The Other Side of Me
by Gary Lang NT Dance Company
Red Earth Arts Precinct Theatre
Friday 10 May, 8pm to 9.30pm
Adult: $35, Concession: $25, Youth: $17.50, Family: $90, FOTT $28, Group of 6 $30
Ages 15+
Youth Dance Collective will open this performance from 8pm to 8.15pm
Local talent will be showcased as the Youth Dance Collective work in collaboration with West Australian Ballet’s Teaching Artists, to premiere a brand-new work at the Festival!
The Other Side of Me
Born Aboriginal in Australia, adopted by a white UK family, raised in England. Inspired by actual events, The Other Side of Me is an aching dance duet of a man’s struggle with identity, loss and otherness and the redemptive beauty of singing his spirit home.
The Other Side of Me by Gary Lang shares the tragedy of Stolen Generations through the heartbreaking story of one man stranded between two families, continents and cultures. This achingly intimate dance duet confronts the destruction wrought by Motherland and colony still felt by First Nations people, but offers the redemptive beauty of singing his spirit home.
Following the success of their 2022 show Waŋa, NT Dance Company offer a powerful, moving dance duet that navigates the limits of physical expression. Choreographed by Gary Lang, this international, cross-cultural collaboration with Northumbria University (UK) communicates a story of the Stolen Generations’ trauma. With care and compassion, it poses questions about relationships between country of origin, identity, adoption, the criminal justice system and psychological health.
The Other Side of Me translates into dance the true-life story of a young Aboriginal man, born in the 1960s in the Northern Territory, adopted by a white English family and raised in a remote hamlet in the English countryside. Drawing on a collection of personal letters and poems, it offers insights into the mind of a man struggling to re-evaluate his life in light of his and First Nations Australian origins on the other side of the world.
REVIEWS
“The dancers were strong, powerful... sensitive and vulnerable. I am often disappointed by dance works – it was refreshing to be so emotionally moved.” Meryl Tankard
“But the most striking thing about this work is the connection between the two dancers. It is in Artistic Director Gary Lang’s choreography as the two men move towards and away from each other. It is in the ways they touch, with care and tenderness, and fight, in shared anger and frustration. It is in the ways they look at each other, deeply, emotions clear on their faces. – 4.5 Stars” Gina Machado, Artshub: August 2023
“So how, as a white, middle-class, middle-aged, privileged, and moderately well-educated man do I begin to write about my experience of this performance? The starting point might well be the finishing point – when I was so emotionally overwhelmed as it reached its climax that as soon as it ended, I hurriedly left the auditorium a sobbing mess … undone, ultimately, by Ms Rhodham’s choice to gradually fill the back wall with an archival photograph of the smiling faces of Aboriginal children in the final moments of the performance. Every one of Ms Rhodham’s choices about how to visually enhance, power and punctuate the performance remain quite possibly the most creatively intelligent use of the medium I’ve yet experienced in the theatre.” Geoffrey Williams, Stage Whispers August 2023
“More than moved. I was stunned and physically found it hard to get up and leave. I was drained.” Audience Response, Darwin Festival: August 2023
“All amazing – uncomfortable feelings yes, but the ones that are so necessary to sit with even this slight glimmer into some truth.” Audience Response, Darwin Festival: August 2023
CONTENT WARNINGS
Contains reference to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may have died, references to Stolen Generations, criminal justice systems and death. The story is based on actual events. However, names, incidents and timelines have been changed for dramatic purposes. All characters depicted in the production are composites or fictitious. Any similarity to the original story, or of fictitious characters to an actual person, living or dead, is coincidental and unintentional.
15 mins Q&A following the show
Adult: $35, Concession: $25, Youth: $17.50, Family: $90, FOTT $28, Group of 6 $30
Ages 15+
The Other Side of Me is produced by Gary Lang NT Dance Company with the tour produced by BlakDance. The national tour has received financial assistance from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
The production is a collaboration between Gary Lang NT Dance Company and Northumbria University, UK. It received financial support through the Northern Territory Government, Regional Arts Australia, the British Council, Creative Australia, Brisbane Festival and Queensland Performing Arts Centre. It premiered in 2023 in Darwin Festival at the Darwin Entertainment Centre.