Reviewed by Frank McKone
July 18
Artistic Director & Co-CEO: Frances Rings
Executive Director & Co-CEO: Louise Ingram
Choreographers: Deborah Brown, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, Sani Townson
Dancers Of Bangarra Dance Theatre
Composers: Steve Francis and Brendon Boney (The Light Inside);
Amy Flannery (Kulka)
Set Designer: Elizabeth Gadsby; Associate Set Designer: Shana O’Brien
Costume Designers: Jennifer Irwin (The Light Inside); Clair Parker (Kulka)
Lighting Designer: Karen Norris
Video Designer: Davis Bergman; Associate Video Designer: Cameron Smith
Featured Music Performer: James Webster (The Light Inside)
Filmed Dancer: Phil Walford (Kulka); Rehearsal Director: Juliette Barton
Kalaw Kawaw Ya Language Consultant: Leonora Adidi (Kulka)
Featured Vocalist: Zipporah Corser-Anu (Kulka)
Stage Manager: Rose Jenkins; Asst Stage Manager: Ashleigh King
Horizon is a major work of outstanding cultural significance. Frances Rings and Louise Ingram have taken Bangarra beyond the company’s traditional horizon, centred largely on the Australian mainland, by commissioning three Islander choreographers.
From the Torres Strait, Sani Townson is of Samu, Koedal and Dhoeybaw clans of Sabai Island and Deborah Brown’s ancestry is of Mer and Badu Islands; while Moss Te Ururangi Patterson is of the Ngati Tuwharetoa Maori tribe, North Island, Aotearoa New Zealand.
In the 20 minute Act 1, Kulka, the dance is based on the style of the Saybaylayg people of Sabai, and forms an overture or prelude for the 70 minute work combining Brown’s Salt Water and Patterson’s The Light Inside in Act 2.
Absolute respect – for the strength and sincerity in the dance, the remarkable sound design and recorded performances, the lighting and visual design – is the heart of the emotion and thought that the total work creates. Technically thoroughly up to date, especially in the ‘reflections’ which represent the spirits (and the spirit) of the physically real figures on the stage, Horizon is the ancient Indigenous world created for us all by modern keepers of their culture. The history is of resilience, survival and success through all those tens of thousands of years, living in our part of the world.
The production of this work in itself models that history, with a tremendous sense of achievement, felt by everyone in the audience, as the whole cast came together as one in the final scene. This is art for arts’s sake and art for our sake, all in one. Not to be missed.
Follow up for more understanding and appreciation: Refugia, Homecoming and Maar Bidi, the Next Generation - the poetry by Elfie Shiosaki, Noongar and Yawuru academic, Associate Professor at the College of Arts and Social Sciences at the Australian National University, interviewed by Rudi Bremer on Awaye, Radio National, Saturday July 20 2024, 6pm (ABC Listen) – on human rights and the ‘future of peace’; about an ecosystem that survives catastrophic climate change. “Keep the campfire burning” as a fitting ending to 2024 Naidoc week.
Bangarra Dancers:
Lillian Banks; Bradley Smith; Courtney Radford; Kallum Goolagong; Kassidy Waters
Jye Uren; Kiarn Doyle; Maddison Paluch; Daniel Mateo; Emily Flannery
Janaya Lamb; Chatelle Lee Lockhart; James Boyd; Amberlilly Gordon; Lucy May
Donta Whitham
©Frank McKone, Canberra
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