NAISDA's highly anticipated end-of-year performance season featuring leading First Nations choreographers, dance artists and storytellers, is about to take the stage at Carriageworks, Sydney from 21-23 November 2024. With only days left until opening night, this is the last chance to book your seat for an extraordinary event showcasing leading First Nations choreographers, dance artists, and storytellers.
Timely, pressing, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, the trees have voices, the feet have ears is a powerful call to arms, a charge to re-evaluate our relationship with nature.
Directed by multi-award-winning choreographer Vicki Van Hout, the performance combines contemporary and cultural dance, film, spoken word and sculptural set design, to deliver NAISDA's signature First Nations perspective.
Van Hout said, "This year’s production takes up the urgent call. We hear it on the wind as a roaring plea or as a cry from the trees as they catch fire. It’s mirrored in the alarm of emergent generations inheriting a legacy of unchecked consumption and neglect."
the trees have voices, the feet have ears reminds us of the need to embrace a reciprocal relationship with Country—because, as Van Hout puts it, "Country is starting to fight back."
Herself a NAISDA alumnus, Vicki Van Hout explained,
"In the Dreaming, all known and unknown things are sentient, interconnected within an animate and overarching entity. Instead of manipulating and mediating everything for human convenience through circuits, motherboards, and virtual clouds, the trees have voices, the feet have ears proposes a reassertion of a dedicated, embodied rapport with Country,”
The production also features guest choreography by acclaimed NAISDA alumni Glory Tuohy-Daniell and Henrietta Baird.
Tuohy-Daniell’s poetic work breaks the buffer between us and the natural world, while interdisciplinary performance-maker Henrietta Baird amplifies the increasing impact and frequency of global extreme weather events.
The production is framed by Cultural Tutor and Songman Dujon Niue, who brings the spirit, songs and dances of Torres Strait Mua Island to the Carriageworks stage.
Performed by NAISDA’s 2024 cohort of emerging dance artists, this production enables Sydney audiences to witness their creative talents before they embark upon careers that will see them performing to audiences nationwide and globally. This extraordinary performance of First Nations creativity, culture, energy, attitude and execution continues NAISDA's nearly 50-year legacy at the forefront of First Nations performing arts training.
Production Details:
Directed by: Acclaimed Choreographer Vicki Van Hout
Guest Choreography: Henrietta Baird and Glory Tuohy-Daniell
Framed by: Songman and Cultural Tutor Dujon Niue
Performed by: NAISDA’s next generation of First Nations dance artists
Tickets on sale now
Dates: 21–23 November 2024
Venue: Carriageworks, Sydney
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About us:
About NAISDA
NAISDA, a First Nations-led and governed organisation operating as a company limited by guarantee, receives lead funding from the Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts with support funding from NSW Department of Education (Smart and Skilled) and across various government levels, private and corporate supporters, and from Registered Training Organisation (RTO) initiatives. This enables us to function as a self-sustaining entity, continuously evolving and adapting to serve the needs of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
As a unique world-first dance and creative arts education and training organisation, NAISDA empowers First Nations people to fulfill their personal and career ambitions through lifelong learning, skills development and connection to culture. Our distinctive learning model is the only one of its kind, uniquely connected to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands, culture and people. It delivers Certificate III to Advanced Diploma qualifications which embed the depth, diversity and complexity of Indigenous Knowings within a western framework of arts education excellence, nurturing individuals and communities, and continuing the Songlines of our ancestors.
NAISDA creates space and opportunity to learn, exchange, express and engage with culture, guided by the core values of empowerment, agency and self-determination.
About Carriageworks
Carriageworks is one of Australia’s most significant creative industry hubs, renowned for its dynamic cultural events, performances, and exhibitions. Housed in a historic railway workshop in Sydney on Gadigal Land, Carriageworks offers a vibrant platform for contemporary art, theatre, music, dance and more, collaborating with leading local and international artists to foster innovation and creativity in its distinctive industrial setting. Visit carriageworks.com.au or follow Carriageworks on Instagram and Facebook for the latest news and updates.
Contact details:
For more information, please contact:
Isobel Goodwin-Moore | [email protected] | 02 4324 6962