Stephen Page

Stephen George Page AO (born 1965) is the Artistic Director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, an Indigenous Australian dance company. He is descended from the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali of the Yugambeh people from southeast Queensland, Australia. In 2015 his directorial debut film Spear was shown at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[1]

This article is about the Australian dancer. For other people with the same name, see Steven Page (disambiguation).

Career

Page was educated at the Cavendish Road State High School, Brisbane. Cavendish Road State High School has named one of their school houses Page, in his honour. The house colour is purple. He studied dance at the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA), he graduated in 1983 and then danced with the Sydney Dance Company, in 1991 he choreographed Mooggrah for the Sydney Dance Company and Trackers of Oxyrhyncus for the Sydney Theatre Company and a sextet for Opera Australia's Marriage of Figaro. During this time he also toured with the NAISDA associated "Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre".

Page danced with the Sydney Dance Company until 1991, when he was appointed Artistic Director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre. With his works Praying Mantis Dreaming, Ninni, and the seminal Ochres, in 1994 co-choreographed with then assistant artistic director Bernadette Walong-Sene, Page established a milestone for Australian dance. In 1996, he made his creative debut with The Australian Ballet, choreographing Alchemy. The following year, he brought The Australian Ballet and Bangarra together in Rites, to Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. The following year he choreographed Fish for Bangarra, with its world premiere taking place at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Page choreographed the flag handover ceremony for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and co-directed segments of the ceremonies of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. He also created the ceremony that opened the Olympic Arts Festival. He also choreographed Skin, which premiered at the festival and won the coveted Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work and Best Dance Work. His triple bill Corroboree toured internationally, in a sell-out tour of the US, with appearances at BAM in New York and Washington's Kennedy Centre. This work earned Page the Helpmann Award for Best Choreography. The following year, he was honoured with the Matilda Award for his contribution to the arts in Queensland and choreographed Totem for The Australian Ballet's principal dancer, Stephen Heathcote. 2002 also saw the world premiere of Bangarra's double bill Walkabout, which Page co-choreographed with Frances Rings.

Page and Rings later co-choreographed Bush for Bangarra, which sold out on its Australian tour as well as its 2004 tour to the United States. Also in 2004 Bangarra returned to the Sydney Opera House with another sell-out production co-choreographed by Page and Rings, Clan. The following year Page choreographed Boomerang for a sell-out Australian tour.

As Artistic Director of the 2004 Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Stephen Page was praised for reinvigorating the event with an impressive and highly successful world-class program. His film and theatre credits include the contemporary operatic film Black River, numerous music video clips and directing his own brother David Page in the highly acclaimed one-man show Page 8, which toured the UK.

In 2006 Page and The Australian Ballet created Gathering, a double bill consisting of a reworked Rites and Amalgamate. Also in 2006, Queensland Art Gallery director asked him to create a new dance work for the opening of the Gallery of Modern Art. Along with his son and nephews, he created Kin, a special project that opened Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.

In 2007 Stephen Page directed a spectacular traditional smoking ceremony in honour of the historic celebration marking the 75th anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Later in the year, during Bangarra's True Stories season, he directed Victorian Opera's Orphée et Eurydice in Melbourne and presented another sell-out season of Kin at the Malthouse Theatre.

In 2008 Page was named NSW Australian of the Year, receiving the award from Deputy Premier John Watkins in a ceremony at the Art Gallery of NSW.

In 2008 he created for Bangarra a new, full-length work entitled Mathinna (Best Dance Work and Best Choreography, 2009 Helpmann Awards). He then took Rites with The Australian Ballet to London and Paris, and Bangarra's Awakenings to Washington, New York and Ottawa. Later in 2008 he set off for Broome, WA as Choreographer on the film adaptation of Bran Nue Dae.

In 2009, after returning from a highly successful tour of True Stories to Germany, Hungary and Austria, Page and the dancers spent 10 days in Arnhem Land on a cultural exchange. He celebrated Bangarra's 20th Anniversary with Fire – A Retrospective (Winner, Outstanding Performance by a Company, 2010 Australian Dance Awards).

In 2011, Page was honoured with the Services to Dance award at the Australian Dance Awards and received a Helpmann Award for Best Choreography for Fire, Bangarra's 20-year retrospective work. Bangarra received a further two Helpmann Awards - Best Ballet/Dance Work for Fire and Best Regional Touring Production for True Stories.

In 2016, the NAIDOC Awards Lifetime Achievement Award went to Stephen Page for his work as Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre.[2][3] From February to August 2016, Martin Portus (former Director of Marketing and Communication at the Australia Council for the Arts) conducted a number of interviews with Australian choreographers, including Page. In the interview, Page discusses significant periods in the history of Bangarra, beginning with the nature of his access to traditional cultures, especially in North East Arnhem Land, and his works staging those stories as contemporary dance; his later darker works about urban dislocation and the contribution and death of his brother, dancer Russell Page; Stephen's choreographic signature and his works drawing on different stories, communities and design motifs from different parts of Australia and, finally, recent works that speak to stories drawn from both white and black historical experience.[4]

Choreography
  • Sydney Dance Company
    • Mooggrah (1991)
  • Sydney Theatre Company
    • Trackers of Oxyrhyncus
  • a sextet for Opera Australia's Marriage of Figaro
  • Bangarra Dance Theatre
    • Praying Mantis Dreaming (1992), Bangarra's first full-length work.
    • Ochres (1994),
    • Fish (1997)
    • Skin (2000), won Stephen and Bangarra the Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work and Best Dance Work
    • Corroboree (2001), for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival,
    • Walkabout (2002), co-choreographed with Frances Rings
    • Bush (2003)
    • Clan (2004), co-choreographed with Frances Rings.
    • Boomerang (2005)
  • Australian Ballet
    • Alchemy (1996)
    • Rites (1997) (with Bangarra Dance Theatre)
    • Totem (2002), a solo for Steven Heathcote
    • Gathering (2006), remounted Rites with a new work, Amalgamate collaborative work with Bangarra
  • with other works for the
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References
  1. "Spear Review". Variety. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  2. "First Indigenous nurse graduate among winners at the 2016 NAIDOC awards". ABC News. 8 July 2016. Archived from the original on 11 July 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  3. Smith, Emily (9 July 2016). "Indigenous dancer and director wins lifetime achievement award". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  4. "File 5: Stephen Page interviewed by Martin Portus, 24 February 2016". State Library of New South Wales Catalogue. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
Preceded by
Sue Nattrass		 Director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts
2004		 Succeeded by
Brett Sheehy
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