In Your Blood

Last year while I was visiting Darwin, I was invited along to the Tracks Dance Company’s 2017 Darwin Festival show, Man Made. A dear friend’s grandson was one of the performers, and it would not have been advisable to say, ‘No thanks, I am not particularly interested’ to either this extraordinarily talented young performer, or his divine and devoted Nan.

Everything I experienced, at what was a very special night at Frog Hollow, changed not only my perceptions of the creative landscape in Darwin, but also the inherent values and benefits of engaging, truly, with a passionate creative community who will take creative risks and put it all on the line. And Tracks Dance Company’s Man Made is the reason I decided to write about the Darwin Festival when I returned this year.

With this year’s even more ambitious and spectacular production, the company have done it again. With choreographers ranging from Australian artists of Sri Lankan, Balinese and Northern Territory descent, and boasting an enormous cast of professional, non-professional and community dancers, In Your Blood redefines culture and inter-generational dance, ritual and celebration.

ARIA-nominated James Mangohig performs his original composition, sampling rhythms from across time and place to create a stunning score that melts your heart, plays with and surprises every sense, and to which the dancers respond with sheer infectious joy. The performers have worked impossibly hard to not only remember all the intricacies of the various styles of dance, but also to respond to the choreographic rigour and wonder, by committing themselves – heart, body and soul – to an epic performance divided into what becomes four quarters of an AFL footy match.

In Your Blood also raises some interesting questions, in a way that only resident performing arts companies in cities like Darwin can. While wearying familiar topics of gender parity and colour-blind casting have dominated the creative industries where I live, companies like Tracks and festivals like Darwin’s, remind us that a predominantly white, male-dominated culture only leads us to a place of unedifying sameness. Up here, time, place, culture, sound, sight and site, language, origin, Country, place and family assume an entirely new, yet ancient, urgent potency and identity.

What In Your Blood also reveals, is that White Australia has no national dance. Our Indigenous people do – and there is no easier way to feel like a tourist in your own country than by attending an Indigenous dance performance.

But what we do have is our (mostly imported) sporting codes. And while passion for sport crosses generations and cultures, can it ever replace storytelling through the ages, or ancient symbolism and values? Does it meet the criteria of a vibrant and lasting culture? Or am I just a defeated and deflated, footy-weary St Kilda supporter, whose season ended early when, from my front row seat at our match against North Melbourne, I spent most of my appalling afternoon with my head buried in my hands?

In Your Blood’s sporting-inspired choreography is fantastic, with the coin toss at the beginning becoming something like worship of some holy deity. Later, a young man struggles to find his place and his way through the complexities of his mother’s ancient dance. His eager post-dance return to the footy training session provides him with freedom, but also the need for a completely different kind of mental and physical discipline. And hilariously, the very necessary gym membership.

With the majority of the In Your Blood cast being female, identity through sport and culture is revealed through a timely juxtaposition between the age-old male domination of sporting culture and the reality of so many people’s lives and stories. Not all that long ago, it would have seemed peculiar to see a football team existing almost exclusively of women. Today, we have the long overdue beginnings of a women’s AFL league, and In Your Blood celebrates this female-led renaissance of sport and culture in marvellous style.

Artistic Director Felix Preval’s dance program for the 2018 Darwin Festival is illuminating. And as I watched, hypnotised, by the stunning and deceptive simplicity and skill of the Balinese and Sri Lankan women dancing tonight, I was reminded of the significance of cultural story telling through dance. Of history and place. Of connection to the earth we walk. Of learning, winning and losing. Of wisdom, not scores. Of Mothers, as the most wonderful umpires in the world.

What triumphs, ultimately, is the way in which dance can truly inspire and unify people of all ages. And when the Bollywood Finale burst onto the stage, every messy contradiction evaporated into the glorious unity of this very special company of dancers, who continue to challenge, inspire and entertain in unique, lasting and incredibly important ways.

See it.

Geoffrey Williams

Image by Mark Marcelis

Darwin Festival

9–26 August 2018

https://www.darwinfestival.org.au

Geoffrey is covering the 2018 Darwin Festival for Stage Whispers.

His earlier coverage includes a review of Biladurang:

http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/reviews/biladurang

A review of Chasing Smoke:

http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/reviews/chasing-smoke

An interview with the Artistic Director, Felix Preval:

http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/hard-won-success-afar

A feature about the history of the Darwin Festival:

http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/festival-born

Geoffrey also spoke to award-winning Darwin-based writer Sandra Thibodeaux about the sell-out season of her play ‘A Smoke Social’:

http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/news/ghosts-farewell-smoke-social