Civic Park, Darwin City

September 20, 1992

This community dance performance took place on September 20th, in the form of an outdoor processional dance that led the audience through the buildings and surrounding park areas next to Brown's Mart Community Arts. The theme was “Our Place” and the performance utilized attitudes and responses to place. It was a performance with a map for a programme. The show was seen by approximately 300 people and performed by 116 people. 13 sections were created with live music for each.

The format was chosen to allow smaller groups to dance without getting lost in vast numbers. This was an attempt to find a more intimate connection between audience and performers. Usually community dance relies on numbers and spectacle. The performance utilized people across the full range of the Brown’s Mart Community dance program, ages from 4 – 78.

Four Darwin Dance Mob groups (youth, adult X 2, the Grey Panthers women over 50), Local Troupe trained dancers, local fire dancers, Corrugated Iron Youth dancers, Casuarina Secondary College dance students, as well as the Big and Little Voice Choir.

Creative Personnel

Director: David McMicken
Choreographers: David McMicken, Sarah Calver, Maggi Phillips, Berenice Franklin
Designer and Assistant Director: Tim Newth
Musical Direction: Rob Hoad
Big and Little Voice Choir Director: Bronwyn Calcutt

Performers

Darwin Dance Mob groups (youth, adult 1, adult 2)
the Grey Panthers women over 5) Inger Andersson, Kath Baldwin, Ruth Blandy, Adie Bruce, Julie Dowson, Audrey Gorring, Glad Morris, Marie Porter, Lila Prochazka, Greta Quong, Marjorie Reynolds, Joy Soullier, Frida Staats, Hanna Stamm, Audrey Svara, and Jean Young Smith
Local Troupe for trained dancers
The Big and Little Voice Choir
Fire dancers
Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre dancers
Casuarina Secondary College year 11 & 12
Brown’s Mart Staff: Joanna Barrkman, Ken Conway, Helen Haritos

Scenario

• STARTING PLACE. Brown’s Mart. A welcome and Introduction to an historic building. Crowd control and lanterns on poles. Follow the Stars.
• DOWN THE TRACK. Dance Mob. Travelling through landscape, laying down tracks, sand trails, hand and footprints. Looking for direction.
• TRACK OF BROKEN DREAMS. Dance Mob and Local Troupe. Places and Times. Places in the mind. Suling and Conga
• UNDER THE BANYAN TREE. Grey Panthers (over 50’s). Looking for that special place. The garden and its joys. A rhythmical chant created by the use of garden implements and natural vegetation.
• SEARCHING FOR PLACE.  Dance Mob. The journey has started, the tracks have been laid, we search for a significant place. Maps and torches help guide us.
• HEARTHEARTHEART. Fire Dancers. Women with flaming sticks rejoice in their connection to the earth and their sadness at the disconnection that can come from imposing structures. The larger flame torches represent hope as we storm the Town Council Buildings.
• CANDLELIT PATHWAYS.  Leading ahead, guiding.
• SPOOKY PLACE. Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre. In the minds of young people we come to a scary place, coloured squares of cloth, shrouds and cobwebs. The trees are full of sounds.
• TIED TO PLACE. Dance Mob. What things tie us to place? Is this a restriction, or a boundary that provides greater freedom? Literally tied to the ground our performers stand their ground.
• CORNERS OF THE MIND. Local troupe. Imagination, like shadows, flees across the shelters in the hidden places of the mind.
• VOICES FROM A CHASM. The Big and Little Voice Choir, Anglican Cathedral. World songs fill the cathedral, the place affects the sound. From a ritualistic ambience, bells lead us onwards.
• BODIES OF WATER. Casuarina Secondary College. Water as a place. Waterfalls, wetlands, small dripping places. Passing sacred water, the choir wave the ship off into the unknown waters, fluid sounds back the secondary students as they dance in front of the red sprinkler
• WISHING WELL GROVE. Dance Mob under 8’s. These young dancers wish for a place with flying horses, super heroes, tooth fairies and some tough fighting. Three wishing wells in a circle of palm trees, marimbas playing and the sound hangs like drops in a spider web. Star Lanterns light our way to the very centre of the spaces.
• TRACKS AND CLUSTERS. Entire cast. Circles within circles, the entire cast makes a design in the space. An African song unifies the performers as their movement phrases from the performance meld to create one phrase. Time is suspended as everyone comes to the same place.

1992

Dance Development Office: David McMicken

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