SILENCE by Karul Projects
SILENCE is an urgent call for TREATY, highlighting the stories and struggles of Blak communities since colonisation. Through SILENCE, Karul Projects take their place in the lineage of fierce First Nations makers calling for Sovereignty.
Choreographed by Thomas E.S. Kelly, SILENCE is a powerful dance performance, featuring seven performers on a stage slowly engulfed in dirt, representing the call for Land Back.
Dynamic live percussion drives the dancers' exploration of past, present, alternate realities and dreamscapes of the milky way and Murun, the emu in the sky.
Karul Projects is an emerging First Nations professional contemporary dance company based on Minjungbal Jogan, founded in 2017 by Thomas E.S. Kelly, Minjungbal-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri and Ni-Vanuatu, and Taree Sansbury, Kaurna, Narrunga and Ngarrindjerri.
““These are conversations I have often had with Indigenous and non-Indigenous friends, colleagues and acquaintances over many years. You have added a strong new dimension and a tool for renewal and re invigorations.””
Image by Simon Woods
Tour dates and locations
SILENCE is about the space in between. The conversations not being heard and the responses that are muted. Through the beating of a drum, bodies thrash through frequencies to uncover what lies in the SILENCE.
There’s SILENCE between the stars as the Emu travels across the night sky. There’s SILENCE in the dancer’s energy when they hit the cut, the rupture between rhythms and movement enabling a vibrational glitch where the spirit world can enter. It’s also the deafening SILENCE under white noise. The same questions echoed through generations.
“We have marched across Country. We have had promises made and promises broken. In SILENCE we pull the unresolved conversations from under the rug and slam them back on the table. Because the conversation about a TREATY will never be silenced.”
60min duration, no interval
Ages 12+
Water based haze and strobe lighting will be used in this performance.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander audiences are advised that this show references people who have died.
About Karul Projects
Thomas E.S. Kelly and Taree Sansbury, met at NAISDA Dance College on the Central Coast of New South Wales in 2009. They have worked professionally together ever since, creating their own dance-theatre works, choreographing and performing for companies nationally. Thomas and Taree created Karul Projects in 2017, to create more opportunities for employment and skill building for First Nations artists.
Creatives / Cast:
Thomas E.S. Kelly (Choreographer/Writer/Performer) Minjungbal-Yugambeh, Wiradjuri and Ni-Vanuatu
Taree Sansbury (Rehearsal Director/Performer) Kaurna, Narrunga and Ngarrindjerri
Vicki Van Hout (Choreographic Dramaturg) Wiradjuri
Alethea Beetson (Dramaturg) Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi and Wiradjuri
Benjin Maza (Performer) Yidindji, Birri Gubba, Meriam Mer and Tanna Island
Keia McGrady (Performer) Githabul Migunberri-Yugumbeh
Glory Tuohy-Daniell (Performer) Indjalandji-Dhidhanu and Alyewarre
Olivia Adams (Performer) Wulli Wulli
Jhindu-Pedro Lawrie (Percussion Composer/Performer) Mirning and Wuthathi
Sam Pankhurst (Music/Sound Designer)
Karen Norris (Lighting Designer)
Selene Cochrane (Costume Designer)
The national tour has received financial assistance from the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
SILENCE is produced by BlakDance. The premiere production in 2020 was co-commissioned by BlakDance, HOTA Home of the Arts, City of Gold Coast, Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Brisbane Festival, with support by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
