Dancing in the gap

Dancing in the Gap outlines gaps in wellbeing and disadvantage between First Nations Australians and those of settler and immigrant descent and describes how these gaps may be activated by First Nations artists as sites of truth telling to address the narratives the nation tells about itself. Drawing on the example of the recent solo dance theatre work conceived and performed by Eric Avery of the Ngiyampaa, Yuin, Bandjalang, and Gumbangirri peoples, created in collaboration with Belgian choreographer Koen Augustijnen and myself as dramaturg, I describe how intercultural dance processes can reset relations by reimagining our past as a necessary pre-condition to closing the gap in the future.