SILENCE

SILENCE is an entry point to the complex political environment we find ourselves in. It is a powerful contemporary dance performance featuring seven performers on a minimalist set with evocative lighting. The complex musical score, punctuated by dynamic live percussion, explores past, present, alternate realities and dreamscapes. The entire stage is slowly engulfed in dirt, representing the worldwide call for the return of Indigenous lands. SILENCE breaks the SILENCE.

SILENCE is about the space in between. The conversations not being heard and the responses that are muted. Through the beating of a drum, bodies thrash through frequencies to uncover what lies in the SILENCE. 

There’s SILENCE between the stars as the Emu travels across the night sky. There’s SILENCE in the dancer’s energy when they hit the cut, the rupture between rhythms and movement where the spirit world can enter. It’s also the deafening SILENCE under white noise. The same questions echoed through generations.
 
We have marched across Country. We have had promises made and promises broken. In SILENCE we pull the unresolved conversations from under the rug and slam them back on the table. Because the conversation about a TREATY will never be silenced.

SILENCE is produced by BlakDance and the national tour has received financial assistance from the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Karul Projects will perform SILENCE, choreographed by Thomas E.S. Kelly.

Header image by Simon Woods.

Warning: Recommended parent/guardian to accompany 12+. Water based haze and strobe lighting will be used in this performance.

Quotes

“Yes, this is an urgent piece of ceremony”  
Ellen van Neerven, Koori Mail

“Thomas embodies his ancestors teachings, stories of the stars, rivers, ocean and totem animals locate the work in the artist’s traditional homelands”
Ellen van Neerven, Koori Mail

“Kelly’s movement style is grounded and fluid, rising and falling with a flurry of wild pent-up spinning and stamping”
Denise Richardson, Dance Australia

“The dancers move to the driving beat by composer and performer Jhindu-Pedro who has his drum kit on the stage and, boy, does he know how to use it”
Phil Brown, Courier Mail

Mobtix

Bunjil Place is committed to working closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities from Australia to celebrate and elevate First Nations culture. MobTix is about creating opportunities and accessibility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities allowing for increased participation in the arts. 

Who is eligible for MobTix? 

All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from Australia are eligible for MobTix.

EDUCATION RESOURCES

 Download the Education Resource PDF here

• GENERAL DANCE: UNIT 3 - How does a choreographer’s cultural background affect the communication of their viewpoint in dance?
• DANCE 7–10 - Analyse a range of dance from contemporary and past times to explore differing viewpoints and enrich their dance making, starting with dance from Australia and including dance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and consider dance in international contexts. 
• ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER STUDIES 
• ARTS IN PRACTICE 
• DANCE: DANCE IN PRACTICE 
• DRAMA; DRAMA IN PRACTICE 
• ENGLISH: ENGLISH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE 
• CURRICULUM PRIORITIES - Aboriginal perspectives and Torres Strait Islander perspectives