Coinciding with the International Society for the Performing Arts congress coming to Western Australia, BlakDance brought two Australian First Nations dance works to Perth.

Silence was mounted by the still relatively young Indigenous company Karul Projects (cofounded in 2017 by Thomas E.S. Kelly and Taree Sansbury), while The Other Side of Me was from Northern Territory dance veteran Gary Lang.

Both works differ considerably from the Indigenous contemporary dance fusions pioneered by the national, Sydney-based company of Bangarra from the 1990s onwards, reminding audiences that today Australian First Nations contemporary dance reflects a diversity of modes, varying from streetwise funk, to elegiac masculinity, and much besides.

The Other Side of Me (NT Dance Company). Photo © Paz Tassone

The Other Side of Me is a study of doubling and internal conflict, set in an abstract prison environment, which may be literal, or simply in the mind.

Although apparently inspired by the real story of a young Aboriginal man who became separated from Country and heritage by being imprisoned in a British jail, the choreography and projected imagery provided little link to this specific narrative.

The focus was rather on a generalised, abstract sense of...