Traditional Aboriginal Dance With Contemporary Dance Technique example essay topic

Stephen Page: Background and training: Stephen Page, born in Brisbane in 1965, descended from the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh tribe from southeast Queensland. Stephen Page is the first choreographer of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent to have achieved major national and international recognition. He completed his dance training at National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NA ISDA) in 1983. Following this he joined Sydney Dance Company where he created Mooggrah in 1991. It was later in 1991 that he became Artistic Director for Bangarra Dance Theatre where he continued his unique contribution to contemporary dance and eventually leading to the development of Ochres in March 1995. The following year, 1996, Stephen made his creative debut with the Australian Ballet when he choreographed the short work Alchemy.

In 1997, he brought the Australian Ballet and Bangarra Dance Theatre together in a piece called Rites, formed to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. In 2000, he directed the Indigenous segment of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games. Social, political and cultural influences: Noticeably, Pages influence for his works comes largely from his Aboriginal decent, culture and customs. He feels he holds a tribal responsibility to the traditional dance his people possess and can express this on stage through Bangarra. An obvious cultural influence is the use of traditional movement through the Yirrkala people. It is important for Page to be able to grab hold of that Aboriginal energy and consequently connect the spirituality of traditional movement with contemporary dance style.

Stephen Page's life was still centred on Indigenous cultural values even though had an urban upbringing. These include strong kinship bonds and the joining of art and life. It must be kept in mind that Page does only use traditional movement as influence, as a choreographic resource. He wants to be remembered as a choreographer, not an Aboriginal choreographer.

Choreographic style: What is so extraordinary about Stephen's work is that fantastic talent of his to fuse together traditional Aboriginal dance with contemporary dance technique. During the time Stephen Page spent with Sydney Dance Company, he was influenced by Graeme Murphy in being involved in the stories of the choreography and his style is influenced by the desire to mould traditional Aboriginal ideas and motifs with those of the urban culture of his youth. An article in Dance Australia, 1995 said; "Ochres is but a step in Page's and Walong's long term goal of finding a distinctively indigenous Australian modern dance technique". Bangarra: Just a brief note on the company that is directed by this brilliant choreographer... "Bangarra Dance Theatre is one of the youngest and oldest of Australia's dance companies". Bangarra has been under the artistic direction of Stephen Page since 1991.

Throughout Australia and the world audiences have been amazed with electric and startling spiritual dance works of immense theatrical presence. At the heart of the company's work is a vision for a theatrical style that remains true to the Indigenous spirit. This is threaded through with completely contemporary voice that Bangarra Dance Theatre speaks with to people everywhere. Ochres: Ochres, choreographed by Stephen Page, Bernadette Walong and Djakapurra Munyarryun, was originally performed in March 1995 as a work in progress. However, following its success and rave reviews, it was performed and filmed in 1996 at the University of Western Australia during the Perth Film Festival. Ochres is a work in four parts: yellow, black, red and white, which explores the mystical significance of ochre, inspired by its spiritual and medicinal power.

The music like the dance is a blend of traditional and contemporary songs and the vocals sung by Djakapurra are traditional from Yirrkala. "The portrayal of each colour is by no means a literal interpretation, but the awareness of its spiritual significance has challenged our contemporary expressions". Stephen Page. Works created by Stephen Page: Stephen Page has choreographed many other works including Ochres which include: 1991 Mooggrah 1993 Black River 1993 Pride 1996 Ochres and Alchemy with the Australian Ballet 1997 Skin and Tubowgule 1998 Fish 2001 Corroboree 2002 Walkabout 2003 Bush.