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Dancehouse stands on what always was and always will be Aboriginal land. We pay our respects to the traditional owners of this land, the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation, to their Elders past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Bridge

Ngioka Bunda-Heath

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'Bridge' (2022), Ngioka Bunda-Heath. Photo by Bryony Jackson.
16—19 March 2022
8pm

Upstairs Studio, Dancehouse

Mob: $12
Members/City of Yarra locals: $20
Concession/Unwaged: $25
Full Price: $30

**Auslan interpretation will be provided on Thursday 17 March.

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“To bridge a gap is to connect things in a logical way; to have qualities of two different things; to fill in a space between two things”

Bridge extends on Ngioka Bunda-Heath’s recent works Blood Quantum and Birrpai. This new contemporary dance work explores the dancer’s shared and divergent experiences through self-written personal letters addressed to their siblings. Follow the series of solos that interweave, connect and oppose, giving voice to the often overlooked, silenced, and underrepresented in society. The quartet will move from displacement and longing to healing and acceptance. Bridge was made in collaboration with Theodore Cassady, Joshua Twee and Tammy Bouman.

Concept and Performer: Ngioka Bunda-Heath
Mentor: Priya Srinivasan
Co-choreographer and Performer: Joshua Twee
Co-choreographer and Performer: Theodore Cassady
Co-choreographer and Performer: Tamara Bouman
Sound Designer: Daniel Nixon
Lighting Designer: Lisa Mibus


Ticket Package:

16—19 March: Bridge by Ngioka Bunda-Heath & Sky Blue Mythic by Angela Goh

M $35 | C $45 | F $55

Book Package

Packages are available for purchase until 9am on Wednesday 16 March

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Ngioka Bunda-Heath is Wakka Wakka, Ngugi from Queensland (matrilineal); and Birrpai from New South Wales (patrilineal). She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the Victorian College of the Arts as the first Aboriginal woman to graduate in her field. Ngioka has been awarded the 2021-2022 Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship and Residency at the Victorian College of the Arts. She worked for Bangarra Dance Theatre in “Rekindling” their youth education program, and is the First Peoples Partnership Coordinator at Chunky Move. Ngioka has performed in works by the esteemed independent choreographers Mariaa Randall, Amrita Hepi, Sarah Aiken and Rebecca Jensen. Internationally, she’s participated in dance conferences, festivals, and residencies in New Caledonia, France, Canada, and the USA. Ngioka’s choreographic work includes Blood Quantum (2019), Birrpai (2021), and Bridge (2022).

Theodore Cassady currently resides in Melbourne as an independent practitioner and completed his dance training at the Adelaide College of the Arts in 2016, working with a number of national and international choreographers including Leigh Warren, Larissa McGowan, Peter Sheedy, Gavin Webber, Lee Brummer, Israel Aloni and Lewis Major. He has also seconded with Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australian Dance Theatre, Melbourne Dance Theatre, participated in workshops and intensives with Sydney Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Shaun Parker, Restless Dance Theatre and Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal. Theodore choreographed for the Short+Sweet Festival 2013 and the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2016. He has performed numerous times over the years in the Adelaide Fringe in various shows and performances also been choreographed by Francis Rings, Vicki Van Hout, Thomas E S Kelly, Jacob Watton and Sandi Woo.

Joshua Twee, after completing his BFA Dance in 2015 is an emerging cross disciplinary performance artist whose ever-expanding practice has negotiated across dance, theatre, dance film, puppetry, fencing, martial arts and stage combat. His works frequently incorporates and exhibits media from different disciplines culminating most recently in live/social/indigenous dance, acting and dance films.In 2019 Josh received a green room award (Experimental Theatre – alongside Carly Shepherd and Daniel Nixon) for “Crackers N Dip with Chase and Toey”.Joshua’s work predominantly explores social dance, connections with the nature of self and “it’s” relationships with the world. Josh is currently conceptualizing his art through primal movement improvisation, set choreography and acting. Joshua in collaboration with Carly Shepherd is working on a piece called “Black Ones(working title) to be shown in upcoming festivals in 2021.

Tamara Bouman began her dance training in Sydney at the age of 3, training at established commercial dance institutions including Brent Street and the Village Performing Arts, alongside ballet training at Tanya Pearson’s Classical Coaching Academy. She completed her HSC in 2016 and in 2017 began pursuing a path in contemporary dance with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the VCA, which she graduated from in 2019. At the VCA, Tamara worked with choreographer’s including but not limited to Sarah-Jayne Howard, Stephanie Lake, Rheannan Port, Sue Healey, Larissa McGowan and Alistair MacIndoe. Tamara has been performing as a professional dance artist since 2018, with her professional debut as a performer/collaborator in Colossus with the Stephanie Lake Company in Melbourne Fringe Festival (2018), with follow up performance seasons in the Melbourne International Arts Festival (2019), and Sydney Festival (2020). In 2019 she performed in Sarah Aiken and Rebecca Jensen’s Melbourne Fringe festival work What Am I Supposed To Do? (WAISTD). Tamara is keenly interested in cross disciplinary and cross cultural collaboration, exploring the sheer physicality, intricacy and dexterity of movement and the body’s limits/restrictions, using dance to deepen her connection to her culture and land and how the body can be used as a tool for learning and sharing. During this pandemic-ridden time Tamara has been fortunate enough to work with Sydney based independent artists Alice Weber, Audrey Burden, Bonnie Curtis, Phaedra Brown, Matt Cornell and Wendy Yu on different creative developments, has performed Dream Cellscapes with Alice Weber in gallery settings across Sydney and Woolongong. She is was a member of Leg Up Program 2021 with Legs on the wall. In 2022 Tamara is set to work with various independent artists across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide with performances in the realms of contemporary dance, contemporary circus, children’s educational dance performances and physical theatre.

Commissioned by Melbourne Fringe as part of Deadly Fringe. The work is supported by Creative Victoria, City of Yarra, The Abbotsford Convent, Lucy Guerin Inc. and Dancehouse.

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