|
BUSH
Commentary by Stephen
Page, Artistic Director
"The main inspiration for Bush is really my relationship
with Arnhem Land over the years. My traditional mothers from Arnhem
Land like Kathy Marika have supported
and inspired me ceremonially and spiritually for a long time now.
Bush reflects the poetic experience and beauty
I have enjoyed over my fifteen years of being linked to Arnhem
Land - its magic, its sacred grounds.
The more I hear all of these creation stories and the older I get, the more I digest. It's the longest university degree you can ever have. It is a great honour to be accepted and given this gift, to put these stories in a public domain in an abstract way - there's a wonderful trust there. In Bangarra, we bring these stories to a western context and present them with integrity. Our work is similar to the development with Indigenous visual art, from painting on rocks to painting on canvas. It is a modern way of presenting traditional stories - placing them in a live theatre experience. Bangarra has worked with these traditional stories and land inspirations for a long time now - we are celebrating our own ritual over the past 13 years. We have come through our first life cycle. I wouldn't say we are 'mastering' it but we have been initiated and respect our experiences of the journey.
With Bush it is a wonderful thing for us, the
Bangarra creative clan, to rejoice in the cycle. There is my
traditional
family on the one hand and my creative professional family on
the other - Peter England,
Jennifer Irwin,
David Page, Steve
Francis who have all worked with me now for ten years. And
of course Frances Rings,
who has collaborated with me on pieces within this work. An integral
part of the Bangarra life cycle is Fran's
emergence as a choreographer. She has such a powerful presence
she is impossible to ignore! Fran
has been the sister muse through a long journey - from being a
student, then dancer and now choreographer. She brings a different
spirit to the work but at the same time she has a beautiful intuitive
understanding of what it is to create that unique Bangarra theatrical
experience. She also brings an incredible feminine energy to this
work as Kathy Marika does as well obviously.
Bush is very much about respecting the role of women
in our tradition - they are the nurturers and the keepers.
This work is a bush galaxy of poetic imagery and stories that make up our history - ranging from the comic mimicry of stick spirits, to the power of rocks and land formations, to the ritual and medicine of fresh water, the transformation of a caterpillar into a moth. Bush embraces all those diversities and inspirations that come from living from the land. I do consciously try to nurture an optimistic spirit. Even when I get angry at the world and the way society is going, and I do quite social frustration works as a result, I always try to inject a sense of optimism and hope out of those experiences. I think with Bush its purely about letting the audience into the spiritual glory box of what is sacred, communicating how special this land is to us through certain specific inspirations such as Arnhem Land, my traditional family's stories and my relationship to them. It is a personal endeavour. It is also about maintaining an honest respect for land creations and peoples." YUGKU YUGKU
(LITTLE BROTHER)
"Bush is about reflecting on Bangarra's relationship to our traditional culture - this process is an essential part of our cleansing and our grieving. Because we straddle these two worlds, this is our version of a ceremony. The family in Arnhem land was Yugku Yugku's traditional family as well. This was where he went to fill up his cultural tank, so to speak, and be rejuvenated. He was passionate fusing the traditional and the urban with integrity. He thought deeply about what that meant as an urban black man. He believed that if the connection was strong it was naturally going to filter in to the next generations' immune system. He understood the philosophy probably a lot better than I did because he kept quiet whereas I had to constantly speak it. He would always push me to take the philosophy to another level - he would observe quietly and then get me at a good moment when I was calm to reflect on what it all really meant. He wasn't just a muse in the dance studio, he was essential to Bangarra's evolution. He was an incredible mimic. We travelled the world three times over, and he was adopted into a family in every single Indigenous culture we encountered. I can remember a native American Indian reservation in San Diego where Bangarra were invited to perform traditional Aboriginal dance - all us Bangarra dancers looked across the other side of the circle and there's Yugku Yugku in full native American Indian dress, the feathers and everything, sitting with their clan smiling at us. We all just laughed and went "you're supposed to be over here". Another time we were in Hong Kong and he got me up one morning because he wanted to go to a park where hundreds of people practised Tai Chi. We went and it was like being in heaven. He took his shirt off and I just watched him mimic - it was like he had become this old Chinese man. He had a global cultural spirit. And yet he was so humble and so funny at the same time. He loved nothing more than to have a really good laugh. He was all things - a brother, a mate, a muse, a beautiful spirit. I'd like to thank him for letting that be part of our lives." Stephen Page back to top 
| 
