Presentation Type
Presentation
Location
The Kailis Room, Library Building
Start Date
2-10-2024 12:30 PM
Keywords:
Marrugeku
Description
Between 2022 and 2023 Australia’s leading Indigenous intercultural dance and theatre company Marrugeku presented two research laboratories titled, Dance and Cultural Dramaturgies in Contested Land, which took place on Yawuru Buru, Rubibi (Broome) and Gadigal and Bidiagal lands (Sydney). This presentation for Nulungu’s Talking Heads seminar series by Marrugeku’s Co-Artistic Directors Yawuru /Bardi/ Malay/ Filipino movement artist Dalisa Pigram and Anglo-Pākehā director and dramaturg Rachael Swain will be a collaborative weaving of critical discourse, documentation and reflection unpacking the practice led research model for new dramaturgies in contested land. Working together from their distinct positions and disciplines Dalisa and Rachael have co-created trans-disciplinary and intercultural performance over three decades. These collaborations have been undertaken with Kunwinjku and Yawuru cultural custodians and co-devising artists from many disciplines, many Indigenous Nations and diverse settler backgrounds leading to new trans-Indigenous, intercultural and interdisciplinary dramaturgies. The two research labs were curated by Dalisa and Rachael together with their long term dramaturgical collaborators Yawuru cultural leader Patrick Dodson and Belgian dance dramaturg Hildegard de Vuyst. Each two week research process was convened for leading independent practitioners from Australia, Aotearoa, Canada and Morocco to locate questions of dance dramaturgy in the contested land that it is danced on and to engage the cultural perspectives and experiences of those who create it. The presentation will unpack the research methodology to share approaches that might be applied in other situations of dramaturgical experiment. The reflections have been focused and documented in collaboration with Dr Tia Reihana (Ngāti Hine) who attended the Gadigal lab as Kairangahau (researcher). Dalisa, Rachael and Tia are members of the working group leading Dance Research Australasia, an international network that curates, connects and activates research to build capacity and invigorate dance praxis locally and globally amid the ever present histories and current critical discourses of the Southern Ocean context.
Recommended Citation
Pigram, Dalisa and Swain, Rachael, "‘Research Methodologies for Dance and Cultural Dramaturgies In Contested Land’" (2024). Talking Heads Seminar Series. 17.
https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/nulungu_talkingheads/2024/schedule/17
‘Research Methodologies for Dance and Cultural Dramaturgies In Contested Land’
The Kailis Room, Library Building
Between 2022 and 2023 Australia’s leading Indigenous intercultural dance and theatre company Marrugeku presented two research laboratories titled, Dance and Cultural Dramaturgies in Contested Land, which took place on Yawuru Buru, Rubibi (Broome) and Gadigal and Bidiagal lands (Sydney). This presentation for Nulungu’s Talking Heads seminar series by Marrugeku’s Co-Artistic Directors Yawuru /Bardi/ Malay/ Filipino movement artist Dalisa Pigram and Anglo-Pākehā director and dramaturg Rachael Swain will be a collaborative weaving of critical discourse, documentation and reflection unpacking the practice led research model for new dramaturgies in contested land. Working together from their distinct positions and disciplines Dalisa and Rachael have co-created trans-disciplinary and intercultural performance over three decades. These collaborations have been undertaken with Kunwinjku and Yawuru cultural custodians and co-devising artists from many disciplines, many Indigenous Nations and diverse settler backgrounds leading to new trans-Indigenous, intercultural and interdisciplinary dramaturgies. The two research labs were curated by Dalisa and Rachael together with their long term dramaturgical collaborators Yawuru cultural leader Patrick Dodson and Belgian dance dramaturg Hildegard de Vuyst. Each two week research process was convened for leading independent practitioners from Australia, Aotearoa, Canada and Morocco to locate questions of dance dramaturgy in the contested land that it is danced on and to engage the cultural perspectives and experiences of those who create it. The presentation will unpack the research methodology to share approaches that might be applied in other situations of dramaturgical experiment. The reflections have been focused and documented in collaboration with Dr Tia Reihana (Ngāti Hine) who attended the Gadigal lab as Kairangahau (researcher). Dalisa, Rachael and Tia are members of the working group leading Dance Research Australasia, an international network that curates, connects and activates research to build capacity and invigorate dance praxis locally and globally amid the ever present histories and current critical discourses of the Southern Ocean context.
