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In a dance studio overlooking a sparkling Sydney Harbour, rehearsals are underway for the latest production by the Bangarra Dance Theatre.
Artistic director Stephen Page has taken on the story of the revered but controversial figure, Woollarawarre Bennelong.
"I'd been fascinated about Bennelong. The company is 30 years old in a couple of years and I thought, let's go for an operatic form of a story and what a great character to meet that form," he says.
"I love Bennelong. He was around 25 when he was captured after the First Fleet arrived. It's just sad he spent 25 years of his life in this experiment time warp."
Paying homage 'to that spirit'
Bennelong's was a remarkable but ultimately troubled life. In 1789, when Governor Arthur Phillip was instructed to open dialogue with the Indigenous people, Bennelong was among the first local men to be kidnapped.
"He took on that role or responsibility of being the intermediary between his people and Governor Phillip," Matthew Doyle, cultural consultant for the production, says.
"I guess [he was] trying to understand who these people were and why they were here and how that was going to affect the Sydney people."
Governor Phillip took Bennelong on a journey to England. Three years later Bennelong returned to Australia but for the rest of his life he was caught between his traditional world and the world the white settlers had introduced him to.
Dancer Beau Dean Riley Smith says performing the role of Bennelong was "a good challenge".
"People have their own ideas of his character and what he did and what he achieved, and was it right or was it wrong," he says.
"For me it's just been trying to pay homage to his spirit and ignite that flame and his soul and give him a heart."
David still guiding the troupe
There has been an extra challenge for the Bangarra family in creating Bennelong — it's the first major work completed since the death last year of musical director David Page.
His brother Stephen said David is still guiding them.
"His spirit is here and it's going to be here forever," he says.
"He had that specific quality of talent that was raw and rare and he changed that contemporary traditional music landscape ... that sense of bringing that traditional spirit, first nation's spirit and massaging it through that contemporary musical expression."
Bennelong is Stephen Page's 24th production with Bangarra, and fittingly the Sydney performances will be at the Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point, the spot where Governor Phillip once built a hut for his friend.
Doyle says the story is as relevant today as it was back then.
"I guess the message is about respecting, having respect for one another. Really that's what it comes down to," he said.
Bennelong opens in Sydney on June 29. The production will then travel to Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Topics: dance, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, sydney-2000