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@ BEMAC, August 24'
We acknowledge the custodians of the land on which we are gathering and dancing on, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay our deep respects to their elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge the fact that dance has been practiced by their ancestors for tens of thousands of years on this country and how powerful that is.
We also acknowledge the rich and complex dance lineages represented in this program. We pay respects to their creators and ancestors as well as to our artists who keep these movement languages and stories alive in their bodies.
All tonights artists are active members of the incredible and thriving Magan-djin (Brisbane) dance community. Follow them, take class with them, go and see their work!
Click on the below images to link to their instagram accounts or websites.
Anna Cerato - Taranta Meanjin
Taranta Meanjin is a Southern Italian dance group led by Anna Cerreto, a dancer, creative and activist/organiser living in Meanjin/Brisbane. Anna’s work looks at cultural practice through anti-colonial, feminist and queer perspectives. In keeping with the radical roots of this tradition, Taranta Meanjin is grounded in solidarity and what it means to connect with migrant culture on stolen land. Anna’s family is connected with Sicily, Naples and Ireland.
Buddy Malbasias
Buddy Malbasias is a Filipino-Australian artist-researcher, choreographer and performer traversing contemporary dance, interdisciplinary explorations and waacking contexts. In 2024, Malbasias received the Backbone Funded HUB Residency and Studio1 Creative Funded Residency to continue his research project, Bugas. Supported by the QUT Elite Performance and Visual Art Scholarship, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance, Minor Dance Performance) at QUT as the prestigious University Medalist. A recipient of the NSW uNCOILEd eXposed residency, Malbasias recently unveiled 'Lato2x,' a dance work praised by Dance Australia as "engaging and well worth seeing." Other recent accolades include, Blackbird Foundation Grant (2023), Waacking Inferno Performance Prize (2023), JKU International Scholarship (2022), QUT Dance Performance Scholarship (2022), Sharp Short Film Prize (2022), Josiah Media Festival Experimental Prize (2022) and Australian Waacktournament Brisbane Champion, National Runner-up (2022). His global artistic engagement includes Stephanie Lake Co., QLD Museum, Adelaide and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Studio1, QACI, APAC, JKU Linz and Ars Electronica Austria.
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Gianne Abbott
Brazilian born and bred, Gianne believes she started dancing Samba when she was still inside her mother’s belly, following her family’s passion for the culture which allowed her to grow up amongst the Carnaval and Samba community.
Top 10 of So You Think You Can Dance Australia, Lead Dance of the Off-Broadway production show Brazil!Brazil! New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award’s nominee under the “Outstanding International Performance” category, F1 Singapore Grand Prix entertainer. Since 2022, Gianne holds the title of Australian Ambassador of APASB, the Brazilian Samba Dancers Association, created by the pioneers of the art of Samba Dance in Brazil, with renowned Nilce Fran and Aldione Senna as president and vice president. Gianne is also Passista of Portela, one of the most traditional Samba Schools in Rio de Janeiro, completing 101 years this year! Gianne is also Co Direction of Agita Carnaval Tour, bringing Samba lovers to Brazil to experience the Brazilian Carnaval! Her love for life is contagious and she believes that her deep connection with her roots and culture is the base of her good spirit!
Ayushi Kalwar - Let's Bollywood
Ayushi from Let’s Bollywood will be joining us for this People’s Dance Party! Let’s Bollywood Dance School started with a passion to bring the fun and excitement of Bollywood dancing to Brisbane. They get the kids and adults of Brisbane to enjoy the movement of their bodies to upbeat Bollywood music. They fuse together classical and folk Indian dance styles with contemporary Bollywood movements to create a fun and thrilling environment. Their classes are focused on making you happier, smarter and a whole lot healthier!
Mitang Ngkau - Mr. Mr
The People’s Dance Party welcomes Mitang Ngkau from Brisbane based Samoan dance group Mr.Mr, renown for their electrifying performances. Mr. Mr are also an all-male cultural dance academy, ranging from ages 5+. They aim to offer their students an environment of inclusion, fun, safety and character building through their cultural based program.
The Disco Ball
It's hard to deny that the disco ball is our most treasured party symbol. Reflecting fractals of light from above the dancefloor and pulling our focus to the center of it, the mirrorball tells everyone: this is where the action is. There is no more reliable witness to the ups and downs of clublife than the disco ball, omnipresent and omniscient. As Tracey Thorn sings in "Mirrorball," the 1996 tune from her group Everything But The Girl, "the lovely mirrorball reflected back them all, every triumph, every fight under disco light."
Yet, as is the case for many party icons, the disco ball's origins are a bit sketchy. While the disco ball came to power in the 70s as part of the disco era, the origins of the spinning reflector can be traced to nearly 100 years before Donna Summer topped a single chart. The first documented appearance of the disco ball goes as far back as 1897, where an issue of the Electrical Worker, the publication of an electrician's union in Charlestown, Massachusetts discusses the group's annual party and its most notable decorations. The group's initials (N.B.E.W.) were illuminated with "incandescent lamps of various colors on wire mesh over the ballroom" and another light (a carbon arc lamp, now embraced by steampunk enthusiasts) flashed on a "mirrored ball."
According to archival photos, mirror balls appeared in an assortment of locations, typically those related to social functions. Nearly 30 years after those electricians created a mirror ball for their shindig, an inventor named Louis B. Woeste filed a patent for an object he called a "myriad reflector." The 1924 US patent filing describes the device as a "sphere, yet any other geometrical form-may be substituted therefor, which is preferably hollow and has its surface covered with a multitude of mirrors."
After almost half a century in the dark, the disco ball made its big return at the dawn of the disco era. New York's disco king, the DJ Nicky Siano, was there for its revival. "It's been around forever, but they weren't called disco balls back then," he tells THUMP. "There was no name like that. When I came on the scene it was called the mirrored ball, because there hadn't been that transition yet; Billboard didn't decide to make billions off an industry that we created, and label it disco."
As a young New Yorker, Siano became enamored with the blossoming club culture of the early 70s. One of his first encounters with a disco ball happened at David Mancuso's famed East Village disco holy ground, The Loft. "I was just 15 and it was so striking how [the mirrored ball] was used. The room had no other light, and when [light on the ball] went out, you were in total darkness."
Siano recalls a time when one of The Loft's 48 inch balls fell on an unassuming dancer's head during a party (mercifully, it was hollow). He also remembers when New York house legend Larry Levan would take mid-set trips to the dancefloor where he would climb a ladder and meticulously spot clean the disco ball's mirror tiles. Levan wanted perfection.
As the disco scene grew in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Montreal, San Francisco, and Paris, the disco ball went with it. It would be hard for any particular city to lay claim to the disco ball's origins, but because of how Siano, Levan, and Mancuso used their disco balls as part of the sensory bliss of the disco scene and later, the house scene, it became an integral part of clubbing's formative years.
Source: Meet Me Under the Disco Ball: A History of Nightlife's Most Enduring Symbol, by David Garber, https://www.vice.com/en/article/xypxjk/meet-me-under-the-disco-ball-a-history-of-nightlifes-most-enduring-symbol
The Conga Line
The conga or conga line dance, as we know it, originated as a street dance in Cuba in the early 20th century. Its full history goes back much further – with the roots of African slaves who were forcibly brought to the Caribbean. The dance also became associated with the Santeria religion and Easter traditions of the islands. The conga -- both the dance and the style of music it is generally danced to -- became popular in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, largely due to the influence of bandleaders Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz, both then working in Hollywood on a series of Latin-themed musicals.
There are several conga dance variations. The most familiar is the single file line dance in which the dancers hold on to the hips of the dancer directly in front. The line then zigzags around the dance floor – and off – with the dancers kicking alternating legs on the beat as they move forward. The conga version for couples resembles the mambo or any of the other Latin ballroom styles, with the couple holding hands but switching hands on the beat and turning occasionally.
As a street dance, the conga had political implications in pre-revolutionary Cuba. At different times, the dance was banned or restricted as a way of discouraging mass assembly. At other times the dance was associated with annual Carnival and Easter celebrations and performed as a kind of processional. The dance is executed to a distinctive drum rhythm. Conga music holds an important place in the Latin and North American cultural landscape.
Conga dancing became popular in the nightclubs of Paris first and then became fashionable State-side in the 1930s. All things Latin were in vogue at the time – Hollywood cranked out one Latin music and dance movie spectacular after another, nightclubs were Latin-themed and offered lessons in dances like the conga and mambo. Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz – who married comedienne Lucille Ball and starred with her on the TV series "I Love Lucy" – became a huge star associated with the conga craze and is credited with introducing it to Los Angeles and New York.
Like the “Macarena," the conga and conga line dance has become a staple of the wedding dance floor. Its mass familiarity was ensured by its ease of execution and its ubiquity. The conga line has been a recurring theme in cartoons and comedies on television and in the movies throughout the 20th century. And Miami Sound Machine’s Gloria Estefan had a hit with her single “Conga” in 1985, further securing the conga’s place in American popular culture.
Source: The History of the Conga Line, by Margot Callahan, updated September 15th 2017, https://ourpastimes.com/the-history-of-the-conga-dance-12212676.html
