After 35 years of success as Australia’s leading First Nations performing arts company, Bangarra Dance Theatre have moved from their home of 20 years, The Drama Theatre at the Sydney Opera House, upstairs to the Joan Sutherland Theatre, where they will now share the stage with our fabulous Opera and Ballet companies. It’s an inspiring and historically significant move. Bangarra will now present its powerful, cultural narratives with vibrant visuals and spiritual storytelling in a larger venue, larger audience.
Their first new commission, ILLUME, is powerful and exciting. It opens in the west Kimberley with a night sky full of stars. The music is compelling.
Rhythmic drum beats, insect and animal sounds, some familiar, some unfamiliar. Atmospheric music at its best.
All 19 dancers are in simpatico, at one with each other. They float and stomp; afraid, proud, angry, happy and sad from scene to scene. It’s a delight to watch. Some powerful choreography by Artistic Director Frances Rings and the Bangarra dancers.
Rings has co-created ILLUME with Goolarrgon Bard artist, Darrell Sibosado.
We travel through Sibosado’s Country, into the “iridescent light of mother-of-pearl whose characteristics give life, ritual, sustenance and hope”.
“For thousands of years”, say Rings and Sibosado, “the language of light has energised and sustained indigenous cultures, connecting people, environment and kinship through nature’s rhythms. This luminous force bridges the physical and spiritual realms, carrying ancestral wisdom and power”. The audience can feel the spiritual respect and they seem very peaceful.
Much credit should be given to the creatives who hold this wonderful piece of theatre together:
Set design by Charles Davis gives a sense of beauty and space.
Costume designer Elizabeth Gadsby has created admirable outfits, flexible, practical and beautiful. Rika Hamaguchi is her emerging assistant.
Lighting designer, Damien Cooper did a brilliant job of changing reality.
Video designer Graig Wilkinson transformed scenes, creating symbols and water like spirals onstage.
Composer Brendan Boney did a splendid job with the music and sound, creating a mixture of emotion and wonderment. Very earthy sounds that affected everyone in the room.
I highly recommend seeing ILLUME. It’s quite a compelling theatrical experience. A visual delight. Hurry up as it has a limited run here before going on tour.
ILLUME plays at the Opera House, Joan Sutherland Theatre until the 14th June 2025.
Production photography by Daniel Boud
