AMELIA JEAN O’LEARY DANCE
NOW ON @ DANCEHOUSE:
SAD EYES
A DANCE THEATRE WORK BY AMELIA JEAN O’LEARY
What if we rebuild the engine ?
What are your politics? What do you value? How can we shift the fantasy to reality? What if this work becomes the world we choose to live in?
This new First Nations-led work leans into dual perspectives of youthful and cultural functionality of femininity in society.
Through dance and storytelling, Sad Eyes draws to the surface the complicated intersections of politics, identity and environmental concern to ultimately reframe a conversation on choice and action.
Within an “Australian” context, Amelia Jean O’Leary disassembles the structures around themselves in an effort to shift and destroy colonial narratives.
Choreographer: Amelia Jean O’Leary
Dancers/collaborators: Jiawen Feng, Emily Eather, Keia McGrady, Katherine Lanterna / Hegman, Sam Osborn
Sound Design: Amelia Jean O’Leary
Set Design: Savanna Wegman
Costume Design: Maya Anderson
Lighting Design: Giovanna Yate Gonzalez
Stage and Production Manager: Georgie Bright
Supported by Dancehouse First Nations Funds and Creative Victoria
COMING SOON...
PEGGY SUE
A theatre work conceptualised by Amelia Jean O’Leary in collaboartion with Melbounre Theatre Company’s First Nations Young Artist Program
Written by Amelia Jean O’Leary and Emma Salmon
Directed and Choreographed by Amelia Jean O’Leary
Presenting in Yirramboi 2025
PEGGY SUE follows the story line of Joan, a 23 year old blak woman who moves to a shared house in North Melbourne acting as a portal for self growth and discovery as well as a distilled representation of the settler colony.
IN DEVELOPMENT:
CODED
CODED, a new First Nations femme queer contemporary dance work that explores the embedding of queerness within landscapes in fear of personification of physicalized queerness.
This work and research will attempt to decode the delicate weaving of resistance and fear to unravel and re-weave her queerness with love, acceptance, and openness. CODED will be created from the lens of Amelia’s Gamilaroi understanding of the world, spirituality, culture, and history; as well as her experience in queer communities and urban/suburban life. O’Leary was commissioned to develop her new work CODED for the Queer Development Program by Performance Space in Sydney May 2024.
A 15 minute version of CODED was presented along side two other fifteen minute works by O’Leary in ‘CODED: A NIGHT OF QUEER STORYTELLING,’ (JAN 2025)
Ngambaa I’m Tired
Ngambaa, I’m Tired (Ngambaa means Mother in Gamilarraay language). A Gamilaroi First Nations Queer artist, Amelia utilises theatre, dance, writing, sound and film to alchemise her diverse ensemble’s response to the increasing pressure to function and produce in a failing society. The company seeks original expressions that refuse the silent lack of care for their existence – a healthy prosperity of storytelling and dance that hopes to shift perspectives and create softnesss.
A 15 minute version of Ngambaa was presented along side two other fifteen minute works by O’Leary in ‘CODED: A NIGHT OF QUEER STORYTELLING,’ (JAN 2025)
I LOVE YOU
‘Winangaylanha nagoya nginuha’ I LOVE YOU is a queer femme group dance work that explores the experiences of queer femmes, relationship, queer loneliness and culture. With a play on diverse realistic queer experiences and not just queer fantasy.
‘Winangaylanha nagoya nginuha’ translates to 'I love you' in Gamilaaraay)
A 15 minute version of I LOVE YOU was presented along side two other fifteen minute works by O’Leary in ‘CODED: A NIGHT OF QUEER STORYTELLING,’ (JAN 2025)
TOGETHER
Together is an inter-cultural dance performance that conjures the ancestral presence of human
and non-human kin, through the meeting and co-existing of four pan-indigenous dance
artists.
This project is a collaborative and co-led initiative involving Bella Waru (Ngāti Tukorehe,
Taranaki Tūturu), Danni Cook (Ngāpuhi), Amelia O’Leary (Gamilaroi Yinarr) and Karlia Cook
(Ngāpuhi). It is grounded in the rich tapestry of kinship-based indigenous knowledge, linking
all of existence in mutually beneficial relationship across deep time and space. Through the
process of making and researching this work, we are constantly cultivating and deepening
our personal connection with ancestral beings that exist within and around our bodies,
alongside the meeting and journeying of our collective bodies. Existing together, journeying
together, honouring together.
https://www.instagram.com/ausdancetheatre/reel/C8n2d5lynEf/
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