JANGANPA was a dance performance of spellbinding beauty that howled through this vast ancient land.

PHOTO: Steve Strike

JANGANPA starred the Janganpa Dancers, traditional elders of the central desert who presented epic stories of love, greed and desire. Janganpa transported the oldest dance of this land into the 21st century.

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The Janganpa Dancers are a troupe of Warlpiri and Anmatyere singers, dancers, painters and film actors. They regularly perform short pieces of their traditional dances locally and overseas, in New Zealand, Germany and Korea.

JANGANPA was conceived because the elders of the Janganpa dancers wanted to transport their traditional dances into the contemporary world. They needed to retain the integrity of their dance while making it work in a traditional Western theatre. Through their manager Peter Yates they contacted Tracks and asked them to direct the show.

"We thank the Janganpa dancers for allowing us to take this journey into the theatre together. We hope you can gain some insight into a worldview that has developed over many thousands of years and is intimately connected to the desert lands for which many of us share a love."
David McMicken and Tim Newth

"Alice’s desert dancers blur dividing lines. Dawn breaks on the back-projection of the desert; light rises on the Araluen Centre’s wooden stage. Clap sticks clash together. A group of Warlpiri women, in full body paint and feathered head dresses, begin their ritual movements. Grave, gripping, traditional, the debut Western performance by the Central Deserts’s Janganpa Dancers earlier this week was the signature event of this year’s Alice Springs Festival…Pride of place though belongs to the Janganpa Dancers, a group of traditional elders, some in their 80s, who have co-operated with Darwin’s Tracks dance company to bring their traditional tales of "love, greed and desire" before the eyes of the wider world."
Nicholas Rothwell, The Australian

Directors

Tim Newth
David McMicken

Producer

Peter Yates (VAST Productions)

Lighting

Greg Thompson (Araluen Centre)

Presenters

Araluen Centre

Janganpa dancers - performers and custodians of the dances
Noreen Nampijinpa Robertson
Lydia Nangala Sampson
Ida Nangala Granites
Pamela Nangala Williams
Audrey Napanangka Martin
Judy Nampijinpa Granites
Topsy Napaljarri Dixon
Maggie Nakamarra