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Dancing life into traditional objects: 'Artefact'

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Dancers in traditional Indigenous costume on stage
Dancing life into traditional objects: 'Artefact'

SUBJECTS:  Arts

YEARS:  5–6, 7–8


'Weaving' is a segment from a longer dance piece called 'Artefact', a richly spiritual work about breathing life back into objects from ancient times.

Choreographer Frances Rings is a descendant of the Kokatha people of South Australia.

The 'Weaving' segment was inspired by the traditional knowledge and practices of the people of North East Arnhem Land.

Yolngu woman Kathy Balngayngu Marika was the cultural consultant for 'Weaving'.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Have you ever wondered where some objects have come from, who made them or what they are used for? Why do people collect objects? And why have some been handed from one person to another, from past times to the present? Weaving is a skill often passed from one generation to another. Do you have any woven objects around you?
  2. 2.What are the dancers wearing and what do you think these costumes are made of? What gender are the dancers and what is on their faces? What are they holding? What are they doing with these objects? What kind of language is being spoken during the dance? Who do you think may know how to speak this language? Are any of the dancers speaking?
  3. 3.In creating this dance, Frances Rings and her dancers learnt how to weave mats in a traditional way, gathering the pandanus, stripping it back, finding and preparing the natural dyes. How has this experience influenced the movements they perform on stage? What is the significance of the women's face and body painting? Why do you think the mats have been left unfinished? What might this symbolise?
  4. 4.Have you ever tried weaving, knotting or knitting? If not, search for instructions about how to make something this way, or ask someone to teach you. Once you've learnt the patterns your hands make, see if you can repeat them without holding what you are making. Then make these moves much bigger. Now explore using your legs, arms and torso to complete different parts of the pattern.


Acknowledgements

Courtesy of Bangarra Dance Theatre.


Date of broadcast: 2010


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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