Since appearing on the Australian arts scene in 1989, Indigenous dance company Bangarra Dance Theatre has established itself as one of the nation’s most innovative and important performing arts collectives, creating and touring theatrical productions that deftly combine dance, music, poetry, culture, and design. Its latest production, the multidimensional Illume, is perhaps its greatest achievement yet.

Currently in its thirty-sixth year, Illume constitutes a major artistic evolution for Bangarra. Choreographed by artistic director Frances Rings, who took the reins of the collective from long-time artistic director Stephen Page in 2023, it marks the company’s first collaboration with a visual artist, in this case Goolarrgon Bard pearl carver Darrell Sibosado, who hails from Lombardina on the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia. The results are both artistically exquisite and gloriously immersive for the audience.