jasmin Sheppard (Choreographer) and Kaine Sultan Babij (Co-Collaborator) perform on stage with a 3 projector setup. The history of the White Australia Policy is re-contextualised as choreographic tools with other media; evocative voice overs, highly detailed props and video projection, from a team of brilliant creatives Carly Sheppard (Dramaturg), Naretha Williams (Sound), Cris Derksen (Composer), Samuel James (Video), Karen Norris (Lighting), Emily Adolfini (Props) and Fiona Holley (Costume).
Artist-led education programs alongside presentations introduce students to Indigenous choreographic processes with learning around dance appreciation, performance and composition. Post Show Q&A and forums are offered to create a discussion about the diverse themes of the work.
The work premiered at Sydney Festival 2021 in conjunction with Campbelltown Arts Centre, and Native Earth Theatre Company, Toronto.
The creative development and premiere of the work was supported by Campbelltown Arts Centre.
This powerful First Nations dance show is a thoughtful highlight of Sydney Festival 2021. The Complication of Lyrebirds asks us to acknowledge that all First Nations people are unique, that they have their own journey to follow and histories to draw upon.
STEPHEN A RUSSELL, Time Out 2020
Images by Sam James.
Jasmin Sheppard is a contemporary dancer, choreographer and director, a Tagalaka Aboriginal woman with Irish, Chinese and Hungarian ancestry. She spent 12 years with Bangarra Dance Theatre, her performance acclaimed by critics as “powerfully engaging, fluent dexterity” (Sydney Morning Herald). Jasmin choreographed a major work for the company ‘MACQ’, which toured Australia and Germany. In 2012 Jasmin was nominated for an Australian Dance award for ‘Best Female Contemporary Dancer’. In 2017 ‘MACQ’ was nominated for a Helpmann Award for best dance work as a part of ‘OUR Land People Stories’ and in 2018 received a Helpmann for best regional touring program. Other works include ‘No Remittance’ for Legs on the Wall and ‘Choice Cut’ for Yirramboi festival, which debuted at Toronto’s ‘Fall For Dance North’ Festival 2019. Jasmin premiered her main stage production ‘The Complication of Lyrebirds’ at Sydney Festival 2021 and in 2021 also co-directed ‘Value For Money’ alongside Sara Black for GUTS Dance, receiving rave reviews with seasons at Araluen Arts Centre and Darwin Festival. Jasmin created ‘Given Unto Thee’ for Sydney Dance Company’s 2021 New Breed program and was performer, movement director and associate writer for S Shakthidharan’s: 宿 (stay), presented by Sydney Festival 2022 in partnership with OzAsia. Her work is passionate, political and described as “surreal and highly evocative” (The Australian). Jasmin Sheppard is supported by BlakDance, established in 2005, a national industry and producing organisation for First Nations contemporary dancers and choreographers.