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KATINA OLSEN, DANCER/CHOREOGRAPHER: Before I start dancing or choreographing, I put my hands, one over my belly, one over my heart. I like to imagine that that breath and the energy goes down through my legs, keeps going into the earth, into country.
When I was younger, I wasn't able to have the chance to learn my own cultural dances. And it was as I got older that I realised that there was an opportunity to reclaim that, create new dance from this cultural place and I see it as a really beautiful cultural responsibility. I first started dancing when I was three. My mum’s an Aboriginal woman; she's a Wakka Wakka, Koombumerri woman. I think Mum always wanted to dance and wanted to give me an opportunity that she never had. I never really took off those tutus. In dance as a child, I feel like I couldn't really bring all of myself especially to the ballet world. There's photos of me with like this white face. It looks like I'm going to a Halloween party, and then they would pat my skin down with the fairer coloured makeup, so I would be more fairer skinned for a ballet performance, yeah and I don't think there was any ill intention at the time. It's just what was done. And it wasn't until I saw Bangarra I realised there's a way to interweave my culture with my dance practice at a really high professional level. I worked with Bangarra for about four years, and at the end of 2010 I left to pursue a freelance career. Last year, Queensland Ballet contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in choreographing for Bespoke and I was really excited to walk back into that building, able to bring all of myself. CRAIG CATHCART, QUEENSLAND BALLET: Bespoke was born out of a need for new voices. It's about identifying a choreographer to develop new work. Katina is already a really strong independent artist. After she'd retired from Bangarra, she paved her own way, has started to create new work. We have had First Nations dancers in the company before. I think it's now about making sure that those First Nations people, that they feel comfortable enough to be themselves in this environment. KATINA OLSEN: The collaboration began as a collaboration between Southern Cross Soloists and Queensland Ballet.We were yarning about what Wakka Wakka story we wanted to platform for this work and then they came to me with this beautiful story about Chris's grandmother, Aunty Maureen Williams. CHRIS WILLIAMS, SOUTHERN CROSS SOLOISTS: We wanted to tell a story that was relevant to us and my grandma as a remarkable woman.CHRIS WILLIAMS: We're telling a story about my grandma, who has just passed away last year. This has been incredible to just explore grandma’s life and hear more stories about who she was.She went to school to grade four. When she was 10, she went out and worked as a domestic. Her first job was looking after children, a 10-year-old looking after children. SUE-ANN WILLIAMS, CULTURAL ADVISOR: She was born in 1929. So it was a very hard era to be an Aboriginal woman. She just had one focus in life, and that was to make sure all her children had a good education. KATINA OLSEN: So the opening section is very, like, it's kind of setting a context for country. Aunty Maureen, living her life in the bush, speaking fluent language.But coming back in and in such a way with my mother involved, has just, it's beautiful in a heart-loving, warming way. KEVIN WILLIAMS: Queensland Ballet has been around 62 years, and they haven't done any blackfella stuff. So, you know, it's a fabulous start.We took the dancers to a place called Ban Ban Springs. It's a sacred place to Wakka Wakka people. CHRIS WILLIAMS: And so we had the didgeridoo and Katina leading some movements. We had Aunty Sue Ann reading grandma's story at the place that our ancestors came from. So it was incredibly powerful and incredibly moving. CRAIG CATHCART: I've produced a lot of work in 10 years at Queensland Ballet, and this is one by far that sticks out as something that I feel shifted me as a person. KATINA OLSEN: Now's a perfect time to continue to platform our stories so that this country can really get to know us and know the essence of us. I think it's a really important thing to also invite us into these spaces where we haven't always been. It's really exciting for those audiences to see a different perspective, to see it through our eyes. I’m really excited about that. Katina Olsen left home at 14 to study at the Queensland Ballet Academy – but chose to leave the classical scene to carve out a brilliant career in contemporary dance instead, including with the Bangarra company. She's now returned to the Queensland Ballet to create a new work, which premieres this month. Ella Archibald-Binge tells the story which contains the image of an Aboriginal person who has died.
Katina Olsen Queensland Ballet Aunty Maureen Williams Indigenous Bangarra
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