BLAK

BLAK
Bangarra. Choreography by Stephen Page and Daniel Riley. McKinley and Music by David Page and Paul Mac. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, June 7 – 22, 2013; Canberra Theatre Centre, July 11 – 13 & QPAC, Brisbane, July 18 – 27.

Bangarra’s critically acclaimed Blak came to Brisbane at the end of their current tour following stints in Melbourne, Woolongong, Sydney and Canberra. This impressive new work, played without an interval, was in three parts.

The first, Scar, explored young indigenous men’s rights of passage in an urban setting. It was choreographed by dancer Daniel Riley McKinley, who together with six other males, all dressed in streetwear and hoodies, told the boys-to-men scenario using gang aggression, weapons and violence. It was gritty and uncomfortably real. The second Yearning, choreographed by Stephen Page,looked at several phases of an indigenous woman’s life. Two of the pieces, Loss and Broken effectively covered themes of suicide and domestic abuse. The third section Keepers was an homage to Aboriginal elders, ceremonial traditions and the past, which brought the company together in a finale that was tribal but sophisticated. Anger and pain seemed to be the two emotions that bound the works together.

It was 75-minutes of intense dance theatre. The choreography was masculine, sometimes aggressively so, but danced with superb technique to a techno/new-age soundscape by David Page and Paul Mac. Max Cox’s lighting helped establish mood especially in the finale where a stunning curtain of sand cascaded in front of the ochre-stained company. It was an evocative, effective and brilliant end to a memorable group performance.

Peter Pinne

Martin Portus also reviewed BLAK in Sydney.

As Bangarra welcomes more investment under the recent National Cultural Policy, a thematic and new generational shift is also apparent in their hard-edged new work, Blak.

The first half, Scar, is choreographed around the men of the company by dancer Daniel Riley McKinley with guest artist, the artistic director Stephen Page’s young son, Hunter Page-Lochard.

It’s a moody and angular work about hoddie-clad Indigenous youth spinning out of control and having few bonds beyond fighting. Lit by street lamp and against Jacob Nash’s set of plastics, metals and other urban discards, McKinley’s gang listen for and finally follow the call of tradition, the rite of passage into manhood. What could be glib or sentimental is given urgency and power by McKinley’s choreography, a formidable dancer wielding a huge knife of ritual scarification and Paul Mac thunderous synthesizing of traditional sounds and voice.  The multi-Aria Award winner has created, as he says, “some future vision of an ancient past.”

In the second half, Yearning, Stephen Page works with the company’s women on fragments of stories – birth, loss through suicide, cultural dislocation and domestic violence. Bangarra’s choreography often includes literal representations, mostly of traditional life, but here the settings are modern, gritty and challenging. And with David Page’s lyrical laments, the technical proficiency of the women brings purpose and conceptual richness to all moments, including those that could be pantomime.

Another distinguishing feature of Bangarra is the frequent division in themes and dancing between the men and the women. The final act ofBlak brings them together into a full company work by both choreographers and composers.  After a slow start, the sparks of sexual tension fly as the ensemble reaches a spine tingling climax in celebration of traditional culture and knowledge. 

This a thoughtful virtuosic new work, exploring highly contemporary themes, by one of our best dance companies.

Martin Portus.

Images (top) Hunter Lochard Page, Beau Dean, Riley Smith and Daniel Riley McKinley & (lower) Daniel Riley McKinley. Photographer: Greg Barrett.

More reading

Interview with dancer Yolande Brown 

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