Indigenous dance gets a ballet twist

Indigenous storytelling through dance has been given a new twist with a collaboration between the Australian Ballet and the Bangarra Dance Theatre.

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In this production, classical ballet meets with the Indigenous dance form.

For Bangarra dancer Brett Simon, the combination of the two dance forms presents a challenging learning curve.

"Classical ballet is upright and you spend your time trying to look like you're floating, but this is very earthy and you use your legs in a very different way," he said.

But the challenge has its rewards.

"There are times [in the production when] you can't pick out the Bangarra dancers or the ballet dancers because we're working in sync," said Mr Simon.

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1 min read
Published 17 April 2012 10:55am
Updated 26 August 2013 10:48am
By Hannah Hollis
Source: Living Black

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