After 30 years, Stephen Page has his last dance with Bangarra

In 32 years helming the Bangarra Dance Company, Stephen Page admits to being more nervous than he has ever been ahead of an opening night.

It’s not only that the pandemic has played havoc with rehearsals. It’s that Wudjang: Not The Past, is Page’s last production as Bangarra’s creative force and his most ambitious to date - akin in scale to an opera, no less - featuring 17 dancers, four musicians and five actors.

Bangarra’s artistic director Stephen Page with performers of Wudjang. Credit: Louise Kennerley

The landmark collaboration between Bangarra and the Sydney Theatre Company comes from a deeply personal place for Page.

The Mibinyah language from Page’s father’s home on Yugambeh Country features alongside poetry, and prerecorded music written by his late brother David. The music laments the sons’ lost opportunities to share in the stories and cultural practices of their father before his death in 2010. “We could have all learned from my father,” Page says.

Page has served as the caretaker of his brother’s music archive since the Bangarra music director took his life in 2016.

“It’s a musical pantry,” Page says. “He composed more than 40 songs and spat out an album, a proper album, every year. Some of his samples were used in SandSong and I love the idea that David’s inspiration carries through to the future Bangarra.”

It was Sydney Festival’s previous director Wesley Enoch who pitched the idea of the STC and Bangarra co-production in 2019.

It took time to find the right mix of creatives to make it happen, says Page, with playwright Alana Valentine (Letters to Lindy) coming on board. Wudjang is named for an ancestral spirit, whose bones are discovered while workmen excavate a dam.

His brother, says Page, has been with him every creative step. “David talks to me all the time,” he says. “He’s always in the back of my head.”

Page had considered quitting in the aftermath of his brother’s death. “When David died, to tell you the truth I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know how to grieve. He was the hum of our land. I could have gone away and grieved and ended in a dark hole or use art as a medicine for me.” He chose the latter, the company keeping a loving watch over him.

Having joined Bangarra when he was 24, Page is stepping down as artistic director in 2023 after Wudjang’s world premiere and Bangarra’s tenth-anniversary tour of Terrain. He hands over the reins to long-time friend Frances Rings.

Son Hunter has suggested his father join him in a new production company, and he’s thought about dabbling in feature films again. He directed the chapter Sand in the feature film The Turning (2013) and choreographed the hit feature films Bran Nue Dae (2009) and The Sapphires (2011).

“One thing I’ve learned is to be ever hungry for knowledge. I’d love to continue to tell stories of Australia’s First Nations.”

Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and beyondblue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au)

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