BRIWYANT

Indigenous choreographer and performer Vicki Van Hoot has looked beyond the world of dance and found inspiration in painting.

“I realised that all the art forms are intrinsically interrelated and that’s what precipitated and inspired this work.”

The work is Briwyant and it deliberately draws on the traditional Indigenous painting technique, bir’yun, for its themes and choreography.

The dancers interacts with cut out objects or cards and, “each card represents a dot,” says Van Hoot. “When I talk about paint, that is the modern day equivalent of the shimmer effect.”

The cards provide a kinaesthetic experience of sound and movement. The dancers continually move over the cards and their movement triggers sounds.

Painting also facilitates Van Hoot’s exploration between traditional and urban culture.

“It is held together by painting because the rules by which people live are interwoven with how we paint and why we paint,” says Van Hoot. “These traditions happen on a global level.”

Van Hoot, who explains she is, “a product of modern living” plays with concepts of modernity and tradition throughout the piece.

“I’m not trying to belittle the magic and the power of what came before, it’s just to say we need to find a different way to express it,” says Van Hoot.

Apr 12-16, Bay 20 Theatre, CarriageWorks, 245 Wilson Street Eveleigh, $15-30, 1300 723 038, performancespace.com.au