DANCE MIGRATIONS

DANCE

3 Nov

Recently landed: Dance Migrations

Gracia’s written response to DanceX, Part Three, presented by The Australian Ballet, especially for Fjord Review.

Two nights before I saw the third and final instalment of DanceX, presented by The Australian Ballet, a juvenile Bar-tailed Godwit set the world record for continuous flight, flying 13,560km (8,435 miles) from Alaska to Tasmania.[i] Satellite tag number 234684 completed their marathon voyage in 11 days. By shrinking their internal organs to make room for fat stores, Bar-tailed Godwits are astonishing.

In Yawaru language, this migratory bird has another name, and one that suits them beautifully: Gunwayi. In Broome, the Gunwayi, as Dalisa Pigram explained, is a calling bird that tells you that the tide is turning, if you know how to listen. When fishing, and in life: failure to heed their warning is to drown. When fishing, and in life: take only what you need; don’t be greedy.

Marrugeku, led by co-artistic directors, choreographer and dancer Pigram and director and dramaturg Rachael Swain, presented Gudirr Guddirr at DanceX Part Three at the Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. Not unlike the shorebirds’ migration, Gudirr Guddirr has been performed extensively since its premiere in 2013 as part of Dance Massive. However this work derived its name from parallels that Marrugeku’s concept and cultural advisor Patrick Dodson saw between the bird and the devastating effect of colonisation today.[ii] As Dodson described, “The Guwayi bird flies very low across the intertidal area to warn people out on the reef that the tide is coming in. . . .The Guwayi bird does not tell lies. . . .The warning sign from the Guwayi bird can go one of two ways. We are either going to drown because we are not reading the signs of our disempowerment, or we will hear the warnings and we will take steps.”

[i] Graham Readfearn, ‘Bar-tailed godwit sets world record with 13,560km continuous flight from Alaska to southern Australia’, The Guardian, 27th October, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/27/bar-tailed-godwit-sets-world-record-with-13560km-continuous-flight-from-alaska-to-southern-australia, accessed 30th October, 2022.

[ii] See Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aborigines for Year ending 30th June, 1928, for example, https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/digitised_collections/remove/73719.pdf, accessed 30th October, 2022.