Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts
June 8, 2018

Burrbgaja Yalirra (Dancing Forwards) is a group of three solo performance works from cross-cultural theatre company Marrugeku. The program consists of Ngarlimbah by Edwin Lee Mulligan and Sohan Aerial Hayes, Miranda by Miranda Wheen, and concludes with Eric Avery’s Dancing with Strangers. All explore relationships with land and country in the wake of white settlement. Mulligan and Avery draw on elements of Australian Indigenous dance, while Wheen draws on and critiques elements of European dance.

Mulligan opens with a work of gentle story-telling. The performance is supported by richly coloured video projection, producing a sympathetic, magical, and dreamy effect. Mulligan relates a set of interpenetrating Dreaming stories which link ochre in the landscape, to the dingoes and their blood, the dogs with a major watercourse, the lilies found in this lake, and the sun which rises out of the lilies’ blossoms.

Edwin Lee Mulligan in Ngarlimbah. Photo © Jon Green

Mulligan’s movement is low and grounded, often curving through a wide legged stance and bent knees. The principal characteristics of his dance however are those of simplicity and relaxation. He practically pours through his movements, between standing at...