Patyegarang

Bangarra have made it obvious once again why they are a national treasure. Although there is always a certain necessary didacticism about their work, they make it work for them, and Patyegarang is a case in point.

Salvaged from history but told with an intimacy and, dare I say, a romance that resonates clearly in 2014, Patyegarang is the remarkable tale of a young Eora woman and the nascent Sydney colony’s astronomer Lieutenant William Dawes. Their friendship, which Dawes documented in detail in his diary, is one of the very first recorded examples of “contact”.

Stephen Page has based his latest work around Dawes’ diary and the result is a mesmerising, utterly beautiful and hypnotic journey. Powered by David Page’s emotive score and starring Jasmin Sheppard and Thomas Greenfield as the chief protagonists, Patyegarang marries Indigenous and Western contemporary dance seamlessly. The work shifts from the narrative to the expressive with nimble grace.

However, Page’s real genius here is to maintain the power of his historical and cultural touchstones without sacrificing the innate tenderness of what must have been an extraordinary meeting of man and woman. Indeed, it is this connection that really lets us connect with the soul of the work; for here is Indigenous history with a universal colour. In short, Patyegarang sees Bangarra at their 25-year pinnacle.