Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry is a new trans-Indigenous dance theatre work directed by Serge Aimé Coulibaly for Marrugeku.
Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry explores recuperation in aftermaths of colonisation, seeking what to embrace of the new and what to let fall. While governments debate, peoples born of invasion, migration and displacement, wait for the new day. From divergent histories we meet in states of instability, frustration and radical reinvention.
Colonisation has shaped us. To undo the past is impossible. Decolonisation is both necessary and a false goal. As older ways of life deteriorate, situations become increasingly urgent yet progress is painfully slow. Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry asks how these concerns can disturb and regenerate dance in the Asia Pacific region, embracing reconfigurations of power and the transmission of old and new knowledges.
Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry is an intercultural and trans-Indigenous production, with dancers of First Nations, immigrant and settler descent from Australia and New Caledonia. It is directed and co-choreographed by Marrugeku’s associate artist Serge Aimé Coulibaly (Burkina Faso/Belgium) and co-choreographed with Marrugeku’s Dalisa Pigram with dramaturgy by Rachael Swain. Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry is designed by New Caledonian installation artist Nicolas Molé, and music is by Ngaiire, Nick Wales and Bree Van Reyk.
Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry has grown out of a long standing partnership between Centre Cultural Tjibaou in Nouméa, New Caledonia and Marrugeku. Together they will celebrate 20 years of engagement with a specially commissioned work inspired by debates arising form the 2018 New Caledonian referendum on independence from France and Recognition and Treaty in Australia.
Timeline
Premiere Seasons
Carriageworks, Sydney 15–18 August 2018
Centre Culturel Tjibaou 6–8 September 2018
Touring Europe December 2018
Touring Australia March 2019
Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry is co-commissioned by Centre Culturel Tjibaou (New Caledonia), Carriageworks (Australia), Théâtre National de Chaillot (France), Le Théâtre Manège (France) and Arts House, through the City of Melbourne (Australia).
2018
Carriageworks | Sydney
15-18 August
Centre Culturel Tjibaou | Nouméa | New Caledonia
6-8 September
Le Manège | Maubeuge | France
11 December
Concertgebouw | Brugge | Belgium
14 December
L’Espal | Scène Nationale | Le Mans | France
18 December
2019
WOMADelaide | Adelaide
10 & 11 March
Dance Massive | Melbourne
14–17 March
Director Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Co-choreographers Dalisa Pigram and Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Dramaturg Rachael Swain
Set Designer Nicolas Molé
Lighting Designer Matt Marshall
Costume Designer Mirabelle Wouters
Music Ngaiire, Nick Wales, and Bree van Reyk
Cast & Co-creators Amrita Hepi, Stanley Nalo, Krylin Nguyen, Yoan Ouchot, Dalisa Pigram, Miranda Wheen
Alison Croggon
16 Mar 2019
This most recent work from Marrugeku cements its place as one of Australia’s most exciting dance companies. It begins with isolation, with six dancers standing on stage, each alone, each staring at the audience. Each body cocooned in stillness. It’s not relaxed: there is a kind of rigor mortis in their stances, an almost palpable
read more…
Kim Dunphy
15 Mar 2019
Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry — 4 1/2 Stars Le Dernier Appel/The Last Cry was created by the Marrugeku company of Broome and Sydney, a group with a growing history of intercultural performance and collaboration. This was a powerful exploration of colonisation and its aftermath, all embodied in the dancers’ physiques. Their diverse
read more…
Deborah Jones
17 Aug 2018
In Marrugeku’s new work Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry, is doubly resonant. It is not only the real and present grief of someone who has no tears left after a lifetime of living under someone else’s soul-crushing rules. It’s also a metaphor for the death throes of the old colonial, mostly white order.
read more…
Lee Christofis
17 Aug 2018
Repetitive cycles of alienation, frustration, sorrow, and humiliation in the face of political injustice over decades find powerful expression in Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry, the latest interrogation by Marrugeku Dance Theatre of the deleterious effects of colonisation on the indigenous peoples of Australia and her neighbours. Commissioned by Carriageworks (Sydney), the Centre
read more…
Mark Mordue
17 Aug 2018
From the voice of Aretha Franklin to the torsions of Japanese butoh there is an intuition the body somehow inherits and carries history: be it the slavery and racism that ‘Aretha’ alchemized into songs of exaltation, liberty and solace; or the grotesque, eerie and primordial energy that analysts of butoh see as a form of
read more…
Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry is co-commissioned by Centre Culturel Tjibaou Nouméa (New Caledonia), Carriageworks (Sydney, Australia), and Arts House (Melbourne, Australia).
Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry is funded by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, the WA Department of Local Government, Sport, and Cultural Industries, Create NSW and The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
