The Creative Team comes together
The full creative team for the production started coming together in June 2023. A Zoom conversation, brought Laura and Liz together with NT Dance Company Artistic Gary Lang, Company Manager Erica McCallum, and Producer Elizabeth Rogers. Liz and Laura were delighted to meet for the first time Rehearsal Director Noelle Shader, Costume Designer Jennifer Irwin, Lighting Designer Joe Mercurio, and Sound Designer Arian Ganambarr-Pearson.
Laura and Liz arrive in Darwin
The flight from Newcastle, UK, to Darwin, Australia, was about 17 hours. We were into rehearsals the next day.
Rehearsals in Darwin
After their arrival in Darwin July 2023, Laura and Liz joined members of the creative team in rehearsals. Pictured here, Liz leading warm-up class for the dancers and Laura working with the dancers on her script for the opening of the performance.
The amazing dancers for the production are Alexander Abbot and Chandler Connell pictured here with Rehearsal Director Noelle Shader.
The production’s Cultural Consultants Jesse Norris and Josephine Crawshaw have both attended rehearsals to observe a run-through of the work-in-progress and offer their thoughts.
Josephine Crawshaw is a Gurindji Elder, descendent of the Stolen Generations, and a long-term advocate and activist for the recognition of the sovereign rights of First Nations Peoples.
Jesse Norris spoke to the team at length about his life story including his encounters with injustice and the value of culture, Country and dance both within his childhood and his adult experience within the criminal justice system in Australia.
Other guests invited to watch rehearsals and offer feedback have included Kate Fell Artistic, Director of Darwin Festival, and Dr Wendy Ludwig, Kungarakan and Gurindji woman and Artistic Director of Garramlang Festival, as well as other dancers from NT Dance Company and staff from Darwin Entertainment Centre and Tracks Dance Company.
Creative elements coming together
On Sunday 23rd July Sound Designer Arian Ganambarr-Pearson arrived in town to work with Gary and the Creative Team in the studio. It was exciting to see Gary, Arian and the dancer working together to refine how the sound and the choreography come together.
On the same day photos of the costume in-development arrived from Costume Designer Jennifer Irwin.
