Birds With Skymirrors

Overview

Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio was struck with the inspiration to create Birds With Skymirrors while working on the remote Micronesian island of Tarawa. There he witnessed giant Man of War birds with strips of glinting black video tape dangling from their mouths, at once a symbol of beauty and of the devastating oceanic pollution that effects even the most “untouched” parts of the world.

The resulting production is a melancholy depiction of that tiny Kiribati island in the time of climate change. Traditional I-Kiribati dances, which are modelled on the movements of those same birds Ponifasio saw in the sky, are combined with dramatic lighting, film footage and chanting, intensifying the beauty and the anguish of the island’s inhabitants at the same time.

Following performances at Théâtre de la Villa in Paris and the Edinburgh International Festival in the UK, this is the Australian debut of this emotive composition.