Gudirr Gudirr lights a path from broken past to fragile present, and on to a future still in the making.
Gudirr Gudirr calls a warning, the guwayi bird calls when the tide is turning — to miss the call is to drown. An intimate solo dance and video work performed by Dalisa Pigram, daughter of Broome. By turns hesitant, restless, resilient and angry, Gudirr Gudirr lights a path from a broken past through a fragile present and on to a future still in the making.
The production considers the legacy of Australia’s history for Aboriginal people in northwest Australia today and asks: what does it take to decolonise Aboriginal people’s minds, to unlock doors and to face cultural change? Gudirr Gudirr calls a warning to a community facing massive industrialisation on traditional lands, loss of language and major gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous wellbeing. Drawing on a physicality born of Pigram’s Asian–Indigenous identity, and in a unique collaboration with Belgian choreographer Koen Augustijnen and visual artist Vernon Ah Kee, Pigram builds a dance language to capture this moment in time for her people.
World Premiere
Gudirr Gudirr was first presented at Arts House in Melbourne as part of Dance Massive
12–16 March 2013
2023
Musée du quai Branly
Paris, France
9 – 11 June
2022
Tempo Dance Festival
Auckland, New Zealand
3 & 4 October
Dance X
Arts Centre Melbourne
Melbourne, VIC
29 October – 1 November
Oz Asia Festival
Adelaide, SA
3 – 6 November
2018
Sydney Opera House | Sydney
27–30 June
2017
Ardyaloon Community
Western Australia
7 September 2017
Bidyadanga Community
Western Australia
14–15 September 2017
Newcastle Civic Theatre
New South Wales
22 September 2017
Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre
New South Wales
26–27 September 2017
Canberra Theatre Centre
Australian Capital Territory
30 September 2017
2016
The Arts Centre
Broome Senior High School
Western Australia
8-9 April 2016
Fitzroy Valley District High School
Fitzroy Crossing
Western Australia
14-15 April 2016
Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre
Western Australia
21-22 April 2016
Fishtrap Theatre
Mandurah Performing Arts Centre
Western Australia
27-29 April 2016
2015
Co-presented with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company
Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA
7–9 July 2015
World Stage
Harbourfront Centre
Toronto, Canada
6-9 May 2015
2014
Regional Arts Summit: Arts and Edges
Kalgoorlie, WA
17 October 2014
Waan Dance Festival
Sisia Theatre
Noumea, New Caledonia
4-6 September 2014
Darwin Festival
Brown’s Mart Theatre
22–24 August 2014
Julidans
Amsterdam, Netherlands
5-6 July 2014
Tramway
Glasgow, UK
2-3 July 2014
Grand Theatre De Luxembourg
Luxembourg,
25 June 2014
World Theatre Festival
Brisbane Powerhouse
20–22 February 2014
Teatro Central
Seville, Spain
15-16 February 2014
Teatro Alhambra
Granada, Spain
13 February 2014
Magdalenazaal (MaZ)
Bruges, Belgium
5 February 2014
Sydney Festival
Carriageworks
Sydney, Australia
16–19 January 2014
2013
Origins Festival
The Place
London UK
30-31 October 2013
Theater Pfalzbau
Ludwigshafen, Germany
23 October 2013
Shinju Matsuri Festival
Pigram Garden Theatre
Broome Australia
16-19 September 2013
Arts House
Dance Massive
Melbourne
12–16 March 2013
Concept, performer & co-choreographer
Dalisa Pigram
Director & co-choreographer
Koen Augustijnen
Set designer & video artist
Vernon Ah Kee
Costume Designer
Stephen Curtis
Composer & sound designer
Sam Serruys
Singer & songwriter
Stephen Pigram
Lighting designer
Matthew Marshall
Concept & cultural adviser
Patrick Dodson
Dramaturg & creative producer
Rachael Swain
Video production
Sam James
Rigging designer
Joey Ruigrok Van Der Werven
Jill Sykes
28 Jun 2018
Gudirr Gudirr review: A feisty response to a complex life This show is a one-off in every way. It is essentially a solo dance piece performed by Dalisa Pigram, who choreographed it with Koen Augustijnen. But it is so much more. In just an hour, Pigram gives the audience insights into her life growing up
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Jordan Beth Vincent
1 Mar 2013
The work created by Broome-based company Marrugeku is noteworthy, not only because it presents the unique artistic voice of performer Dalisa Pigram, but because it is an excellent piece of dance theatre. Pigram explores the different facets of her Asian-indigenous heritage, highlighting the way her ancestry has shaped her sense of self, while still demanding
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Virginia Baxter
1 Apr 2013
When Dalisa Pigram takes a well-earned bow at the end of gudirr gudirr, inviting a line of collaborators to join her, we are suddenly aware of her diminutive stature. For a solo, this is one BIG performance. Accompanied by video projected onto a corrugated iron wall upstage and a long fishing net suspended from the
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Deborah Jones
19 Jan 2014
Dalisa Pigram is an enchanting dancer and a passionate advocate for life in Australia’s northwest. In Gudirr Gudirr she weaves a memorable solo from themes relating to the area’s indigenous history, polyglot population, environmental beauties and present-day challenges. There are plenty of the latter. The sound of a coastal bird from Pigram’s home country, the
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Van Badham
19 Jan 2014
Conceived, performed and co-choreographed by Marrugeku’s Co-Artistic Director, Dalisa Pigram, Gudirr Gudirr is an extraordinary work from an artist at the peak of her craft and intellectual confidence. Pigram’s solo dance work is an articulate and thoroughly interrogated exploration of her politicised identity as an Aboriginal Australian of diverse cultural heritage. Working with Belgian choreographer
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Martha Schabas
8 May 2015
The multicultural cemeteries of the town of Broome, Western Australia, are filled with dead pearl divers. Many of the buried are indigenous people who were forced into the work as slaves in the late 19th century and the migrant workers who replaced them once slavery was abolished. In the early 20th century, Broome was exempt
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