Ochre Contemporary Dance Company will make its debut this month. The company is presenting “Diaphanous: Seeing Through and Beyond” which opens Thursday 22 November at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia.
Ochre Contemporary Dance Company (OCDC) is the brainchild Louise Howden-Smith, former General Manager of West Australian Ballet (WAB). Developed to “promote and sustain Aboriginal culture”, according to its website, the company is composed of both Aboriginal dancers and dancers from other racial backgrounds.
For Howden-Smith the inspiration to establish OCDC dates back to her days with WAB. During that time she saw the company’s dancers work with both Stephen Page and Frances Rings. “I could see the value of [having Aboriginal artists working with WAB] and the wonderful experience it was for the dancers, working with Stephen and Frances,” Howden-Smith recalls. “Then I realised that in Western Australia there was no platform for Aboriginal contemporary dancers, professionally trained dancers, who might want to stay in WA rather than always having to go away. So there was an opportunity to build something in WA.”
The company’s aim is to tell stories, says Howden-Smith. “It is a mixed [race] company. We want to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous stories together. We all have stories – unless we know our stories, so the saying goes, we don’t know who we are. So it is very definitely about stories – creation stories and contemporary stories and bringing those to the community in a beautiful artform.”
In keeping with this aim, “Diaphanous” presents three works, two narrative-based and one inspired by the concept of narrative. The first is the Wongi "Seven Sisters" story from the Western Desert, choreographed by Tammi Gissell, who is descended from the Muruwari nation in New South Wales. Seven Sisters is a traditional Indigenous story about the constellation of stars known as Pleiades. The star-theme is continued in the second work, choreographed by Perh-based Jacob Lehrer, which looks at the Greek story of Orion. The third work is co-created by the two choreographers and explores the threads that make up our “yarns”, our stories and our lives.
More info: www.ochredance.org.au
Want to know more about Ochre Contemporary Dance Company? Make sure you get your hands on the Feb/Mar issue of Dance Australia - we'll be talking to Louise Howden-Smith and Jacob Lehrer to find out all about WA's newest company.