CUT THE SKY: An unflinching call to action in poem, dance, song and dreams.

In Marrugeku’s raw and evocative work Cut the Sky, the earth is on the brink, poisoned by mining and the extraction of gas. A kangaroo-human is consumed by smoke, spiraling butterflies search for water while humans live precariously, unmoored in a dark, dystopian world. They seek shelter, survival and answers.

Told through poem, song, and visionary choreography, Cut the Sky is a lament for Indigenous lands, a call to arms and an acknowledgement of those who have spoken up before.

A ragtag of climate refugees, grapple with the ruination of land and sky across time in the north west of Australia. Shape-shifting through crocodiles who once were human, memories of protests past and contemporary conflicts of consumption they summon their dreams and nightmares to bring the rain. Together they cut the sky, soaking skin and dirt.

With the epic perspectives of Nyikina and Walmajarri poet and artist Edwin Lee Mulligan, the songs of Ngaiire and Tanya Tagaq, and Marrugeku’s unflinching artistry, Cut the Sky asks is there another way to dream a different future together?

Credits

Concept: Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain with Patrick Dodson:

Cut the Sky is collaboratively created by:

Director: Rachael Swain
Choreographers: Dalisa Pigram and Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Cultural Dramaturg: Patrick Dodson
Dramaturg: Hildegard de Vuyst
Poems: Edwin Lee Mulligan
Additional Text: Dalisa Pigram and Miranda Wheen with Rachael Swain
Media Artists: Sonal Jain and Mriganka Madhukaillya
Musical Director and Sound Designer: Matthew Fargher
Songwriter: Ngaiire
Set and Costume Designer: Stephen Curtis
Lighting Designer: Damien Cooper
Associate Lighting Designer: Kelsey Lee

About Marrugeku

Marrugeku is an unparalleled presence in Australia today, dedicated to Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians working together to develop new dance languages that are restless, transformative and unwavering.
Marrugeku builds bridges and breaks down walls between urban and remote dance communities, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists and between local and global situations. Our works are created out of urgent reciprocities between Peoples, Country and custodians, understanding that telling stories together is one of the simplest and hardest things we can do.
Marrugeku is led by co-artistic directors: choreographer/dancer Dalisa Pigram and director/dramaturg Rachael Swain. Working together for nearly three decades, they co-conceive and facilitate Marrugeku’s productions and research laboratories, introducing audiences to the unique and potent structures of Indigenous knowledge systems and the compelling experience of intercultural performance. Marrugeku’s performers come from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, collaborating to co-create each production. Marrugeku’s patron is Yawuru cultural leader and national reconciliation advocate Patrick Dodson.
Working from our bicoastal operations in the remote town of Broome Western Australia and the urban Centre of Carriageworks, Sydney, Marrugeku harnesses the dynamic of performance exchange drawn from remote, urban, intercultural and trans-Indigenous approaches to expand the possibilities of contemporary dance. Our productions tour throughout urban and remote Australia, to other Indigenous contexts internationally and throughout the world.

Cut the Sky was commissioned by Theater Im Pfalzbau (Germany), Carriageworks (Australia), Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg – KVS (Belgium), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (Luxembourg) and Centre Culturel Tjibaou (New Caledonia).

Cut the Sky has been funded by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, the New South Wales Government through Create NSW and City of Sydney, the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts, Australian Research Council, Australian Government Attorney General office — Ministry for the Arts, Department of Foreign Affairs, Arts Tasmania.

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