Red Earth Arts Festival
September in the desert mining town of Karratha in Western Australia I was invited to choreograph for the Red Earth Arts Festival. The opening and closing numbers for the 'Dance Fusion' event was charged with 200+ dancers from the four local dance schools.
Opening number, "Bish" was inspired by the track “WAAK” (Crow) off the late Dr. Gurrumul’s ARIA award-winning album, Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow). It just stayed with me ever since I heard it in April. Dancers from ages 8-17 years performed a Contemporary dance piece with a projected image of the winning art piece "Colours through the Rocks" by Melissa Sandy who won the Pilbara Indigenous Artist, Cossack Art Awards 2018.
For the Closing number - since these talented dancers were also tappers, I decided flamenco rhythms could be a great challenge for them. We worked to Michael Jackson’s “Man In The Mirror” and combined Flamenco and Tap dance and some Body Percussion grooves inspired by legendary Aussie percussionist, Greg Sheehan.
The event was simply fantastic, all the dancers and teachers were brilliant and huge thanks to Karratha City Council for the wonderful opportunity!
©Photography by Tangiora Hinaki. All rights reserved.
