In His First Major Productions As Artistic Director, Australian Dance Theatre’s Daniel Riley Is Grappling With the Country’s Troubling Past, and Its Uncertain Future

Daniel Riley’s great-great-uncle was a tracker for the NSW Police Force. After working on Wiradjuri country for 40 years, he was sent back to a mission – without any form of pension. “He used his cultural knowledge of the land, but they paid him very little for it,” Riley says. “There was little mutual respect. Then, they closed the missions.”

Australia’s difficult history, and uncertain future, is what drives Riley and informs his work. He became the Australian Dance Theatre’s artistic director recently, when Garry Stewart left the company after 22 years at the helm, and his new production Tracker – which Riley composed himself and is inspired by the life of his ancestor – will be one of his first works in the role. “It’s a story of cultural resilience, and [of] how incredible icons like him lived and worked in that period, and walked in both worlds,” he says.

Tracker , which debuts later this year, will be performed in the round, incorporating dance, text, live music and visual art. An entirely First Nations creative team and cast is behind the production. Riley’s appointment is also unique: as a Wiradjuri man, he is the first Indigenous artistic director of the Australian Dance Theatre since the company’s founding in 1965. “It’s the first time that this has happened – not only at ADT, but also in the broader Australian contemporary dance scene,” he says.

But before Tracker comes to the stage, there will be Savage – Riley’s first major, full-length work as director, premiering later this month at the Dunstan Playhouse. The production will challenge audiences to confront blind obedience to power. “ Savage , for me, is about myth and identity. It’s the myth of the lies we are sold constantly,” says Riley. “This country was built on a lie: ‘terra nullius’ [a Latin expression for “nobody’s land”]. [This work is] looking at who is selling the lie, and why we’re believing it.” Riley will be dancing in the show, too – a freedom he feels he has been afforded by the support and encouragement of associate artistic director Sarah Jayne-Howard.

Savage aims not only to illuminate truths, but also to act as a call to action. “I read something the other day about changing the language of the curriculum, and some politicians were saying, ‘We don’t want to reference the invasion ’,” Riley says. “It makes me really mad, and it makes me think we could be a lot further along as a nation.”

Riley became a dancer at a young age, and his first exposure to ADT was at just 13 years old (he saw Garry Stewart’s Birdbrain). Since then his career has spanned everything from independent tours around Australia and internationally, as well as work with Bangarra Dance Theatre.

“There were five artistic directors [at ADT] before me. I acknowledge that legacy, and I acknowledge that I stand on their shoulders, but I’m not here to do what they did – I’m here to do something different,” he says. “I’m here to lead differently. I’m here to make different work. I’m here to say something about who we are as a nation now – and that’s purely because I’m leading by my Wiradjuri, First Nations lens. Everything I do … I don’t just turn it on and off, it’s who I am.”

When Broadsheet visits Riley at the ADT studio in Norwood, dancers have finished rehearsals for the day, each of them cheerfully calling out ‘Goodbye!’ as they step out. Fostering a positive environment is important to Riley: after all, he has the ability to give people a livelihood – something that’s not always a given in the arts.

“We are one of a handful of companies – I think there’s three or four in the country – who offer dancers full-time contracts,” Riley says. “I can play a part in the growth and expansion of the art form that I adore so very much, and I can play a small part in the careers of artists – giving them employment or shaping new and emerging artists … it’s incredibly exciting for me.”

Savage premieres on September 22 at the Dunstan Playhouse. It will run for a four-night season, before performances in Canberra on September 29 and 30. Tickets are available online

adt.org.au