Flamenco!
Bandaluzia Flamenco are back at the Byron Theatre in January – Bandaluzia is firmly established as one of the most enjoyable and exciting exponents of modern flamenco.
Led by ARIA nominated Flamenco guitarist, Damian Wright (also a SMH Album of the Week featured artist), Bandaluzia will deliver a spectacular new show presenting 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 performed at The Adelaide International Guitar Festival’ curated by Slava Grigoryan, and was awarded The Pick of the Sydney Fringe at The Sydney Fringe Festival.
Bandaluzia performed to a sold out Sydney Opera House Concert Hall as an invited artist to TEDX Sydney.
The troupe, features Jessica Statham, Dance Australia magazine’s Most Outstanding Dancer, and co-winner of Best Dance Show at The Adelaide Fringe; flamenco dancer Rosalie Cocchiaro, who lived in Madrid for 10 years, and has performed in many of Madrid’s premier Tablaos (flamenco venues), and outstanding percussionist James Hauptmann (James Morrison, Vince Jones, Bluejuice). Bandaluzia are highly revered for their ability to mix elements of other genres into their performances, whether being the rich harmonies of jazz, the exotic melodies of the Orient or the infectious rhythms of South America.
Bandaluzia is an experience that ignites the senses with the grace of Flamenco.
Bandaluzia Flamenco are at the Byron Theatre on Friday, 14 January at 7.30pm. Tickets are available now through: www.byroncentre.com.au.
Koori Art Prize
Forty-nine finalists have been selected from more than 119 entries for the first Koori Mail Indigenous Art Award 2021. The award has attracted entries from established, mid-career, and emerging Indigenous artists from every state and territory, working across a wide variety of mediums. The youngest and oldest artists are separated by 58 years.
Finalist works include works by senior artists from Ramingining in the Northern Territory, Joy Burruna, who has painted sand palms, the fruits of which have been used by Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land for many centuries as food and medicine. Testimony to the artistic heritage of Burruna, her mother was one of the first women painters from Ramingining. Joy Burruna has continued this tradition and Joy’s daughter and granddaughter are both painters. The cross-hatching effect in Burruna’s work is a traditional technique created with the use of a rarrk brush collected from Country.
Working in a very different medium, but still within the realm of empowering traditional knowledge and culture, Moorina Bonini’s powerful video work, Gowidja, presents a new picture of the future. In her words; ‘A near and Indigenous-led future where all centralised governance and power has been dispersed outwards amongst Indigenous people and communities. In this future we have ownership of our cultural materials and objects, autonomy over our representation and agency to achieve our self-determinism.’ Bonini challenges narratives placed upon Aboriginal people as a result of colonisation. Bonini’s practice is based within Indigenous knowledge systems and brings them to the fore.
The exhibition includes strong representation from Bundjalung artists and Aboriginal artists practicing in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Kylie Caldwell is a Bundjalung artist based at Wollongbar whose image of Mrs & Mr Watcher presents a picture of ancestors watching media obsessed people of today. ‘Mrs & Mr Watcher is a digital portrait of our ancestors watching us, watching others while we are watched… Screens are now our eyes to see the world through and how the world can see us… What would our ancestors say?’.
In her work The Rainbow Experience Butchulla artist Mia Boa looks at elements of K’gari’s (Fraser Island) complicated and dark history since colonisation, as well as the consequences of the displacement of the Butchulla people. ‘The location of this painting exists between myth and truth — it is my naive imagining of what it may look like for myself, a Butchulla woman, to return to the island.’
Dunghutti artist, Gus Kelly’s work in coloured pencil Nobody Told Me There’d Be Days Like These tells the story of colonisation of Aboriginal land with four images providing a timeline.
The judge of the Koori Mail Indigenous Art Award 2021, Djon Mundine OAM FAHA, says of the award, ‘Australia wide we need to heal our country by painting, performing, by making art. We are regaining our connection and healing.’
The winner of Koori Mail Indigenous Art Award 2021($10,000) will be announced on Saturday 4 December at Lismore Regional Gallery by Djon Mundine OAM FAHA. Additional awards to be presented on the day are the Bundjalung Art Award ($2,500), open to Bundjalung artists and/or Indigenous artists working on Bundjalung country, the Innovation Art Award ($2,500) open to Indigenous artists living in Bundjalung, Yaegl and Githabul Country, and the Youth Art Award ($500) open to Indigenous artists nationally, 12–24 years of age.
Announcement of Winners by Djon Mundine OAM FAHA, at 2pm on Saturday 4 December 2021 at Lismore Regional Gallery.
The Koori Mail Indigenous Art Award 2021 finalists’ exhibition will be on display at Lismore Regional Gallery from Saturday 4 December 2021 to 30 January, 2022.
A New Home for the Blues
There is exciting news for all blues music lovers – the Ballina RSL is hosting a Blues night in the club as a regular event on the first Saturday of every month, starting 4 December.
The new event is free and will showcase local blues bands and artists.
The first act under the banner of The Blues Club is The Soren Carlbergg Quartet, a dynamic and tight local outfit that mixes traditional blues standards with covers in the more modern style (Robben Ford, John Mayer, Marcus King, Eric Clapton) plus a selection of their blues originals.
The Soren Carlbergg Quartet has Soren on guitar and vocals, the very talented Louis Muller on guitar and vocals, with the powerful rhythm section of Martin Muller on bass and Derek Armistead holding it down on drums.
The second session of the The Blues Club will be on 1 January, 2022 – a special New Year’s Day event, and it will be a hoot for the survivors of the night before.
The featured band will be FBI (Federal Blues Inc.). These guys play the blues like no one else, featuring one of the finest guitarist in the area, Mr Tommy Cuyler, with Steve Foster taking it away with his brilliant harmonica.
The Ballina RSL Blues stage is right next to the restaurant and bars, so, making a night of it and making the most of the music is just too easy.
If you love the blues, put these dates in your calendar and tell your friends that The Blues Club at the RSL in Ballina on the first Saturday of each month, is the place to be.
For information and tickets visit: ballinarsl.com.au.
Save the Date for the Bangalow Film Festival
It’s back! The Bangalow Film Festival will screen in January with more films, more locations, and more of just about everything!
The event will run 13–29 January in addition to a full week of screenings at the Bangalow Showgrounds, a carefully curated program of talks, showcases and workshops will take over the A&I Hall, aligning with the festival’s core theme of ‘Sustainable Futures’.
There will also be new venues added with the Regent Theatre in Murwillumbah and Lismore’s Star Court Theatre added to the list of places to enjoy the festival.
The 2022 full program will be announced in the coming weeks.
Drill Hall Hot Shorts 2022
The deadline for the Drill Hall Theatre’s HOT SHORTS 10-minute play writing competition is fast approaching.
Prizes for best scripts. Selected plays are fully staged with actors and directors at the Drill Hall Theatre.
For more info, visit: www.drillhalltheatre.org.au/hot-shorts-2022.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
