The Complication of Lyrebirds
Photo by Samuel James
Performances Thursday 21 – Saturday 23 January 2021
Wednesday 20 January – (preview) 7.30pm
Thursday 21 January – 7.30pm
Friday 22 January – 6pm and 8.30pm
Saturday 23 January – 4.30pm* and 7.30pm
Online sales have now closed. For last minute tickets please contact the Campbelltown Arts Centre Box Office on 02 4645 4100 (limited available).
Pre-Show Eats
The Arts Centre Café will be serving a selected menu and beverages before each performance. Get down early, grab a bite and check out our exhibition, Space YZ.
Arts Centre Café opening hours:
Wednesday 20 January 6.30pm – 7.30pm
Thursday 21 January 6.30pm-7.30pm
Friday 22 January 5.00pm – 8.30pm
Saturday 23 January 3.30pm – 7.30pm
The Complication of Lyrebirds is a contemporary dance work designed to break away from the social expectations of what it means to look or sound Aboriginal. Lead artist Jasmin Sheppard draws on her own experience and her family roots to look at questions surrounding Aboriginal identity through the story of the lyrebird.
The lyrebird adopts the calls of other birds in order to appear attractive and find a mate however, there is an authentic identity to the bird that is no mimic. In the same way, Indigenous people are faced with external pressures to prove their ‘blackness’ and adopt different ways of talking and appearing. Considering this, Sheppard proposes that if your family was denied their culture by the impact of colonisation, then what really makes you Aboriginal?
Re-contextualizing historical documents, such as ‘The White Australia Policy’ and ‘The Exemption Form’, as choreographic tools, The Complication of Lyrebirds investigates societal and cultural sources of expectations and pressures, as well as drawing on the artist’s own lived experience, to create a unique and powerful choreographic narrative.
Concept, Director, Choreographer, Dancer Jasmin Sheppard
Co-Collaborator, Dancer Kaine Sultan Babij
Sound Designer, Composer Naretha Williams
Composer, Musician Cris Derksen
Video Artist Samuel James
Lighting Designer Karen Norris
Props Designer Emily Adinolfi
Costumer Designer Fiona Holley
Producer Anthea Doropoulos
Assistant Producer Matt Prest and Nikoleta Minns
Production Manager Tyler Fitzpatrick
Sound technician Andy Lysle
Dramaturg Carly Sheppard
Accessible – tactile tour, audio description, auslan interpreter, relaxed
The Complication of Lyrebirds is presented by Campbelltown Arts Centre and Sydney Festival 2021.
