Brown's Mart Theatre, Darwin City

November 24 - 27, 1993

Creative Personnel

Sarah Calver, David McMicken and Tim Newth

Scenario

An offering of professional dance from the Northern Territory.
SILENT THOUGHT
Conceived and Directed: Tim Newth
Choreography assisted by the dancers: Sarah Calver and David McMicken

Rode with the drover side by side
Faithful wife but never a bride
Bred his sons for the cattle run
Don’t weep for the Drover’s boy
Don’t mourn for the Drover’s boy
But don’t forget the Drover's Boy
Ted Egan (The Drover’s Boy)

A chord was struck on first hearing John Williamson’s version of Ted Egan’s song The Drover’s Boy. The strength of that feeling still remains and has become core to this piece. Wounds of the people and the land do not heal by being ignored. SILENT THOUGHT explores black and white relationships in outback Australia. The story alludes to a young Aboriginal woman who is both ‘stockman’ and bed mate to a drover in the North. The ‘stockman’ was taken away from family, dominated and broken like an animal, all the while satisfying the sexual desire of the drover. The relationship was ambiguous and dangerous. It exposed the hidden dilemma of a man showing affection when he should not, all the more poignant when she/he dies.

AS I AM
Choreographer: Sarah Calver
Dancers: Sarah Calver, Lisa Campbell, Berenice Franklin, Helen Haritos, Sandy Stewart
Choreographed as a sequel to Different From Every Angle (1992), AS I AM uses contemporary dance language combined with sign language, gestures, phrases and poetry whilst exploring songlines of the five women. The paths they travel are directly linked to the land and their own inner landscapes.
Sections: My Silence, Travelling Songline, It’s All Too Much, Quack, Crystal Ship, Pullin’ Back The Reins, Tribal Dance, Slip Of The Tongue, Ostermanana, This Women’s Work.

CHAOS
Choreography: David McMicken with the cast
Dancers: Sarah Calver, Lisa Campbell, Berenice Franklin
Darwin Dance Mob: Moira Stronach, Linda Barry, Nicolene Rubin, Lucinda Murrell, Brolga, Ingred Uplin
A marginal interest in Chaos Theory led David to look more closely at the patterns as revealed by nature such as coast lines, weather patterns and other seemingly random designs which on closer viewing reveal complex patterns, such as the design of leaves on branches or rock formations. Magnification of these patterns reveals new details that repeat in similar patterns- almost repeat but never quite do.
In chaos theory / fractal geometry, a fractal suggests both fractured and fractional. Fractal geometry records images of movement in space as it focuses on broken, wrinkled, uneven shapes.
CHAOS tries to make some sense of order out of seeming random connections.

1993

Brown’s Mart Community Arts Dance Development Officers: Sarah Calver, David McMicken

[Under Brown's Mart Community Arts – Executive Officer Ken Conway]