Darryl Butler is looking for participants to join him for a Free Introductory Workshop and Information Session as part of his Studio Residency with Tracks. 

Follow up workshops to be organised through the Wet Season.

In September of this year David and Tim traveled to Europe.

They went for two different reasons. Berlin was to explore the notion of 'Truth Telling' and how the city has grappled with its past. Secondly, for research as part of a project, Dance Body Design where the company is looking at the collaborative knowledge gained over the three decades of Tracks artists and the Warlpiri people of Lajamanu working together. So why Europe you may ask? Professor Barbara Glowczewski is an anthropologist based in Paris. She was working in Lajamanu in the 70’s and during that time took amazing photos and videos of the cultural life in Lajamanu. She was around when a group of Lajamanu artists/dancers went to Paris in the 80’s where they performed dances and painted designs from the Jurntu ceremony. This ceremony was the basis for last year’s Milpirri (2018) and Milpirri 2009.

"We were in Paris for over 10 days with Barbara. We shared stories and images going back and forwards into Barbara's archives. This will contribute to the Dance Body Design website which will celebrate the company’s collaboration with Lajamanu and will be a digital archive for the whole community to share and explore its own rich cultural heritage."

"We also caught up with the amazing Nick Power who is rehearsing a new show that will come to Australia next year. Nick was one of the original artists to work with the company on the first Milpirri performances."

During the trip they were fortunate enough to see a variety of shows, installations, exhibitions and in particular performances by Cie Carabosse (Cergy -France) and Agudo Dance Company (Cahors - France). They also got to meet and speak with the Artistic Directors of GRIPs (Berlin - Germany).

There were a few special experiences that have inspired the writing in the company's upcoming 5 year Strategic Plan. These included: a great exhibition, Nous Les Arbres at the Fondation Cartier Pour L’art Contemporain. A beautiful comment on our need to see trees as old, living, knowledgeable, observers of the world, rather than as commodities that can be turned into money. "In Berlin we explored people, places and there acknowledgement of history and truth telling." Tempelhofer Feld was a former innercity airport which had been handed back to the people. The Berlin Wall beside Topographie des Terrors documentation centre, located on the site of buildings which in 1933-45, was the SS Reich Main Security Office, and Gestapo headquarters. "A sobering visit but an amazing truth telling place of remembrance which as Australians we could learn from."

Big thanks to cultural adviser and fellow traveler Christiane Fennell for accompanying David & Tim on their travels.

Explore Further - A short history of the long relationship between Lajamanu & Tracks

Welcome to our 2019 Choreographic Program participants:
Mim Ellen-Barwell, Cassandra Wallace, Bryn Wackett, CJ Fraser-Bell, Lucy Found, Sheila Rose, Anokai Susi, Maari Gray and Kyle Walmsley.

What does being a part of the Choreographic Program mean to you?

"A unique opportunity to expand movement knowledge within yourself and from places that may not be so obvious" - Anokai Susi

"Confronting my impending fear of a re emergence and repeat performance of my first memory of dance which still cloaks my inner child.... facing it with an ever oscillating determination to risk both vulnerability and perceived failure in order to overcome and venture" - Maari Gray

"Connection, learning, expansion" - Lucy Found

"It has been juicy, zesty, vibrational, sweaty, connecting and joyous. The exercise of creativity each week has reformed my relationship with dance, has reinvigorated my theatre practice and consistently been the highlight of my week. I have such gratitude and love for Darwin, for Tracks, for Jess and Kelly in the space they've created" - Kyle Walmsley

"Gosh, it feels like a coming together of wonderfully diverse folk who carry their own story, movement, ways of being in this place and smooshing us all together like a pack of random ingredients, where we get to mix 'n' match and taste the different flavour combinations..." - Bryn Wackett

"The Choreography Program is such a meaningful and rare opportunity to express myself in dance in a truly supportive environment. I relish the chance to engage with such inspiring dancers, and I am humbled by their generosity and brilliance" - Cassandra Wallace

"I think to me, the Choreo Program has meant an exploration of the freedom I feel when dancing. While dancing I am nothing but myself, whatever that means at that particular moment. Not only that, but the program has generated creativity in my day to day life; I am constantly creatively inspired while just living as I do each day. This has been wonderful, and because of it I have developed in my dance work and in my personal character. The program has also just been fun, and sometimes it's nice to have fun just for the sake of it" - Mim Ellen-Barwell

"Growth and enrichment of my mind, spirit and body" - Sheila Rose

"It's everything I love about making and exploring art in Darwin, a group of people from different places, skill levels, experience and ages coming together to try things in a safe, supportive, and deeply generous space. We're damn lucky" - Cj Fraser-Bell

Tickets to the Showing & Artist talks are available to purchase.
Nov 23 & 24 - 4 showings only
Tracks Studio

Read more about the 2019 Tracks Choreographic Program.

By David McMicken and Tim Newth
Global Positioning - Radically Local

In early 2018 Tracks took up residence in the Live Darwin Hub on the Smith Street Mall. We called the residency Tracktivation as our main aim was to activate the city through dance, creating vibrant spaces that made people look at their city in new ways, harnessing unused potentials. Over the three months we became aware of the human ebb and flow through our city centre. Workers in and out of workplaces, and tourists coming off cruise ships often bewildered and always a little over heated. The ‘Tracktivators’ ran classes, created dance interventions, and were asked to create site specific works. It is from the experience of this residency and the company’s passion for exploring the relationship between people and place that Global Positioning was born.

Place Remembers What People Forget
Standing in the Mall with concrete under our feet and metal and glass structures flanking our sides, we have allowed ourselves to ponder what it might have been like before all of this. Why would we have come to this site? Could we see the water; would we have fresh caught fish in hand; would we be in the shade of a tree feeling the breeze of the ocean on our wet skin? What was the bodily sensation of being here in this place, and how can we be here in our bodies now? If we stand still, can we start to listen to this place and allow some of that memory to filter through?

Our Global Position
Global Positioning is loosely in three sections: an observation of tourist movement, a tour of three site specific works, and a final imagining of place influenced by the natural world.

In creating the site specific works, we saw global positioning both as a place on the map, as well as what personal and collective position we might take in thinking about our past, present and future.

Star, inspired by the history of the Star Picture Theatre, led us to think about Darwin’s history of race relations (see the photo in the background of the Global Positioning poster, also found on the wall of the Star Village). Jedda premiered there in January 1955, with two Indigenous people in the lead roles, at a time when race segregation still took place.

Bike explores a bike friendly city, something that is becoming a hallmark of forward thinking city designs around the world. This political act of ‘one less car on the road’ creates a way of physically connecting to your community, and fits current thinking and concerns of global warming. It also delights in the simplicity of being present in your body right now.

Pearl is set in the futuristic Charles Darwin Centre, a world class building and landmark in the CBD. Here we work with a reverse scenario as we travel up in the elevator to the experience of a pearl diver being lowered into the depths of the ocean, moving fluidly between past and future.

Place remembers what people forget, the blue river on the ground surface of the Mall leading to the fountain has led us to think about the water that flows below our concrete cities, thinking about both the physical and spiritual need we have for water in our lives. Thoughts of water have driven how the overall work has been designed.

Read more about Global Positioning
Purchase your tickets to see the show

Telling our Tracks story through costume and design

Tracks have taken over the Live Darwin Hub to bring to life a costume exhibition highlighting 3 costume designers from 5 major Tracks shows. The exhibition is open throughout August 2019, located in Smith Street Mall, Darwin City.

Live Darwin Hub is open 9am to 3pm, Monday - Friday
Entry is free

Following on from our successful Tracktivation project in 2018 and as part of the NT Government's Activate Darwin project to 'help Darwin City realise its potential as an attractive, bustling and connected capital city', this year we want to tell our Tracks story through costumes.

The costume exhibition showcases five performances, Struck (2008), The Cook, the Queen and the Kelly (2010), Crocodile Man, Pineapple Woman (2011), 8 to 80: The Architecture of Age (2012) and In Your Blood (2018), which have incorporated original costume designs by Ann Gibb, Lynn Ferguson and Tim Newth. 

The Designers

It has been a wonderful opportunity to highlight the work costume designers do behind the scenes working with choreographers, dancers and Artistic Directors to bring to life our major performances. We reached out to each of the designers to hear from them about their experience and memories working with Tracks.

Ann Gibb has costumed for Tracks the Opening of the Arafura games (2007), You Dance Funny (2007), Struck (2008), Crocodile Man Pineapple Women (2011), Eight to Eighty  (2012) Zombies in the Banyan Tree (2013) and Global Positioning (2019) as well as many costumes for Tracks’ over 60 dance group, the Grey Panthers.
“Working with Tracks is always an exciting challenge. They have large casts I often need to make sets of costumes, like the 70s outfits for Crocodile Man or the nurses uniforms in Struck. Each show is so different. Crocodile Man Pineapple Woman was based on my parents story so that was an emotional ride that touched my heart. One of the most challenging was Eight to Eighty, each of the 34 dancers were costumed individually, it was like designing a fashion show. Tim and I worked closely, looking at not only the size and shape of the dancers but also the cultural and dance backgrounds of each. It was hard work but like with all the shows I have worked on the outcome is something I am very proud of. I am honoured to be part of the Tracks team, they see my worth and I feel totally valued”  - Ann Gibb

Lynn Ferguson costumed Endurance (2009) and The Cook, The Queen & The Kelly (2010).
“The emphasise for the costume design for “The Cook, The Queen & The Kelly” was to establish a strong silhouette that would make the characters recognisable & support a clear narrative through the dance.
Cook‘s costume comprised of the full naval uniform of the late 1700’s, a coat with gold braid and buttons, ivory waistcoat & breeches, powered wig & tricorn hat. The coat was particularly heavy being made from ‘Melton’ wool; with the wig & tricorn hat this was a challenging costume for Daniel to wear. The Queen’s costume was a 1960’s vintage find, the sleeveless shift dress a soft yellow worn with a floral turban style hat. Often an exciting costume find is as satisfying as a costume build & this one was for me, I loved how the colour sat so well within the car that Jessica performed in, allowing her arms to be focused on to form beautiful pictures. The Kelly costume was a mixture of made costume and finds, I loved the strong image Nick struck in the iconic helmet and ankle length duster coat. The Kelly gang boys all wore voluminous period shirts cinched in by high waisted trousers and a body-hugging waistcoat. At first the high waist fit was very alien to those break dancers; they were used to a low-slung crotch, but I believe they really liked them in the end. 
I established a work space under the elevated house I lived in, setting up tables to pattern draft, cut out on & sew on, open to the elements & surrounded by a tropical garden. Working in Darwin with Tracks Dance Company was a wonderful, unique experience.”  - Lynn Ferguson

Tim Newth is the Artistic Co Director of Tracks he has designed all the companies major works since 1988. The costuming of a performance is a balance between artistic vision, function, meaning and collaborating with performers and the artistic team.
“A costume adds meaning and context to both the performer and audience alike. For the majority of Tracks dancers this is not their profession. Often it can be someone's first performance experience. If you are asking someone to dance in front of their community, be that in remote Aboriginal Lajamanu or for Tracks major season within the Darwin Festival, they need to feel good about what you are doing and how they look. A costume can connect the performer their heritage, add to sense of self or take one beyond oneself, to be larger than life.”  - Tim Newth

Exhibition Team

Curators and Coordination: Jessica Mellor and Tim Newth
Production: Duane Preston
Styling Assistance: Ann Gibb

Watch a time lapse of us setting up the space.