'CO_EX_EN' is a meeting place. A reactivation of sites and connectedness, more so than connectivity.
One of Karul Projects' latest works, a contemporary dance creation by Thomas E.S. Kelly performed at Queensland Performing Arts Centre Thursday 13 February, portrays the silence in the conversation of two worlds.
The physical and the ancestral worlds were once in fluid dialogue before a break in connection.
From making fire, as a mob, and painting their faces with ochre, the troupe exist as a collective that begins to disintegrate. Assimilation to a new culture is apparent, and a shedding of their original one.
The full body arduousness is intense in this production, baring the heaviness of the push-pull when splicing a people from their heritage.
They writhe like caterpillars, marching toward a common goal that may not be their own. A confronting representation of a forced metamorphosis. Did they all come together to die or just to sleep?
Part of the glory in this piece is its fusion of traditional and technological, from the use of ochre facepaint, jellyfish-like LEDs hanging from the ceiling and a soundtrack that is both industrial and natural.
When the troupe recover their faces with the ochre that they had ceremoniously removed, a kookaburra cheers.
Choreographer and lead dancer, Thomas, teaches us a new word: ‘karulbo’, which means ‘all together’ in Yugambeh language.
May we do what we must to facilitate and attempt to understand this connection of people to their land and the culture that is interconnected to it, and to co-exist.
Karulbo.
★★★★☆ 1/2
