Today, Bennelong is one of the most

Mathinna DVD. There are Bennelongs amongst us still today. In 2017 Bangarra Dance Theatre brought the story of Wollarawarre Bennelong to the stage. Ó Bangarra Dance Theatre – July 2017. Bangarra dancer Beau Dean Riley Smith was the recipient of both the Helpmann Award for ‘Best Male Dancer’ and Australian Dance Award for ‘Outstanding Performance’ in 2018 for his captivating lead role of Woollarawarre Bennelong. Reviewed on June 29, 2017 . Bangarra Dance Theatre was founded in October 1989 by Carole J. Johnson, an African-American modern dancer and founder of the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA), Rob Bryant, a Gumbaynggirr man and graduate of NAISDA, and Cheryl Stone, a South African-born student at NAISDA.. Johnson toured Australia in 1972 with American … Bennelong is darker and less optimistic than Patyegarang, but is the more successful dance work, with its charged narrative beautifully supported by words in song. In 2017 Bangarra Dance Theatre brought the story of Wollarawarre Bennelong to the stage. Event details Date. “It’s a complex story, but it’s an important one. History. by Clive Paget on June 30, 2017 | No single individual defines the clash of cultures that occurred at Sydney Cove in 1788 quite like Woollarawarre Bennelong, the Eora man who became an intermediary between his clan and the …

Bangarra: Indigenous Australian dance company tells the conflicted story of Bennelong. Bangarra Dance Theatres latest offering re-imagines the life of Bennelong, and provides an extraordinary interpretation through contemporary dance.

It was a production that Stephen Page had been thinking about for many years as he waited for the right time to reflect on Bennelong’s life and tell his story from an Aboriginal perspective. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House . Bennelong is the first Aboriginal man to have been documented to have written in the English language. THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN REVIEW, JUNE 17-18, 2017 STORY SHARON VERGHIS

With dramaturg Alana Valentine, Page tells his story chronologically through 16 vignettes from Bennelong’s birth to his death, alcoholic and abandoned by all in a backyard in Putney. Bangarra’s latest production explores the story of Woollarawarre Bennelong, an Australian historical figure shrouded in intrigue and controversy. A compelling and unsettling story of first contact, Bennelong is the story of Eora man Woollarawarre Bennelong and his struggle to exist within two worlds. Mathinna was originally created in 2008, with choreography by Artistic Director Stephen Page.. Bangarra Dance Theatre's Bennelong tells a life story in dance and music By Elissa Blake Updated June 28, 2017 — 12.12am first published June 26, 2017 — 3.54pm But still we are conscious of how our values, kinship systems and cultures are framed within the western cultural hegemony. Inspired by a young girl’s journey between two cultures, Mathinna traces the story of a young Aboriginal girl removed from her traditional home and adopted into western colonial society, only to be ultimately returned to the fragments of her original heritage. Bennelong’s story is wrapped up with the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Bangarra is so proud of our responsibility as cultural caretakers, to be entrusted to carry these stories and to share them with audiences across the world. 3 Introduction Bennelong is a dance theatre production that explores the story of Woollarawarre Bennelong (Bennilong, Baneelon) (c1764-1813), a Wangul man of the Eora nation who lived in the Port Jackson area at the time of the British first settlement. Title. Notes. Bennelong (Bangarra Dance Theatre) Bangarra fires on all cylinders in seminal tale of first contact. As Bangarra explores the complex life of Bennelong, Stephen Page is still coming to terms with personal tragedy. Kidnapped by British colonists in 1789 and forcibly taken to Sydney Cove as part of a plan to initiate contact with Australia’s First Peoples, within a matter of months, Bennelong was communicating well with his captors.