Welcome to the December 2005 edition of Songlines, Bangarra's email newsletter, a bi-monthly update of the company's work, as well as giveaways and offers.

Also in this Edition:
  Win Tickets to see the fantastic show Broad

  Free Movie Tickets to Keeping Mum and Mrs Henderson Presents

Gathering

Bangarra's major show for 2006 is a collaboration with The Australian Ballet called Gathering. This exciting double bill reunites the creative energies of two of Australia's most extraordinary performing arts companies.

Bangarra and The Australian Ballet first worked together in 1997 on the highly successful Rites set to The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, one of the ballet world's most fascinating and challenging scores. Rites was acclaimed by critics and audiences alike on its 1997 debut at the Melbourne Festival and as well as during its tour to New York. Rites will return in 2006 as part of Gathering along with a new work choreographed by Stephen Page, Amalgamate.

Melbourne Tickets on Sale!
A priority booking period has been extended to Songlines Subscribers for the Melbourne season with tickets going
on sale on Saturday 10 December, 2005.

To book tickets to the Melbourne season of Gathering (March 17 - 29, 2006. State Theatre, the Arts Centre):

In Person
the Arts Centre Box Office
Monday to Saturday 9am to 9pm
Ticketmaster outlets

Phone and Charge
1300 136 166 (all major credit cards accepted)

Online
http://www.ticketmaster.com.au

Please note that huge interest surrounds this show from Bangarra patrons and The Australian Ballet subscribers alike so please get in quick to avoid disappointment.

Sydney season (April 7-29, 2006 Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House) tickets will go on sale from Monday 27th February, 2006.

We will keep you informed via Songlines.
More about Gathering

Gathering

CLAN will tour regional Australia

BUSH will tour to the UK

2005 has been a very successful year for Bangarra with sell out seasons of our main show Boomerang and a very well received regional tour of Spirit. Bangarra also performed in New Zealand as a highlight of the Auckland Festival and represented Australia in Aichi Japan at Expo 2005.

2006 kicks off with Gathering, a stunning collaboration with The Australian Ballet (see story above) that will have seasons in Sydney and Melbourne.

Then in May, Bangarra hits the road for one of its most extensive tours of regional Australia ever, appearing in venues in all states and territories except South Australia (your turn in 2007!) including a long awaited appearance in WA. The show is called Clan and it will be the first time choreographer Frances Rings' two brilliant works Rations and Unaipon will be performed together on the one program.

The regional tour finishes in August giving the dancers just enough time to draw breath and brush the dust off their feet before heading to the UK in September with our acclaimed show Bush. Bangarra will be performing in some of the UK's most prestigious venues including London's Sadler's Wells so be sure to let all your UK based friends know some incredible Australian talent is coming their way with a show not to be missed.

The end of 2006 may have some surprises in store - be sure to keep checking Songlines and our website for updates.

2006 Schedule including dates and venues

Barbra Drummond - Songlines star

Barbra Nana Ajantowaa Drummond was born in Townsville, North Queensland in 1982 and was raised in Brisbane and Port Headland, Western Australia. She is descended from a major tribe from Mabuiag Island, west of Torres Straits called Wagadagam, the totem of the crocodile. She is also of African descent. Barbra joined Bangarra in 2004.

When did you first decide you wanted to be a dancer?
I've always wanted to be a dancer, since I was a toddler but I didn't think it would come true, I was only dreaming.

Who inspires you in your everyday life?
My family and friends.

What have you learnt by working with Bangarra?
Being thrown in the deep end, I must push myself to be as good as the person beside me and have confidence in myself.

What is one of your best/worst/funniest moments as a performer?
My best is the high rush feeling on stage when I am getting into the dance. My worst is having an allergy on stage with my nose running like water and an itchy throat which makes you need to do one of those ugly coughs. My funniest is my boss man Stephen Page telling the audience at a corporate performance that I was getting married!

What would I like to be doing in ten-years time?
I would like to teach dance.

What challenges have you faced in your life and how did you cope with them?
My challenges would have been through my teenage years of unstable family, violence and abuse. I have overcome those by choosing what is right from wrong. Moving away from home as a young woman to create my own future - doing what I want to do, not what people think I should do.

What is your favourite way to relax?
Chilling out with family and friends, clubbing, watching DVDs and spending the day out at festivals and parties.

Win tickets to see BROAD!

Five Women, Five Cities, One Show

Five of Australia's most admired and successful songwriters will be on stage together for an evening of songs and stories. With a variety of different voices and singing styles from all over the country, Broad will be a truly broad experience. Ignoring pigeonholes of style and building on the natural camaraderie of people in the same profession, these women will take to the stage at the same time to thrash out ideas, methods, approaches, chords and vocal cords, a touring tale or two, & even chime in on each others songs. No matter how different the style of performer and song is, there are common and uncommon threads of experience worth comparing. This is Broad.

WIN TICKETS

Thanks to BroadFestival and the Enmore Theatre, Bangarra has 2 double passes to giveaway to the Sydney (Wed, Dec 7th) and Adelaide (Friday Dec 9th) shows. To enter email bangarra@bangarra.com.au with the subject "Broad". Please include your full name, a contact phone number and let us know which show you would like to go to (Sydney or Adelaide).

This is a fantastic one-off show so if you want to make sure you don’t miss out, get yourself a ticket to the remaining shows. Details below.

CANBERRA, 6th December 2005, Canberra Theatre Centre, 02 6275 2700 or book online

SYDNEY, 7th December 2005, Enmore Theatre 9550 3666. Book at Ticketek 132 849 or book online

ADELAIDE, 9th December 2005, Festival Theatre, book at BASS 131 246 or book online

Thanks to our friends at Icon Films and Hopscotch Films lucky Songlines subscribers have the chance to win tickets to two great summer films - Keeping Mum and Mrs Henderson Presents.

Free Movie Tickets To Keeping Mum!

About Keeping Mum
The sleepy English hamlet of Little Wallop is about to receive a rude awakening, as the absent-minded Reverend Walter Goodman (Rowan Atkinson), his dissatisfied wife Gloria (Kristin Scott Thomas), and their two children, Holly and Petey, await the arrival of their new housekeeper, Grace Hawkins (Maggie Smith). Gloria is a woman struggling to cope. Her teenage daughter's a nymphomaniac, her young son's the perennial target for the local bullies, and her marriage to Walter has long-since dwindled into monotony. It's no wonder she's failing to resist the advances of her handsome, American, lothario of a golf pro, Lance (Patrick Swayze). What this family needs is salvation. And fast. It comes in the form of "Grace Hawkins", a gentle motherly woman with a smile for everyone and an answer for everything. But Grace is not all she seems...

More about Keeping Mum

and Free Movie Tickets To
Mrs Henderson Presents!

About Mrs Henderson Presents
Starring the incomparable Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins, Mrs Henderson Presents tells the remarkable true life story of the eccentric society figure Laura Henderson who, at seventy years old, finds herself widowed and at a loose end. In pre-World War II London, she decides to buy an abandoned Soho cinema and turns it into what would become the historic Windmill Theatre. Knowing nothing about theatre, she hires the irascible Vivian van Damm to run it and comes up with an inspired idea to get audiences in: produce a nude revue! Penetrating, lively and invigorating with a captivating duel played out by two of Britain's finest actors in Dench and Hoskins, Mrs Henderson Presents is an uplifting tale likely to live long in the memory of audiences everywhere.

More about Mrs Henderson Presents

TO WIN TICKETS to both films
Email bangarra@bangarra.com.au with the subject "Free Movie Tickets" and your postal address. The first 50 to enter will be sent passes to both films.

Message from Telstra
Bangarra and Telstra celebrate a partnership that is helping to increase community understanding and respect for Aboriginal culture.

Like Bangarra, Telstra is committed to working with Indigenous communities to help develop and support programs that foster a sense of understanding and cultural pride in all Australians.

Our sponsorship of Bangarra also delivers on Telstra's commitment to regional Australians by providing increased access to one of Australia's leading dance companies. We will continue to help develop on-line initiatives and to support Bangarra as the company tours regional Australia.

David Moffatt
Group Managing Director
Telstra Technology, Innovation and Products

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Bangarra Dance Theatre
Pier 4/5 Hickson Road,
Walsh Bay, Sydney, NSW 2000
phone: (02) 9251 5333
email: bangarra@bangarra.com.au
web: www.bangarra.com.au