WHAT IS THAT LIGHT INSIDE?

Deborah Brown danced with Bangarra Dance Theatre for almost 15 years, before becoming a choreographer with them. She knows the company inside and out and represents it with pride. This is obvious when she talks about what Bangarra shows mean, telling me that they are things of beauty, survival and love. Her latest work, The Light Inside, choreographed alongside Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, delves into this beauty, and is different to every piece put on by Bangarra before. What I find most interesting about Deb’s work and the work of Bangarra is that it provides any and everyone with the opportunity to come and learn about the culture of First Nations people. It’s a powerful experience that you might not have thought about before, but with Bangarra coming to Wollongong’s IPAC this week, it’s the perfect time to go along to a show and support some of the greatest talent our land has to offer. Have a read about Deb’s role in The Light Inside, the concepts and narratives behind it, and what we can expect to see learn about in the piece. 

WANDERER: What can we expect from The Light Inside? If somebody's never been to a Bangarra performance before, what would you tell them? 

DEBORAH: Well, this would be an interesting first show to go and see because it's unlike any other Bangarra show before. We've done a cross-cultural collaboration with Moss Patterson and he is bringing his story across [from Aoteoroa], and we've got a bit of an unintentional double bill that happens in the one piece. So it'd be really interesting for any first timers to come and see this kind of collaboration.

The Light Inside really is just a really beautiful homage to the matriarchs in our family and where they've come from. It asks: what is that little flicker of light, or spark—the fire, the little flame that stays inside us? What is the seed that we're carrying from [our mothers], and how has that history of where they're from shaped us and influenced us?

What was it like working with Moss, and working with him in a culture that is separate to yours, but also closely connected to it? How has it been coming together to create this?

The great thing has been the conversations we've been having, and the things that we've learned about [Maori] practices and belief systems or, about what we refer to here in Australia as dreaming—what their dreaming is, and how that connects across the Pacifica. We've learnt about what we share as neighbours and what we can learn from each other. It was a really interesting time to collaborate. We didn't know each other very well prior. Frances Rings introduced us and The Light Inside was really her brainchild. It was something that I think she'd been dreaming about for a very long time—what is it like to share the experience with other indigenous cultures globally? And it's been really interesting to observe and witness the dancers transform physically as well. There's a shorthand with Bangarra style and technique that they've adopted and grown into—they've become it. So bringing in someone like Moss then challenged what had become second nature to them. So they had to think about finding their weight and their gravity somewhere else. 

You said The Light Inside follows matriarchal lineage. Would you say there's a narrative to it as well? Or is it more conceptual? 

More conceptual. There is narrative but I think that it is definitely conceptual. It's just in these little moments that explore questions of: what is it that keeps us strong? What is the light inside that keeps us going? And for me, I investigated different moments in Torres Strait history that I knew—moments that my mum doesn't intentionally carry with her, but that shaped the ethics that we carry around in our modern-day life. They are just ingrained and unspoken. I looked back at the environment and what shaped our people back in time and asked: what are you still carrying today? How are you using it to adapt and how are you leaning on it? So for me, it was more of a reflection on stories that I found really interesting. 

There's a section of the choreography that is in mind of boundaries, which is another big conversation I've had with Moss. The Torres Strait has its own treaty, and of course, Maori people have their treaty. So there’s a section about borders and boundaries that asks: how do you personally adapt to having your own boundaries too, and what is it that you've experienced historically that's made you go, Okay, I know how to stand my ground here. It might be something that seems so small today, but we know that bigger things have happened in the past surrounding it.

It's been learned and it's not being forgotten now. 

Yeah. 

And what was the choreographic process like for you? What was it like bringing it to life and seeing it be danced by the dancers?

I had a very challenging experience because I fractured my sacrum a week before we started creating. And so I couldn't move, I couldn't bend. I had to stay seated on one of those donut cushions, and I stayed up in Brisbane, so I did it all via Microsoft teams. So it was a really interesting process—probably not my favourite. But what was great was that I already had a bit of a rapport with the dancers so I had a shorthand with them to be able to build this. They really brought a lot to the space, considering I couldn't be there in person, and I think that says a lot about them as artists and what they're willing to bring to the table. 

Do you think it's changed any of the ways you work as a choreographer? 

It's helped me broaden how I approach things. It also affirms that I missed out on creating things in the past because I couldn't do it. And it certainly makes me want to hold onto being able to be in the space and take a tactile approach. When I have the opportunity again, I know that that's the sort of approach I would like to take because it made me appreciate those experiences all the more. 

So you're caring for your mother at the moment, has it been interesting caring for her while working on this piece, what with the meaning behind it?

I think that's what really pushed it, because I was spending so much quality time with her that I just had to. I felt like there was nothing else to say, you know. She was right there the whole time, she was always in the forefront of trying to make this experience as authentic as possible.

What would you hope the people take away from the show? 

I think with any Bangarra show, our culture is a thing of beauty. It is a culture that survives and we will always have many, many stories to tell from different parts of the continent, and now internationally as well. That, I think, is just something to be really proud of and to honor and engage with and learn about. That's one of the great things about a company like Bangarra—it can set up a really beautiful bridge between an audience and our history. It always approaches it from a real depth of beauty and understanding and, I don't know...love. I always feel a little bit silly when I talk about it that way, but I really think that that's one of the great things about Bangarra, it's an art form that allows a different angle for people to look at culture. And it's a different way for people to interact with culture whether they have or haven't before. 

The Light Inside will be at the IPAC from this Thursday to Saturday, tickets can be purchased here.