Delving into Dance

Photography by Heidrun Lohr

Dalisa Pigram is the Co Artistic director Marrugeku. She is a Yawuru/Bardi woman with Malay and Filipino heritage born and raised in Broome, Dalisa studied in Perth after high school to complete an Advanced Certificate in Aboriginal Musical Theatre, a course developed and facilitated by Michael Leslie and accredited by WAAPA (1995). At the end of study Dalisa was invited to join Marrugeku by Michael Leslie for its first project to create Mimi (1996) working closely with Kunwinjku storytellers and dancers of Kunbarlanja community in Arnhem Land with the larger group of Marrugeku artists over 8 years. Dalisa became co artistic director of Marrugeku with Rachael Swain in 2008 after the company began working in her homelands of the Yawuru in Broome (2003). A co-devising performer on all Marrugeku’s productions, touring extensively overseas and throughout Australia, Dalisa’s first solo work Gudirr Gudirr (2013) directed and co choreographed by Koen Augustijnen, earned an Australian Dance Award (Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance 2014) and a Green Room Award (Best Female Performer 2014).

Dalisa co-conceived Marrugeku’s Burning Daylight (2006) and Cut the Sky (2015) with Rachael Swain, co-choreographing both works as well as Marrugeku’s Le Dernier Appel (2018) with Serge Aimé Coulibaly for which she also received a Green Room Award (Best Performance 2020). Together with Swain she co-directed Buru (2010), Ngarlimbah (2018) and co-curated Burrbgaja Yalirra a program supporting the next generation of change makers and Marrugeku’s four International Indigenous Choreographic Labs. Dalisa is co-editor of Marrugeku: Telling That Story—25 years of trans-Indigenous and intercultural exchange (2021). Most recently Dalisa has choreographed with the co devising performers Marrugeku’s newest work Jurrungu Ngan-ga (2022) and co curated with Rachael Marrugeku’s Dance Dramaturgy in Contested Land laboratory (2022). Dalisa is particularly interested in exploring culturally informed methods in devised processes that combine different forms of movement including dance, acrobatics, traditional movements and circus skills to tell stories and create exciting new approaches to movement and performance. In her community, Dalisa is a Yawuru language teacher at Cable Beach Primary school and works closely with the wider Yawuru community and language centre to help revitalise Yawuru language and culture (2006). As co artistic director of Marrugeku and as a Yawuru language teacher in her home town, Dalisa is committed to the maintenance of Aboriginal languages and culture through arts and education.

Daniel Riley, Artistic Director Australian Dance Theatre (ADT). Image Credit: © Jonathan VDK

Daniel is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and creative from the Wiradjuri nation of Western NSW, and is currently Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre.

He began his dance training at Quantum Leap, ACT and since graduating from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2006 has danced for Leigh Warren & Dancers (2005-2006), New Movement Collective UK (2014), Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre UK (2014), Chunky Move (2019) and was a senior artist with Bangarra Dance Theatre (2007-2018).

The Third, photograph by Jonathan VDK

In 2019 Daniel joined ILBIJERRI Theatre Company as an Associate Producer (2019-2020), and became the company's Creative Associate (2020-2021). His time with ILBIJERRI allowed him to partake in an Executive Leadership Program where he gained executive level skills to lead and run an arts organisation in the future.

In 2020 he was appointed as a Lecturer in Contemporary Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he launched and led Kummarge, a self-determined mentoring program for First Nations dance students. In 2021 he worked for Moogahlin Performing Arts as Birrabang Miil (outside eye) for the Yellamundie@HOMENaarm Festival and joined the cast of Stephanie Lake Company’s Manifesto for the first major creative development.

He has worked as an independent dancer, director, teacher, advocate, choreographer and sat on the Board of Chunky Move (2019-2022).

Daniel’s choreographic credits include Victorian College of the Arts: WAX (2021), RISE (2020), Louisville Ballet, USA: Tonal (2020), Sacred Shifts (2015), Melbourne International Arts Festival: Tanderrum (2019), Dancenorth: Communal Table (2019), Bangarra Dance Theatre: Dark Emu (2018), Miyagan (2016), BLAK (2013), Riley (2010), Sydney Dance Company: Reign (2015), QL2 Dance: Hit the Floor Together (2013, 2018), QUT: Twelve Ascensions (2013), Thirteen Ascensions (Twelve Ascension Rework) (2018), Third Row Dance Company UK (2014).

His film credits as Director and Choreographer include: mulunma – Inside Within (2021) for RISING Melbourne & Yirramboi, and ACT V (2021), for The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque Digital 2021. As performer: Dan Sultan: Under Your Skin, Stephen Page (Bangarra Dance Theatre): Spear in which he worked as Director’s Attachment.

He has been nominated at the Australian Dance Awards (2010, 2013) and for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deadly Awards (2010, 2012 & 2013). Daniel is highly experienced in conducting masterclasses, facilitating workshops and teaching professional company class for a range of organisations, educational institutions and dance companies across Australia and around the world.

Antony Hamilton, Artistic Director Chunky Move. Image Credit: Peter Rosetzky

AB_TA_ Response photography by Eva Otsing

Antony Hamilton is Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move. His work employs a sophisticated melding of choreography, sound and visual design to collaboratively imagine complete worlds in performance. 

Antony has been the recipient of major fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2, and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has won numerous Green Room Awards and has also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING. 

In his time as Artistic Director at Chunky Move, Antony has premiered Token Armies (2019), Universal Estate (2019), Nocturnal (2020), Yung Lung (2022) and Rewards for the Tribe (2022). He has also championed a range of sector support programs, including the Victorian Regional Artist Residency, commissioning program Activators and the Choreographer in Residence initiative.

Alice Topp in rehearsal. Photography by Kate Longley

Alice was born and raised in Bendigo and started dancing at the age of four. After two years with Royal New Zealand Ballet, she joined The Australian Ballet in 2007. Her passion for choreography began when she created her first work, Trace, for the 2010 season of Bodytorque, the company’s choreographic showcase. From 2011 to 2014, she made three further works for the Bodytorque seasons; in 2016 she choreographed Little Atlas, which appeared in the company’s mainstage program Symphony in C in both 2016 and 2017. In 2018 her work Aurum, which was created with the support of a Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance, had its world premiere as part of The Australian Ballet’s Verve program. It appeared at New York’s Joyce Theater in 2019.

In 2019 Alice won the Helpmann Award for Best Ballet for Aurum. She has also been nominated for a Green Room Award (Little Atlas, 2017) and for two Australian Dance Awards (Same Vein, 2014 and Trace, 2010).

She has choreographed music videos for artists including Megan Washington and Ben Folds, and has been invited to create works for Houston Ballet II and Queensland Ballet. She was appointed one of The Australian Ballet’s resident choreographers in 2018.

In this episode Thomas Bradley and Felix Sampson, create an experimental soundscape to accompany the reading of Thomas’ essay ON A DANCING*, first published on Delving into Dance on 27 November 2019. You can read the full essay here, with an extract provided below.

The declaration is a precursor to the dancing, akin to preparation rather than a recipe. Ideas must be extradited from consciousness through speech or writing, like a clarification of behaviour, or practice of exorcism. And it is after these literary articulations that his liberation, and Good Dancing, will begin: post-declaration, and its attendant extrapolation. In this space, cliché postures may emerge, like archetypes of meaning and value, yet they remain personal somehow; the politics of the action must not be engaged as a communicative tool.

N.B. It’s important the audience see me not knowing, 
so they know when I know, I don’t know.

The distinction he is searching for is that between the personal and political. Though, perhaps there can be some value in flirting with politics just as he flirts with clarity. Generally, that should be encouraged, rather than the rampant fucking of art by ideology and ambition.

Do you prefer clarity to nuance?

Are clarity and dynamism mutually exclusive?

N.B. In this context, clarity gains its whole value by the creative digression that frames it.
As a measure of universality, clarity is vital in a dancing scene, where so often the desire to communicate
something directly overrides the expression of the dancing experience.
In this sense, clarity must be understood as a prelude to chaos.

What about the becoming of clarity?

This interview was conducted by Samual Gaskin, delving into being a person of colour making your mark in the Australian dance and entertainment community featuring Yvette Lee & Sophia Laryea. They talked about inclusion inspiration and appreciation.

Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, currently Director of Mirramu Creative Arts Centre and Artistic Director of Mirramu Dance Company, founded Australia’s iconic contemporary dance company, Australian Dance Theatre and was its Artistic Director from 1965 - 1975. 

Elizabeth was awarded an OAM for her contribution to contemporary dance in Australia.  Included among her many other awards are an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship, an ACT Creative Arts Fellowship and several Canberra Critics Circle Awards. In 2015 she was inducted into the Australian Dance Hall of Fame and awarded the Canberra Times Artist of the Year. 

Elizabeth was Head of the Dance Department at the University of Western Sydney from 2004 – end 2006. She has taught at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan where she has a long association with the Taiwanese dance community, also appearing annually in the Tsai Jui Yueh International Dance Festivals. She has also been a guest teacher at L’Ecole des Sables in Senegal and at Tans Atelier Wien, Austria.

Elizabeth’s career in dance spans more than six decades and she continues to explore new avenues in her work. In 2016 Elizabeth joined Teaċ Daṁsa as an actor/dancer in Michael Keegan Dolan’s Swan Lake/Loch na hEala. This award-winning production has been touring the world for four years.

In 2018 - 2019 Elizabeth worked with Director, Kenneth Spiteri, on a VR film project, Crone, and is currently working with Jacqui Carroll on a new solo work involving masks. She has recently received a Homefront grant from artsACT to research Dance-in-Nature: Preparing a book, video-tutorial and workshop.

During Covid; In my hibernation my creativity turned to writing. I spent hours happily at my computer with my writing, which sometimes feels like choreography. The results of these writing hours are some rough chapters recounting special experiences of my life, and in particular, my life here at Mirramu. This is an ongoing project which perhaps one day will evolve into a book. 

As well, I have been working subliminally on two solo projects. The first is Crone which I developed with Kenneth Spiteri during 2018 and 2019. I am taking the ideas and choreographed sections that we created and were shot for a VR dance film, as raw material for a solo theatre production. The other project is a new solo program directed by Jacqui Carroll. Here I use masks to create seven different women in various different times and different circumstances. This project is an enormous challenge, but it is opening up a whole new world of performance for me. As soon as the warmer weather comes and the days get longer, I will be working hard on these two works.

This is the second interview on Delving into Dance, from the amazing Elizabeth Cameron Dalman.

Lillian Crombie is a proud woman from the Pitjintjara/Yungkunjara Nation. She is one of Australia’s leading actors and studied acting, dance and drama at the Port Pirie Ballet School, NIDA, NAISDA, the EORA Centre and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, NY. Crombie has trained in classical, modern, jazz ballet and traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island dance.

She has had feature roles in numerous films including in Baz Luhrmann’s highly acclaimed Australia. She has extensive credits in television including the “Secret Life of Us” and most recently, 13 episodes of the children’s drama series Double Trouble produced by the Nine Network, Disney and Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association. Crombie has played leading roles in many successful theatre productions including Mereki the Peacemaker, Conversations with The Dead, Black Mary - Festival of Dreaming, Gunjies, Capricornia and recently Rainbow’s End.

In this interview Jacob Boehme takes on an extensive journey through Lillian’s life, from when she started dance, through to her journey to Sydney and across to New York. Lillian has worked extensively with community and schools, and has a passion for teaching. She has just opened Lillian Crombie's School of Dance and Drama, to inspire the next generation of dancers and performers.

 The interview touches on the AIDS epidemic and sexual assault, but simultaneously brings hope, light and optimism for where we find ourselves as a society now.

Film and Television credits include:

Double Trouble (2008). TV Series, Milly (13 episodes)
Australia (2008). Feature Film. Director Baz Luhman. Character: Bandy Legs
Days Like These (2007). TV. Mum
Lucky Miles (2007). Evie
The Secret Life of Us (2003)
Deadly (1991). Sally
Ring of Scorpio (1990). TV

Theatre credits include:

Rainbow’s End (2009), Riverside Theatre
Conversations with The Dead (2004), Belvoir Street Theatre
Sydney Stories, Sydney Theatre Company
The Cherry Pickers, Sydney Theatre Company
Black-ed Up, Sydney Theatre Company
Clan, Bangarra Dance Theatre
La Dispute, Sydney Theatre Company
Black Mary, Festival of Dreaming, Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
Capricornia, Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
Up the Road, Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
Gunjies, Belvoir Street Theatre

This interview was conducted by Jacob Boehme. Jacob is a Melbourne born and raised artist of the Narangga and Kaurna Nations, South Australia. He is a multi-disciplinary theatre maker and choreographer, creating work for the stage, screen and festivals.

Gregory is the author of the 2020 International Dance Day message – which so poignantly addresses the fragility of the world and humankind.

Gregory’s dance journey provides a powerful insight to the dance of dance as a political voice and his voice has carried across the world. His insightful, unflinching, International Dance Day message speaks to his empathy and insight as an activist and artist.
Gregory became interested in dance in the late 1980s as a means to escape the political tensions growing in his place of birth. He started his formal dance training in 1990 at Moving Into Dance wherein 2002 he became the Associate Artistic Director. Maqoma has established himself as an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher and director. He founded Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1999 when he was undertaking a scholarship at the Performing Arts Research and Training School (PARTS) in Belgium under the direction of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.

Maqoma is respected for his collaborations with artists of his generation like Akram Khan, Vincent Mantsoe, Faustin Linyekula, Dada Masilo, Shanell Winlock, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Theatre Director James Ngcobo.

Several works in his repertoire have won him accolades and international acclaim. This includes FNB Vita Choreographer of the Year in 1999, 2001 and 2002 for Rhythm 1.2.3, Rhythm Blues and Southern Comfort respectively. He received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance in 2002. Maqoma was a finalist in the Daimler Chrysler Choreography Award in 2002 and in the Rolex Mentorship Programme in 2003. He is the recipient of the 2012 Tunkie Award for Leadership in Dance. In 2014 he received a “Bessie”, New York City’s premier dance award for Exit/Exist for original music composition. He served as a nominator in the 2016–2017 Rolex Arts Initiative as well as curating the 2017 Main Dance Program for The National Arts Festival. His current works ‘Via Kanana’ and ‘Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero’ were touring in Africa and Europe when Covid colosed borders and dancers were forced to return to South Africa.

In 2017 Maqoma was honoured by the French Government with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Arts & Literature) Award. In 2018 was honoured by the South African Department of Arts & Culture with the inaugural Usiba Award for dedication to dance teaching.

In 2018 Maqoma collaborated with William Kentridge as a choreographer and performing in Kentridge’s opera ‘The Head And The Load’ toured to the UK, Germany, Austria, Holland and New York.

In 2019 Maqoma Collaborated with Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah in the production “Tree” produced by Manchester International Festival and the Young Vic. He is also part of the selection committee for Dance Biennale Afrique Festival which was to take place in Marrakech in 2020.

In this episode, we meet Edna Reinhardt, a passionate creative dance and yoga educator with decades of experience in the field.

Edna’s commitment to dance education developed during her foundational training in the 1970’s at the former Managala studios in Carlton under the guidance of Dorethea Mangimele, where yoga, music and dance were married to cultivate this unique discipline.

As principal and founder of Over The Moon studios in Castlemaine, we discuss the integration of yoga and dance, education principles and her self-proclaimed life’s mission to develop community and culture through dance in a regional area.

Having been a mentor and inspiration for many, Edna’s wisdom and warmth hold valuable insights into a holistic approach to dance education, cultivating artistic, culturally informed and insightful students. Edna embodies how movement training co-exists with philosophy and lifestyle, to create an enriching existence through dance.