Sheltering offers an enigmatic evening of highly creative dance works in a concise and visually powerful program. Bangarra Dance Theatre shines with rich choreography steeped in First Nations tradition and themes while featuring high calibre dance. The idea of shelter is cleverly explored in three different offerings throughout the performance: an expansive suspended net in Keeping Grounded, a domed hut in the dance film Brown Boys and finally the formation of a tree as the closing tableau of Sheoak.
The performance begins with Keeping Grounded by Indjalandji-Dhidhanu and Alyawarre woman Glory Tuohy-Daniell and presents some of the most innovative movement vocabulary I have ever seen. The modern dance tradition is mixed with a street dance lexicon that is wholly unique. The dancers move with sharp hand articulations and isolated body parts, which appear to pop in time to the industrial score by Wiradjuri man Brendon Boney. Keeping Grounded opens with a large suspended net in which the dancers are held. One by one the dancers escape from their meshed enclosure with acrobatic grace. Different couplings unify in unique formations, including a dance performed largely with the dancers’ hands in their pant pockets. It is exceedingly clever and could be a metaphor for apathy. The program offers poetic meaning to describe scenes in Keeping Grounded that do not necessarily correspond with a viewer’s interpretation; however, this hardly takes away from the experience, instead the piece offers an otherworldly landscape unique to its inhabitants.
Tuohy-Daniell is a gifted choreographer exploring movement in unexpected ways. As the curtain closes on Keeping Grounded a film screen is lowered in front for Sheltering’s second artistic work.
Brown Boys is a short dance film co-directed by Gomeroi mari/man Daniel Mateo and filmmaker Cass Mortimer Eipper. It shares the story of a young indigenous man through poetry and movement with dirt as his shelter. The solo role is danced by Mateo, and he is filmed in sharp contrast to his setting like an island of brown in a sea of white. He moves in and out of his domed structure that might offer him protection but also separates him from life. The film is beautiful to watch largely due to Mateo’s film presence, his expressive words and images with red dirt. The camera explores his body from many angles revealing an intimacy and vulnerability that is palpable. The six-minute film sits well between the two live dance pieces giving the audience a different medium to enjoy dance.
Mirning woman and the artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, Francis Ring, closes the program with her epic work Sheoak. Ring opens Sheoak with a stunning sculptural arrangement of dancers wearing costumes of a skeletal design. The 16 dancers move around the stage supporting one another while undulating their torsos. A dancer enters with a large pole that might represent the trunk of a sheoak, a native flowering plant used as a symbol of strength and adaptability in Indigenous culture. The “Keeper” role, danced by Chantelle Lee Lockhart, represents a spiritual leader who appears to identify a malady in the group. Lockhart’s expressive dancing and strong stage presences runs as a tightly woven seam throughout the piece. In a duet called “Synthetic Seed” Lockhart comforts Kassidy Waters while she delivers an astonishing solo. Waters grapples with some sort of possession, performing a dance of inner struggle and dramatic release.
Another memorable scene includes seven male dancers performing a ritual-like dance to (the late) David Page’s percussive score. The sound design includes breath work guiding the dancers through their increasingly vigorous moves. The effect is trance-like. The atmosphere of the dance is compounded by growing angst and tension as the male dancers eventually start to engage in fisticuffs.
More poles are introduced hanging from the stage ceiling. The image is reminiscent of a rib cage or a stark forest as the dancers move around the set looking for shelter from a cycle of dysfunction. In the final section of Sheoak a cloak of bioluminescence is introduced, embracing a mystical spirit as the ensemble moves towards a transcendental passage.
Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Sheltering is a beautifully curated performance with a unique perspective. Ring illuminates the stage with her colossal work Sheoak while emerging choreographers are given an opportunity to shine as well. The program is 80 minutes long with no intermissions, making for a most effective way to enjoy performing art.
Sheltering runs at the Arts Centre Melbourne’s intimate Playhouse Theatre until 27 June.
Photo credit: Daniel Boud
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Paris Wages reviewed “Sheltering”, presented by Bangarra Dance Theatre at Arts Centre Melbourne Playhouse on June 18, 2026.
