July 23, 24 and 25
French Masters Celebrated in Byron Ballet’s Triple Bill
The Byron Ballet Company is primarily a youth ballet company providing performance opportunities for passionate dancers. Casts include professional guests, advanced dancers plus mature experienced dancers and mentors.
Byron Ballet Company Director, Yvonne Hall, says the Company returns to the Byron Theatre with an eclectic triple bill that will delight all lovers of dance. The program includes Matisse, La Danse, an excerpt from the famous ballet, Carmen and Stravinsky’s iconoclastic Rite of Spring. ‘Special guests include dynamic dancer Nicole Corea from New York, along with the brilliant athleticism of guest male dancers, including regular Principal Dancer, Michael Braun.
Ms Hall says Matisse, La Danse was conceived by local artist Vianney Pinion, who was inspired by the master artist Matisse and his famous painting The Dance. ‘Vianney collaborated with the talented dancers and choreographers of the Company to create a stunning piece of work that reflects the vision of Matisse and how this painting came into being.’
‘The ballet also involves local live musicians and a local soprano who will bring extra magic to the stage.’
Ms Hall says one of the highlights of the performance is a passionate love duet from the famous ballet Carmen. ‘This dance will follow La Danse with that magnetic Spanish style, unfolding to the sensual music of George Bizet.’
‘Finally, the program will build to a cathartic climax with the suspense and beauty of The Rite of Spring.
‘The story echoes back to times of pagan Earth rituals and the cycles of life, with modern interpretations also symbolising society’s need for the scapegoat.’
Join Byron Ballet Company as they make a tribute to these masters and take you on an unforgettable journey of suspense and sensual beauty.
July 23, 24 and 25. Tickets on sale at www.byrontheatre.com.au
Infectious Energy of The Swamps
The Swamps are Matthew Armitage on guitar and vocals and Matt ‘Swanny’ Swan on the drums. The Swamps are quickly gaining a local reputation for a dynamic live show, with amazing prowess and a real understanding of blues rock ‘n’ roll. Their collection drawn from the ’50s and ’60s gives the audience no choice but to quickly absorb their infectious energy and fill the dance floor.
Get Swampy on Friday at The Rails.
Plastic Free Party in Byron
Plastic Free July is an Australian initiative with the aim of working toward a planet free of plastic waste.
A collaboration between Life Wild, Byron Shire Council, Byron Rangers, and not-for-profits One Wave (Fluro Friday) and Santos Organics, aims to raise awareness of marine debris, plastic-free lifestyles and our health.
This week, Friday 23 July, everyone is invited to Byron Bay’s Plastic Free July Beach Cleanup.
The event is happening at Wategos Beach from 6.30am for the beach clean up, followed by a Fluro Friday surf session. There’s plastic-free prizes to win for those who participate in the clean up. Don’t forget to wear your brightest surf gear!
RSVP via @ByronRangers. Contact Caitlin for more details 0448 054 820.
A Song About You
Matty Rogers is a heartfelt storyteller who writes and performs from the depths of his soul, and once you start to listen, he will make you feel like he is singing about you and your life.
Pure, raw, human emotion pours out of his lyrics and performance, earning him awards for both vocal performance and song writing.
It is hard to define Matty, but think blues-country-soul with a huge voice and great lyrics and you’re in the ballpark – soulfire music.
Matty is now working on his fourth studio album, in his own recording studio just outside of Byron.
Catch him on Sunday, at The Rails.
Wait for it August: Bandaluzia is Coming!
Bandaluzia are presenting a spectacular new show that highlights contemporary flamenco dance and music while keeping the essential characteristics of the flamenco tradition. Bandaluzia are celebrated for their powerful performances, unique sound and explosive displays of dazzling musicianship and virtuosity.
Bandaluzia are flamenco guitarist, Damian Wright, with James Hauptmann on percussions, Yuhki Mayne on violin, and dancers Rosalie Cocchiaro and Jessica Statham.
Bandaluzia can be seen at the Byron Theatre on 27 August. Tickets from byron.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/11499.
Barking Mad at Ninbella
In these barking mad times, striking bark art reminds us to stay grounded and surrounded by meaningful stories. Ninbella has assembled a powerful stash of bark artworks from local and Yolngu artists to help us navigate these extremely strange days.
Lae Oldmeadow’s upholstered hoop pine bark tree totems stand like ancient sentinels along one wall of the Bangalow gallery. Hand crafted in Blue Knob, these seven pieces communicate centuries of growth in meticulous interwoven layers.
On the opposite wall are ochre paintings on stringybark panels from Yirrkala, a remote community 700kms east of Darwin in Arnhem Land. Featuring the distinctive cross-hatching designs of the region intermingled with black sparkling sand from the surrounding beaches, these works speak to each artists’ deep connection to country.
Gallery Director, Grant Rasheed, recently travelled to the remote Indigenous community controlled art centre, Buku-Larrngay Mulka, to personally select these works along with a collection of Larrakitj (memorial poles) that form the centrepiece of the exhibition Barking Mad.
‘It was a real honour for me to meet some of these artists personally and to support the wonderful work of the Buku Arts Centre,’ Grant said.
The Centre’s name translates as ‘the feeling on your face as it is struck by the first rays of the sun’, and there is reference to the eternal cycle of new life, and death, in these mesmeric pieces.
Sacred, yet public, ceremony designs are interpreted in uniquely individual ways. In response to a challenge about her right to paint the fish trap imagery of her own clan, Djirrirra Wununmurra assumed the unique identity of Yukuwa (bush yam), a traditional food source whose annual reappearance is a metaphor for the increase and renewal of her people and their land. She explores this by etching her own contemporary take on the ceremonial yam grounds in nearby stringybark forests onto white earth pigments.
84-year-old Baluka Maymuru is an ‘artist of truth’, practicing his sacred cultural connections on massive panels that depict his homeland estate and its ritual focal point on the northern entrance of Blue Mud Bay on the western coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Ritual body painting for cleansing ceremonies has been transferred onto three stunning hollow stringybark poles by Galawupa Garrawurra, who died tragically at the age of only 28. These Larrakitj were originally used as ossuaries or bone containers erected as memorials to dead kinsmen but are now widely created as modern sculptures that, in Garrawurra’s case, display a minimalist elegance.
All these works speak to a tradition that stretches way back to the ‘first sunrises’. It was a Yirrkala bark artwork painted in 1963, now housed in the National Museum of Australia, that became the first formal assertion of native title. Current works from this community continue to express deep cultural integrity and assertion of land ownership.
Exhibited in dialogue with Oldmeadow’s spine-tingling totems, these barks and sculptures present a cheeky, yet imaginative, play on the use of this most primal material.
Barking Mad at Ninbella Gallery, 19A Byron Street Bangalow 10am–4pm, July 16–August 14.
CINEMA
Film Marks the 500th Anniversary of Leonardo’s Death
Leonardo da Vinci is acclaimed as the world’s favourite artist. Many TV shows and feature films have showcased this extraordinary genius, but often not examined closely enough is the most crucial element of all: his art. Leonardo’s peerless paintings and drawings will be the focus of Leonardo: The Works, as Exhibition On Screen presents every single attributed painting, in Ultra HD quality, never seen before on the big screen.
Key works include The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Lady with an Ermine, Ginevra de’ Benci, Madonna Litta, Virgin of the Rocks, and more than a dozen others.
This film also looks afresh at Leonardo’s life – his inventiveness, his sculptural skills, his military foresight and his ability to navigate the treacherous politics of the day – through the prism of his art.
To be released on the 500th anniversary of his death, this is the definitive film about Leonardo; the first to truly tell the whole story.
Leonardo: The Works. Exhibition on Screen at Byron Theatre. Wednesday 28 July, 3pm. Tickets: www.byrontheatre.com.au.
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