Symbolism significant in Australian aboriginal dance

By Yenni Kwok

JAKARTA (JP): Symbolism, particularly color symbolism, is the main element in Ochres, a contemporary Aboriginal dance performed by Bangarra Dance Theater at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, last Friday and Saturday.

Yellow, black, red and white are the main colors examined; each symbolizes a different aspect of human existence on earth, namely womanhood, manhood, pain and life.

Although in the Sydney-based Bangarra's production, Ochres refers to colors of the land, the original meaning of the word itself is the colors of earthy clay, which can be used as a pigment in paints.

And ochre plays an important role in traditional Aboriginal life.

It is used as body paint before people start a ceremony; a concept that Ochres uses to start its five-part performance.

The bulky, rather chubby Aboriginal man (Djakapurra Munyarryun) sat in the middle of the stage. He slowly covered his face, his arms and his body with the yellow paint, re-enacting the tradition. He then stood and, taking wide steps to the side, spread sand on the stage... before he disappeared into the earthy hole.

The man was the Ochres Spirit. His presence at the beginning of the show and his re-emergence from the earth at the end signified that this was his show.

And, in fact, it was the show of the dancer Munyarryun. He had an ability to capture the audience's attention, even with seven other dancers on stage. His big body's graceful movements stood out among the lean figures of the other dancers.

Munyarryun is not only a dancer. He also gave advice about the traditional paint-up and preparation process to Artistic Director Stephen Page, who also choreographed the company's performance at the closing ceremony of this year's Olympics in Atlanta.

It is no surprise when one learns what his background is. Although all the dancers are aboriginal descendants, Munyarryun is the only one who was brought up in the traditional aboriginal environment in North Australia, said Jan Irvine, the Theater's general manager.

Following Munyarryun's Ochres Spirit part was Yellow, a color associated with women.

It started in a haunting, depressing mood. With the chant of aboriginal women, four women crawled in desperation.... until the rain came.

They embraced the water source and bath in gestures, almost imitating the Orches Spirit's body painting. The women also raised one of their arms and "covered" it with the water.

The women might have symbolized the earth itself. After the rain and the bath, they regained their spirit. They danced on their feet, in a free and dynamic manner.

Black, on the other hand, was the celebration of manhood. It was reflected by hunting and the warlike scenes.

It started with Munyarryun hunting his quarry with a long spear, hunting. But before long his hunted objects turned into fighters. The four male dancers, dressed in black and equipped with swords, engaged in mock battles.

The emotion was rather tense, even when they were not confronting each other. The men stamped their feet and raised their heads in a challenging stance.

While Yellow and Black explored the relationships among males and females, Red focused on the sometimes painful relationships between males and females.

The first part, titled Youth, featured the immaturity of the relationship that often exists between males and females. The dancers reflected the senses of naughtiness and playfulness. The two girls kept teasing the boy by taking his shirt away.

The second part, Obsession, reflected a more serious relationship. The man and the woman, dressed in red, were hardly separated.

Even when they were not embracing each other, they would hold on to the man's shirt that served as a link between them.

Poison underscored the effects of human-made customs and laws on a relationship. A man and a woman made identical movements. They approached each other as if they were curious about each other. However, an invisible barrier between them, which could have been customs or laws, always prevented them from being together. They even did not dare stare at each other, always avoiding each other's gaze.

Nursing and care in humans' life were reflected in Pain. Here Ochres emphasized a woman's traditional role as the caretaker of the sick, in this case, a man.

The sick man kept covering his face with his shirt, enduring his pain. The woman, meanwhile, soothed him. At one point, the woman helped the man take off his shirt, presumably he was getting better. But she gave it back when the man showed gestures of pain again. This time, she walked away, leaving the man sitting by himself.

It was interesting to see how Ochres took a pessimistic view of the male-female relationship. None of the relationships end in the unity of males and females. Even in Obsession, where the man and the woman are determined to be together, they end up going their own separate ways. In Pain, the woman walked away from the man, presumably because she had lost her hope.

Nevertheless, a chance for hope still existed in the rest of the performance. White was the reflection of births and lives at the beginning of the day.

The dancers were dressed like babies in their short white pants.

They made repetitive vertical movements. Lying on the ground, their legs were raised, reaching up into the air. Or sometimes the men would support the women, who would stretch high above themselves. It seemed like a symbol of living and growing.

However, when a thunder clap sounded, the spirits suddenly dropped to the ground. It was not for long, though. The appearance of the Orches Spirit from inside the earth woke them up again, one by one.

He returned to close the night's performance as well as to start the day's new journey.