True Stories

I was at the Lord Roberts for a bit of a Lamb Burger when I checked my phone. There's a message from my sister up in Darwin asking me if I was going to be on Dancing With The Stars next week. Almost immediately it dawned on me: DB and WB, the poster children are going to be on DWTS. When the rehearsal director pulled the couple aside just before lunch we all joked that they were in trouble (that they had to go to the Principal's office because they were naughty children, or something like that) and, because they were the poster children, they were simply required to do another publicity thing for True Stories. Nothing special.

I thought that maybe I just missed the announcement that they had this gig, I try not to think too much about work things during lunch, I rang to confirm. Maybe WB was to do Moth with DB; boy there would have been hell to pay if that was the case. But, no, they're going to be doing new choreography, which is far more appropriate considering that we're opening in Melbourne pretty soon.

Anyway, it's pretty exciting for them. And the rest of us have been fielding enquiries from friends and relatives for the last couple of days: "no, we're not all going to be on the show, just the poster children". But we'll all be down at the local pub eagerly watching twist and tangle into the various headstands, lifts and one-arm-cartwheels-on-partner's-bended-leg movements.

Oh, and why on Earth is Tim not in the final??? Him and Nat are easily the best couple in the entire series, there is no justice in the world.

Yesterday we did a run-through of all the material we had created for EK's new work for Bangarra. By the end, she got quite emotional, seeing it all come so far. It's such a big thing for her to see Torres Strait culture being embodied and alive, which is what her piece is all about.

Mind you, by the end I was needed a bit of a back rub-down, despite getting a massage only two days earlier. Some people get sore backs from traditional TSI dance, I get a sore neck and traps. Also, Sydney has been quite humid lately and I think I sweated out an ocean. Lovely.

Afterwards we had a bbq. It was SS's last day and we celebrated by eating lots of seafood. Yummy.

(Haven't done a dance update in a while so here goes...)

It's now our fifth week of rehearsals at Bangarra in 2007, with about three weeks to go until we open Clan in Glen Street. The Christmas celebrations are stubbornly clinging to my stomach in the form of extra kilograms but at least I feel like a dancer again, it took awhile but I'm back. And inspired from the awesome program of dance we had in Sydney for the festival. We're spending more time on EK's new work for True Stories, though, while we have guest artist traditional dancer in residence. I don't see that there'll be much of a problem remounting Clan in the three weeks, though, because we have found time within EK's schedule to rehearse most of the show. Can't wait, too, I'll finally be able to perform all the roles I had in this program pre-injury so look out!

We've gotten alot of work done for EK as well and its all starting to get a bit of a flow (well, at least the first half anyway). It's a strongly traditional work, based on sacred objects from Murray Island in the Torres Straits, and the work-load is beginning to show in my legs: I have THUNDER THIGHS!!! Well it's good to have big legs anyway, culturally speaking, so I don't mind...

Tags: Dance, Bangarra, rehearsal.