Famed Australian dance company shuns ‘ooga booga’ LETTER 07/13/2011

Famed Australian dance company shuns ‘ooga booga’

LETTER

07/13/2011
SYDNEY — Australia’s Aboriginal dance company Bangarra has won global accolades but says it has been a victim of its own success in terms of funding at home and at times faces demands for “ooga booga” abroad.

Formed in 1989, the Bangarra Dance Theatre is the country’s foremost indigenous performing arts company and is often called on to be Australia’s cultural ambassador at major events.

But the troupe, which performs everywhere from remote Australian outback communities to the likes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, carries a significant but underfunded cultural load, said executive director Catherine Baldwin..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110713com5.html