YIRRAMBOI – Contemporary OPEN Workshop (intermediate-advanced) with Sermsah
Suitable for intermediate to professional level dancers or hobbyists.
This class is free for First Peoples; non-Indigenous participants can access it at a special YIRRAMBOI festival rate of $10.
Read more about Sermsah Bin Saad here.
Class Description: Liyan Workshops
The aim of this work is to reflect upon intergenerational trauma of the First Nations body and it’s effects, both internally and externally, reflecting upon these interrogations and experiences in the repercussions of colonisation. To be able to explore this within the contemporary dance landscape is the focal point of this work.
Within this process the students will learn how to utilise the knowledge of LIYAN (finding a sense of purpose and direction of ones self and surroundings). This ancient concept allows the potential to utilise this practice in everyday activities along with a deeper understanding of their true potential not only as an individual entity but as a collective. These workshops enable the student to delve deeper into their subconscious by utilising memory recall techniques to reconnect to the inner trauma thereby allowing access to reflection of these memories. This allows oneself to be aware of avenues of deconstructing trauma within our bodies but also to discover safe ways of connecting and reestablishing our inner healing process.
It is about understanding the frequencies of the body, mind and spirit in order to pertain the methodologies of the trauma that exists and through this, discover the core of our traumas. Fundamentally it is learning to better oneself and understand our consciousness.
Ultimately, my goal is to deconstruct the Western ideal of what dance and its influences are according to the First Nations methodologies and cultural practices. Whilst also not only just bringing the traditional aspects of Aboriginal people into the modern world, we are advocating for simultaneously exploring the aspects of integration.
My philosophy and the question I always keep in mind when teaching what is traditional and what is contemporary and how they meet and integrate.