Bangarra Dance Theatre Announces New Company Dancer
Bangarra Dance Theatre is thrilled to announce the appointment of a new company dancer, Emily Flannery, a proud Wiradjuri woman from Forbes in the Central West of NSW.
Emily began dancing from a young age, and decided to pursue her love of dance and further her studies and her connection to culture at NAISDA Dance College. While at NAISDA, Emily was fortunate enough to spend time in both Yolngu and Moa Island communities. Emily was the recipient of the Young Regional Artist Scholarship (YRAS), which enabled her to spend five months at Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel during her final year of study in 2018.
Since graduating, Emily has performed with Opera Australia, Phunktional Arts, Catapult Choreographic Hub, Ensemble Offspring and Karul Projects, and collaborated with Cloe Fournier, Katina Olsen and Yolande Brown.
Emily was an Artist in Residence at PACT Theatre with the Lost All Sorts Collective and was also a recipient of the Joanne Harris Graduate Scholarship program. In December 2020, Emily was announced as the 2021 First Nations intern with Lucy Guerin.
In 2019, Emily was the recipient of DirtyFeet Choreographic Lab, which enabled her to begin her choreographic journey. This pathway allowed her to develop work Bulnuruwanha (Taking Flight), which was supported by DirtyFeet’s Out of The Studio 2020, AusDance DAIR, Central Coast Council, ReadyMade Works and Guts Dance. Bulnuruwanha will be presented in October 2021.
As an emerging Indigenous dancer and choreographer, Emily hopes to share her culture and her spirit through movement.
Bangarra Associate Artistic Director, Frances Rings, said “Emily is an intelligent, gifted and artistically vibrant young woman who stands proudly in her Wiradjuri heritage. Her optimism, enthusiasm and work ethic is inspirational. Both Stephen and I proudly welcome her to Bangarra and look forward to the many creative journeys that lay ahead.”
Emily will perform her debut with Bangarra in SandSong: Stories from the Great Sandy Desert at the Sydney Opera House in June 2021, before embarking on the national tour.
