Creative Development 2023 – Bundjalung (Broadwater)

The Smoke team kicked off a two week creative period by reconnecting as co-directors on Bundjalung country at Broadwater Community Hall. This first week involved planning for the 2 weeks, setting tasks and testing them on ourselves. During this time, Jade and Kirk continued to dive deep into the text and asking questions about the form of the work as it exists, testing ideas and developing choreographic sequences.

In week two, we were joined by four dancers. Ongoing collaborators Katina Olsen and Robert Tinning joined us in the space with locally-based dancers/choreographers Janessa Duffy and Stuart Shugg. We introduced the dancers to text work and devising physical scores in response to the ideas we have gathered - inspired by the sacred and the mundane. It was such a thrill to have the amazingly talented and courageous dancers with us over the period and they were a vital element in taking the work off the page and out of our minds and bodies. The First Nations and CALD lived experience of the dancers offered insight and perspective, which brought incredible value to the CD process. 

We were also joined by videographer Joel Benguigui who documented sequences of the work.