REVIEW: Tasdance's 'tuylupa'

Theatre Royal Studio Theatre, nipaluna/Hobart
Reviewed October 21
Presented by Tasdance and MONA FOMA in association with Theatre Royal

 

Like a few recent projects, tuylupa has been in the creative pipeline for a few years. Yet this one has had an even longer history.

For the past 15 years the indomitable Sinsa Mansell has been working to reclaim cultural dance in lutrawita/Tasmania. As Co-Founder and Project Officer with the traditional/contemporary dance group, pakana kanaplila, she has sought to broaden awareness of the rich cultural heritage of the pakana (pakana and palawa are the names of the Tasmanian Aboriginal communities) by maintaining living traditional practices and interacting with other First Nations groups nationally and internationally. Mansell and other members of pakana kanaplila have gradually built and defined a repertoire, offering a Welcome to Country at many public events. For Mansell, dance and song are not theatrical performance but the expression of her living, cultural being.

Yet, led by Mansell, tuylupa is promoted as a theatrical experience: a first for the group, creating a work specifically for stage. Supported by the resources and creatives of Tasdance, MONA FOMA, Theatre Royal and Soma Lumia, this is an important next step in the increasing confidence of Mansell and the group in celebrating community. 

In 2021, as a solo artist, Mansell went through a similar evolution with support from Performing Lines Tas, Annette Downs and Co-Director Kate Champion. BACK was presented as a short work, its intent to share the experience of Indigenous women after the brutal invasion of lutruwita in 1803. On its creative journey, BACK distilled the passion and commitment of many people through the strength of one pakana woman. It was also, and quite significantly, the first work to be performed on the stage of the newly constructed Studio Theatre, replacing the Backspace, at the Theatre Royal.

Like BACK, tuylupa draws on a movement repertoire rekindled through deep engagement with various forms of documentation and embodied and on-country experiences. With the philosophical guidance of elders Jimmy Everett and Lola Greeno, supported by Adam Wheeler and Emma Porteus, tuylupa seeks to stretch back in time through shared stories and the journey of the palawa people and the island of lutruwita/Tasmania.

Speaking in palawa kani (Tasmanian Aboriginal language) and English, Everett’s then Mansell’s voices introduce tuylupa as the spark of fire. On three large screens and on the floor, projections of auroras, spheres of fire and a spectral eclipse morph to the silhouette of a woman. Mansell and another emerge from behind the screens carrying and brushing a bunch of grasses through the space. Dewayne Everettsmith’s song accompanies the continued projections adding images of water and growth to the elements at play. Animals and birds are reflected in the soundscape and through the gathering number of bodies.  Harley Jac Mansell’s twisted shape uncurls, arms extend, and an accumulation of movements are repeated. There are solo moments, some more complex than others, which seem to introduce different animals, while others are off stage in silhouette or in short ensemble sequences, which appear to utilise parts of each individuals’ repertoire.

The projections by Daryl Rogers and Troy Merritt (Soma Lumia) are integral to the communication of the intent of this work, harnessing what it means to keep the flame alive for sixty thousand years. One image, which particularly lingers, shows members of the group in both ceremonial skins and ochre alongside daily contemporary clothing, moving as one.  As the dancers imply invasion and change, the numbers projected, and on stage, reduce, until just one sits by a fire.

The process of rebuilding and cultural reconciliation begins here. Projections and live vocals from Niara Mansell accompany gestured actions from Sinsa Mansell and Janice Ross. Jamie Graham traces through the space with a firestick and the other dancers reappear from the shadows. 

Strongly supported by the local community, tuylupa is an important next step in the public revival of culture and of the ever-increasing confidence of expression of pakana kanaplila.

- LESLEY GRAHAM