Symbolism significant in Australian aboriginal dance

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.