Tracks Dance Company is based in Darwin in the Northern Territory, Australia's only tropical capital city.
Place plays a significant part in how, why and what type of work Tracks
creates. Cultural influences of the Northern Territory's Indigenous
population, (33% of the total population, against a 3% National
average,) and the close proximity to South East Asia, flavour the
content of the work, the artists and the communities that the company
works with.
The Northern Territory supports a rich diversity of
environments from tropical rainforests to arid deserts, with a
population of approximately 226,000 people living in an area of
1,347,000 sq km (one-sixth of Australia's land mass, 1% of Australia's
population). The majority of the population lives in the main towns:
Darwin (about 125,000), Alice Springs (32,000), Katherine (10,000),
Tennant Creek (3,500). Everyone else lives in scattered remote
Indigenous communities.
The Territory's vast deserts have
temperatures that can soar to over 45 degrees Celsius by day and plummet
to below zero overnight. These regions remain some of the most amazing
ecosystems with an abundance of flora and fauna that benefit from a
share of the monsoonal rain. These extremes in climate and landscapes
produce people with a unique Australian outlook. It is a land of flies
and diesel, long corrugated dirt roads, flying doctors, school of the
air and harsh landscapes.
Darwin is one of the most cosmopolitan
cities in Australia with more than 60 nationalities and 76 ethnic groups
represented in the population. Darwin is closer to Singapore and
Jakarta than it is to Sydney and Melbourne. Dili, East Timor, is our
closest capital city. Darwin harbour is twice the size of Sydney
harbour.
The proximity to South East Asia has an appealing
effect on Darwin residents. With a tropical climate, locals tend to
adopt a different lifestyle to southern Australia. Darwin attracts
migration from similar climate countries. Activity in our close
neighbours affects our worldview.
There are two major seasons -
the Wet and the Dry. The latter guarantees glorious weather and provides
perfect conditions for an outdoor lifestyle, leading to our staging of
large outdoor performances. The Wet brings monsoonal weather conditions
with violent thunderstorms, spectacular lightning displays, and floods.
This unique mix provides the inspiration to create original works about the Territory - its people, place and spirit.
History
A
1988 tour to the extremely remote Indigenous community of Lajamanu in
the Tanami Desert brought together the creative skills of visual artist
Tim Newth and dance artist Sarah Calver. David McMicken joined the mix
in 1991 as the Community Dance Officer at Brown's Mart Community Arts
network. Together they forged a uniquely Northern Territorian performing
arts company, collaborating with local community and cultural groups.
Taking on the name Tracks in 1994, the dance company was born out of the
community dance programme.
In 1997 Tracks created a show called 4
Wheel Drive - Sweat Dust and Romance. This extraordinary dance
performance drew together professional and community dancers in a show
of skill, wit and diversity that celebrated what it was to be local. The
rest of the country sat up and took notice as this performance
bush-bashed its way from the local community onto the Australian
cultural map.
Adopting a new language for speaking about 'dance'
led to mainstream performances with casts representing diverse cultural
backgrounds and ages, exploring life as they experienced it, often from
living in two or more cultures.
Now with twenty years' experience
in the Territory, the founding co-artistic directors, David McMicken
and Tim Newth, use their longevity in their local community to develop
their form. They have a solid understanding of the community's makeup,
the geographic issues of their location, and the climate. For every show
they need to be aware of sunset times, tidal positions and when the
mosquitoes and sandflies are breeding and biting.
While Tim and
David value the knowledge that Australian artists have drawn from
European and American arts practice, they value equally the traditions
held within Australia's Indigenous cultures. The non-verbal nature of
the company's work allows them to cross boundaries and overcome many
obstacles to the understanding, pursuit and sharing of culture.
The work
Contemporary
narratives underpin Tracks' work and local audiences have come to
expect a new take on the Territory every time they put on a performance.
Whether drawing on traditional Indigenous values relevant to all
Australians, exploring Darwin's war history, sweltering in the heat of a
tropical build-up or peering through the lens of Australia's
colonisation, Tracks engages with community on all levels and remains
the Northern Territory's premier dance company.
The artistic
directors understand that something special happens through the work.
When creating original, high quality professional performances, it is
the processes Tim and David use that give each work its spirit. Local
people have some control over their own contemporary cultural expression
and find new and exciting ways to celebrate.
Performers tell
stories related to their lives and the lives of the audience, creating a
sense of ownership - they witness and experience that with which they
live side by side, engaging in a meaningful experience that is often
retained for the rest of their lives. They are excited by the
connections that the performances make between Western, non-Western and
Indigenous concepts, and remark on the physical and visual manner in
which those ideas are presented and their sense of connection to the
work.
The creation of performances that are site and people
specific ensures that the company maintains a connection to its
community, translating stories and experiences into strongly visible,
physical and authentic events. Their performances are more like
destinations to which people have to come. Tracks do not tour their
work.
Tracks borrow local landscapes and histories, and place new
stories into them, creating outdoor theatres from venues such as: World
War Two military ruins, a canopy of giant rain-trees, rooftop car
parks, building sites, or a basketball court in a remote desert
community.
Dancers are drawn from the cultural mix of people who
call the Northern Territory home; from head spinning breakers and funky
contemporary movers, to showgirl grannies and traditional Indigenous
elders, or any number of diverse South East Asian cultural dancers. A
Tracks work could involve over 100 local professional and amateur
participants. Performances may reflect one focus such as young people,
Indigenous people, older people, or a specific cultural concept. While
at other times Tracks explores the way in which diversity sits side by
side in our world, encapsulating our values of inclusion.
The
company consistently widens the definition of who is a performer and
challenges notions of technique. They work across both Western and
non-Western disciplines and cultures, embracing diversity that leads to
high quality performance experiences.
Tracks provides development
opportunities for Australian (and international) artists and arts
workers. Its extended relationships with culturally diverse and
Indigenous communities result in a dance idiom that celebrates what it
is to be Australian.
Indigenous focus
Over
the years, working in remote communities afforded a connection with
long standing Indigenous culture, which, unlike Western practice, has
less separation between its art forms, and which deeply connects people
to place. As Tim and David's community connections deepened and
knowledge became more complex they chose to specialise in one community,
Lajamanu.
Lajamanu is a very remote Warlpiri speaking desert
community (1), deep in the central heart of Australia, and about 12
hours' drive from Darwin if the road is open. There are about 3,000
Warlpiri speakers in total, and Lajamanu is home to about a third of
them. This was the first community Tracks had contact with, and the
relationships have developed over twenty years of research, performance
making, skill development, and just being together.
Exposure to
the culture of Australia's first people and their distinct worldview has
had a major affect on the Directors' processes. Indigenous Australians
operate within a more communal context; the ownership of knowledge is
collectivist. Their education system begins with many years of play and
exploration, with the 'law' learning starting in earnest in adolescence,
(quite different from a Western system of schooling). An inherent
respect for elders and a clear pathway to progress socially maintains an
intimate connection between land, law, language, ceremony and kinship,
things that have been severely challenged since Western colonisation.
When
you go 'out bush' in the Territory the expectation can appear quite
simple. The Elders tell you what you need to learn. They have particular
knowledge and specific people pass it on when you are 'ready' to learn.
Back in the cities people have 'forgotten' their ceremonies and their
sense of community is often diminished.
Tracks provides
contemporary skills that assist many to re-vision and reignite their
sense of culture, acknowledging all kinds of shared and individual
histories. The company has a special place in the hearts of its people,
enriching the experience of living in a place where equally people and
landscapes are as diverse as they are unique.
contact info@tracksdance.com.au /
visit www.tracksdance.com.au
Reference
(1)
Warlpiri is one of the stronger extant Indigenous languages in
Australia. Numbering over 350 at the time of European settlement, now
fewer than 150 languages remain and all but 20 are highly endangered.