Last week I had the absolute pleasure of hanging with a bunch of awesome, creative people in Coolangatta at a Choreographic and Dance Intensive. Dance artists travelled from across Australia to join the experience. There were four key facilitators, Adrianne Semmens, Sani Townson, Thomas Kelly and myself.

The gathering was facilitated by Karul Projects, Queensland’s premiere Indigenous dance company, based on Minjungbal Jogun and drawing from stories and cultural dances of this area, within the Yugambeh Language Region.

A little bit about Karul:

Started by Thomas E.S. Kelly and Taree Sansbury in 2017, Karul Projects is a performing arts company with a focus to increase First Nations’ voices, visibilities and stories locally, nationally and internationally.

Karul is a Yugambeh Language word which means ‘Everything’. Named so because Karul will do everything it can to strengthen and empower the cultural knowledge of this land so future generations continue to be proud and learn from Australia’s rich First Nations’ heritage.

Additionally, ‘Karul’ represents our works. Alongside our grounding medium of dance we also use Karul/Everything that we feel best suits the story and information we are sharing incorporating theatre, film, projection, animation, singing and more.

The experience started We connected, shared and created as we came together to dance! It has been a while since I have been in the studio for full days and this has inspired me to find more opportunities to tune into. my body and share my practice.

Karul Projects is a performing arts company with a focus to increase First Nations’ voices, visibilities and stories locally, nationally and internationally.