Emerging dancer Yolande Lowatta (22) has been awarded the Russell Page Fellowship, which will see her join Bangarra Dance Theatre as a trainee dancer.
Hailing from the Torres Strait Islands, Lowatta is a Geide woman who began her traditional dance training at age five. She recently graduated from the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts with a Diploma of Performing Arts, majoring in dance.
The fellowship, worth $40 000, remembers the late Russell Page, a founding member of Bangarra Dance Theatre (BDT) who passed away in 2002. His brother, BDT’s artistic director Stephen Page, says that the Fellowship honours his brother. “Russell, David and I had this incredible alchemy where we would just come together and create something magical and spirited in the studio. The Fellowship honours that bond we had and ensures we can support an emerging Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artist,” says Page. “Yolanda is one of those dancers who you’re instantly drawn to; she has a depth, a special quality but also a quirkiness that sets her apart. I believe Russell would have loved her.”
Yolande Lowatta. Photo: Tiffany Parker.
