merrepen arts festival | the festival

2010 | 2009 | 2008
art sale and auction | fi weaving tours

the festival 2010

As well as the usual ever popular art sale and auction and the fi weaving tours (for more information see links above), there will be a special performance at 12.30pm Sunday 6 June by the Chooky Dancers.

Photo: Todd Condie, Courtesy of the NLC

	The Chooky Dancers Fresh from sold out performances and standing ovations at the Adelaide Festival of Arts and the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne The Chooky Dancers are back in the NT and are performing at the Merrepen Festival for the first time. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see the sensational Chooky Dancers on Sunday June 6! The Chooky Dancers, a group of young Aboriginal men from Elcho Island took the world by storm a few years ago on You-Tube with their interpretation of Zorba the Greek with a sort of chook shuffle. It’s estimated that their hilarious performance has been viewed by over 365,000 people on YouTube.
Over the last few years the Chooky Dancers have taken their talents from the basketball court that also acts as a stage in remote communities to the major venues and festivals across Australia. Recently they have teamed up with Joshua Bond (Manager of The Chooky Dancers & Associate Director of Ngurrumilmarrmiriw – Wrong Skin) and Nigel Jamieson the creator of the unforgettable Tin Symphony performed as part the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics as well as the closing ceremony of the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games to create the show Ngurrumilmarrmiriw (Wrong Skin). This Romeo and Juliet like story of forbidden love, skin and clan “fuses traditional culture, dance, film and comedy with everyday influences that face the Chooky Dancers like rapid fire digital technology, the hugely popular Saturday night discos, random Taiwanese martial art videos and vivacious Bollywood flicks”. Ngurrumilmarrmiriw (Wrong Skin) will have its Northern Territory premier at this years Darwin Festival.
The success of the Chooky Dancers, who speak English only as their second or third language and live on a remote island at the top of the Arnhem Land is inspirational and these young men hope they will be seen as role models in indigenous communities struggling with alcohol and drug abuse.
Lionel Djirrimbilpilwuy, 21 — who came up with the idea to fuse Zorba the Greek with traditional dancing from his Yolngu clan — said its "It's fantastic the world wants to see us dance……It's incredible!"
In memory of Frank.