PRESS RELEASE
Jannawi Dance Clan’s Garrigarrang Badu is a female-led immersive cultural performance showing as part of The City of Parramatta and Sydney Festival’s Dyin Nura (women’s place) in January 2023.
Directed by Jannawi’s founding Artistic Director Peta Strachan in collaboration with Dharug Elders and Knowledge Holders, Garrigarrang Badu is the first-ever full-length dance work in Dharug language, which invites audiences to bear witness to the strength, resilience, and power of the Dharug Matriarch. Collectively choreographed by Peta Strachan and the dancers of Jannawi Dance Clan. Commissioned by Arts & Cultural Exchange (ACE) as part of ACE’s First Nations residency program.
“This work started from our need for new compositions in our language,” said Jannawi Dance Clan Artistic Director Peta Strachan.
“It has developed into a major dance work and song cycle about Dharug culture, ancient and contemporary, and the beauty of our country where freshwater meets salt water.
“Learning to sing in Dharug has made our spirits stronger.”
This living archive and dance work will be showcased in two exclusive development showings in January 2023 and will officially premiere in July 2023.
The first public development presentation of Garrigarrang Badu has been announced as a headliner at The City of Parramatta and Sydney Festival’s Dyin Nura (women’s place), a celebration of the women in the Dharug community.
In July 2023, Garrigarang Badu will premiere at Carriageworks’ international First Nations Dance Fest Darunga Nura.
The song cycle has been written and composed by songman Mathew Doyle in collaboration with Dharug elders and community members the late Richard Green, Peta Strachan and Julie Jones.
“It is an honour to support the work of such a distinguished cultural practitioner and artist as Peta Strachan and her intergenerational all-female Jannawi Dance Clan,” said ACE Executive Director Anne Loxley.
“Peta is connected to the lands and waters on which we at ACE work, and her enactments of her culture are generous, captivating and life-affirming.”
Garrigarrang Badu is supported by the Indigenous Languages and Arts (ILA) Program and Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund.
For more info: https://ice.org.au/garrigarrang-badu/
FREE EVENT
Dates: Friday 20th January 2023
Time: 6:00pm – 10:00pm
Venue: Old Government House, Parramatta Park, Pitt Street Entrance Parramatta 2150 NSW
Getting here is easy, for more info visit HERE
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