Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House.
3 June 2026.

Marking 10 years since the passing of composer and Bangarra Musical Director David Page, Sheltering arrives at the Sydney Opera House as both a celebration of emerging First Nations voices and a reflection on enduring connections to Country, culture and community. Bringing together Glory Tuohy-Daniell’s Keeping Grounded, Daniel Mateo and Cass Mortimer Eipper’s short film Brown Boys, and Frances Rings’ remounted 2015 work Sheoak; the triple bill explores what happens when those connections are strengthened, fractured, lost and reclaimed. While the three works differ considerably in form and impact, each circles a shared concern: how we remain anchored to ourselves, to one another, and to the worlds that sustain us.

The evening opens with Keeping Grounded, originally developed through Bangarra’s Dance Clan program and now expanded for the Joan Sutherland Theatre stage. Tuohy-Daniell’s work examines the increasingly fragile relationship between body and earth, drawing on ideas of grounding as both a physical practice and a broader way of living. While the choreography occasionally falls into familiar contemporary dance vocabulary of rolling, sliding and athletic floor work, it finds its strongest voice through its visual imagination. A vast suspended net (set design by Shana O’Brien) dominates the stage, becoming landscape, shelter, obstacle and support in equal measure. Dancers climb through its openings, hang from its structure, disappear beneath it and re-emerge transformed. The ever-shifting relationship between bodies and fabric creates some of the work’s most compelling images, particularly when the material gathers tightly before bursting outward in a sudden release of energy.

Clair Parker’s costumes further deepen the work’s connection to Country. Late in the piece, the dancers appear in rich ochre-red bodysuits marked with black paint that extends onto the skin, recalling Bangarra’s longstanding visual language of body painting and cultural marking. In a contemporary repertoire increasingly concerned with social and political themes, these images provide a powerful reminder of the cultural foundations that continue to underpin the company’s artistic identity.

The brief but affecting Brown Boys shifts the evening into a more intimate register. Written, performed and co-directed by Daniel Mateo, the six-minute film examines identity, masculinity and belonging through the experiences of a young indigenous man negotiating the expectations placed upon him. Every image feels carefully considered. Close-ups of skin, earth and gesture create a tactile visual language, while Mateo’s spoken text unfolds with quiet honesty rather than overt declaration. The film’s strength lies in its restraint; rather than arguing its case, it invites reflection. Beautifully photographed and edited, Brown Boys emerged as a deeply personal work that nevertheless speaks to broader questions of representation, self-worth and cultural connection.

The evening concludes with Frances Rings’ Sheoak, first created in 2015, in response to the threatened closure of remote Aboriginal communities. Revisiting the work more than a decade later inevitably raises questions about how its themes resonate in the present moment. Rings frames the she-oak tree as both ancestor and witness, embodying resilience, memory and cultural continuity in the face of ongoing structural inequity.

Visually, the work contains moments of considerable power. A sequence featuring a group of male dancers stands out for its clarity and force, while David Page’s final score for Bangarra continues to pulse with emotional depth and spiritual resonance.  Karen Norris’s lighting sustains the production’s strong visual identity, and the final images suggest renewal and endurance.

Yet, Sheoak proves less successful as a dramatic whole. Its episodic structure felt somewhat diffuse, with transitions between sections lacking the clarity needed to sustain momentum. At times the symbolic framework remains elusive, making it difficult to fully engage with the narrative threads beneath the imagery. 

Despite its unevenness, Sheltering succeeds as a portrait of Bangarra at a moment of transition. Alongside the established voice of Frances Rings sit emerging artists whose works demonstrate the continuing evolution of First Nations storytelling. If Keeping Grounded offers the evening’s most inventive theatrical imagery and Brown Boys its most concentrated emotional impact, Sheoak provides a bridge to the company’s recent history and the enduring legacy of David Page. Together, these works ask audiences to consider what sustains us when connection is threatened, and what might be restored when we find our way back to Country, community and self.

By Linda Badger of Dance Informa.