Hot on the heels of Jacob Boehme’s visit earlier this month, last week we were equally honoured to host Indigenous Australian artist Gary Lang and Shannon King of BlakDance as part of our planning for RISE 2026.
Gary Lang is the Artistic Director of the Indigenous owned Gary Lang Northern Territory Dance Company. A Larrakia man from Darwin with extended family relationships in Yirrkala NT, Gary trained at the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA), graduating in 1990.
Gary has performed, choreographed and travelled globally with some of Australia’s premier dance companies including Bangarra, Dance North & the Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre Company, and collaborated globally with Deborah Cheetham, the Western Australian Ballet, The Australian Ballet, BlakDance, NAISDA, Northumbria University and Miami Dede College.
Over lunch in the Sunshine Room in Findhorn, Gary and Shannon were welcomed to Moray with a traditional Doric welcome by Arts in Moray (AIM) artist Lynda Buchan, with Scots poetry, a shared toast, and a recounting of ancestral lore by those gathered.
Gary also talked about his piece ‘The Other Side of Me’, the true story of an Aboriginal man who as a child was taken from his family in the Northern Territories and brought up in a rural hamlet in the south-west of England – a performance we are exploring bringing to RISE next year.
A huge thank you to Gary and Shannon for coming to see us, and thanks to Creative Scotland, British Council Australia, Creative Australia and BlakDance for all their support in facilitating these visits.