Written by Lola Jones for the RRR Newsletter | Edition 62, Summer 2012
International performer, Yawuru language teacher and gymnastics coach, Dalisa Pigram-Ross uses dance and movement to touch and communicate with people and for young people to express themselves.
Dalisa Pigram-Ross is a founding member and co-artistic director of Marrugeku, an intercultural dance and physical theatre company that works in Indigenous contexts. For the last eighteen years she has been co-devising and performing on all productions and has toured nationally and internationally with the shows Mimi, Crying Baby, Burning Daylight and Buru.
Her interest in dance and gymnastics was sparked while at school. In her first job as a trainee dance teacher working with different communities in the Kimberley region of WA she saw the possibility of dance as a way for young people to express themselves.
“Movement has the potential to touch and communicate with people – to get the message across,” Dalisa said.
Dalisa learnt the art of stilt performance while working in Marrugeku’s first show Mimi. They worked with the Kunwinku people of Arnhem Land for eight years helping to keep stories alive for the community while developing the shows Mimi and Crying Baby. Both shows toured nationally and internationally to great acclaim.
Working in another community, the shows Burning Daylight and Buru were reflections and expressions of Broome’s unique history. It was also a way to help strengthen and promote Yawuru culture, language, story and dance while celebrating young people and helping them connect to their elders.
Each production takes about three to four years from conception to performance and the initial concepts for all of Marrugeku’s shows have grown from consultation with the elders of the community they are working in. They consider how to use dance, movement and physical theatre to convey the message in response to the elders’ thoughts of what is important, what stories and issues to explore.
Buru was inspired by the six Yawuru seasons and was developed in consultation with key story holders. It incorporated the traditional stories of Janyju—the Red Lizard as told by Karajarri elder and Yawuru language specialist, Doris Edgar, and Walmanyjun—the Greedy Turtle as told by Yawuru/Jabirr Jabirr elder, Cissy Djiagween. It also acknowledged the two custodial Boss Lizard figures, as shared by senior Yawuru law man, Patrick Dodson.
Dalisa co-directed and performed in Buru with ten young people in an amazing display of dance on stilts that combined different forms of traditional movements with acrobatics and circus skills. Training for two years, the young people spent every school holidays learning the stories and developing their skills on stilts, then another two years developing and learning all the choreography before taking Buru on tour.
“I use dance and movement to convey my message. Others might use a different medium but it’s important to be heard. I would encourage other young people to have pride in their cultural heritage and if they are concerned about something make sure someone knows about it, otherwise we don’t have a voice,“ she said.
Dalisa grew up in Broome and is proud of her cultural heritage – Yawuru, Bardi, Malay and Pilipino, to name a few. Her mum was one of a group of parents who tried unsuccessfully to get Yawuru taught when she was at school. So when she attended the first school assembly at her daughter’s school and heard elder, Doris Edgar, greet the whole school in Yawuru she was so excited that her daughter was going to have the opportunity to learn Yawuru at school.
“Little did I know I’d end up qualifying and becoming the Yawuru teacher,” she said.
“I worked alongside Jam Doris in a Master-Apprentice relationship for six years with Merrilee Lands as mentor/role-model and Lola Jones provided training and linguistic support. It was an enormous challenge to learn Yawuru in order for me to be able to teach it and I enjoyed it sooo much. I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning to see what else I’d learn from Jam Doris,” she said.
Dalisa has been teaching Yawuru for the last nine years. She also works with other elders in Broome to record language and works with Mabu Yawuru Ngan-ga Language Centre supporting language recording and developing materials. She also mentors trainee Yawuru language teachers.
She is still teaching and also researching and developing her next show, a solo performance called Gudirr Gudirr, an intimate dance, aerial and multimedia work conceived by her Poppa Pat (Patrick Dodson).
It is the story of the guwayi bird (a snipe or wading bird – also called gudirr-gudirr) that calls to tell you the tide is turning. “You remind me of the guwayi – in the work you do with Marrugeku and as the Yawuru language teacher – telling the community the tide is turning,” Pat said.
Dalisa’s passion for performing and teaching Yawuru, combined with her strong sense of responsibility and commitment, has meant she has had to think creatively about how she combines all her roles.
Along with being an international performer, Yawuru language teacher and gymnastics coach Dalisa has three beautiful children and a supportive husband and family. When she was expecting her first baby she thought she would have to stop performing and travelling. Her mother told her having children doesn’t stop you from seeing your dreams through.
“It was such good advice – my children have travelled all over the world with me while I have been performing and I couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to do what I do without my family’s support”