From Bangarra and Australian ballet grow seeds of a new dance

By: LIZ HOBDAY

A rare collaboration between the Australian Ballet and Indigenous company Bangarra Dance Theatre will have its world premiere at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne.

Choreographed by Bangarra artistic director Frances Rings, Flora has been created with an ensemble of more than 35 dancers from both companies.

“It’s really focused on elements of Australia’s natural flora, and the significance that it has not just to First Nations people, but actually to all of us who share this incredible country,” said the Australian Ballet’s Steven Heathcote.

Flora has been the foundation of Indigenous connection to country for millennia. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS)

It’s billed as a new chapter in Australian dance, and begins in deep time with the germination of the very first seed, depicted by spectacular aerial work.

It then develops into a story about colonisation and our relationship with nature – there are eucalypts, yams, and weeds, as well as fire and regeneration.

Indigenous connection

Flora has been the foundation of Indigenous connection to country for millennia, said Mirning woman Frances Rings.

“Plants and First Nations people have shared the deep disruption of colonisation and have been equally impacted by the wake of destruction that resonates through generations,” she said.

The dancers spent five weeks developing the piece at Bangarra’s Sydney studios, before travelling to Melbourne for the final weeks of rehearsals.

The ballet dancers, for their part, had to leave behind the uplifted and contained qualities of classical ballet, and take on Bangarra’s lower centre of gravity and more earthy style.

Flora begins in deep time with the germination of the very first seed. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS)

More than that, the dancers learned the spiritual and cultural reasoning behind the choreography, Heathcote said.

“They put so much into it, and I know that they’re busting to get out there and share with the public what they’ve been developing over such a long period of time,” he said.

The co-production premieres on Thursday night at the Regent Theatre, before a run at the Sydney Opera House in April.

The score has been developed by renowned Kalkadungu composer William Barton, with costumes by Meriam Samsep designer Grace Lillian Lee.

It’s the first full-length collaboration for the two companies, which first worked together in the 1990s when the Australian Ballet’s Maina Gielgud commissioned Bangarra’s Stephen Page to choreograph the short work Alchemy.

The dancers spent five weeks developing the piece at Bangarra’s Sydney studios. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS)

As opening night approaches, when the call for the final rehearsals is heard in the theatre, it asks for the dancers of the Flora Company.

“I think what we have now is not Bangarra Dance Theatre or the Australian Ballet, what we have is the Flora Company, which is really nice. It’s a galvanising thought that brings everyone together,” Heathcote said.

• Flora runs from Thursday until March 21 at the Regent Theatre and at the Sydney Opera House April 7 to 18.

AAP