The Other Side of Me

Gary Lang, Laura Fish, Liz Pavey, Erica McCallum (Other), Elizabeth Rogers (Producer), Josephine Crawshaw (Other), Noelle Shader (Other), Jennifer Irwin (Designer), Joe Mercurio (Designer), Arian Pearson (Designer), Alexander Abbot (Performer), Chandler Connell (Performer), Jesse Norris (Other), Paz Tassone (Photographer)

Research output: Non-textual formPerformance

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Abstract

New dance theatre production The Other Side of Me is the primary output of a multidisciplinary practice-led research project led by Northumbria University Assistant Professors Dr Laura Fish and Liz Pavey. The project When Words Fail Us, Expressing the Unspeakable: The Other Side of Me, combines contemporary and traditional Indigenous Australian dance, literature and physical theatre to explore ways to communicate a story of personal trauma that sits at the limits of linguistic expression. Dr Laura Fish and Liz Pavey have worked collaboratively on the production with Gary Lang, a Larrakia man, Artistic Director, Northern Territory Dance Company (NTDC), an Indigenous-owned Darwin-based dance company.

The Other Side of Me is inspired by the life of a young First Nations man of Gurindji heritage, born in the 1960s in Australia’s Northern Territory, adopted by a white English family and raised in the English countryside. His story is inseparable from the Australian federal and state government policies (1910 until mid-1970s) to wrongfully remove children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent from their families and culture – the Stolen Generations. At the project’s core is a collection of approximately 30 letters and poems written by him to Fish between 1990–1994.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationDarwin City, Australia
PublisherNT Dance Company
Publication statusPublished - 9 Aug 2023

Keywords

  • dance performance
  • indigeneity
  • Stolen Generations
  • identity
  • language
  • story

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