On Friday night we went to the Opera House to see ' Wrong Skin."
Performed by "The Chooky Dancers", from a remote Northern Territory island north-east of Arnhem Land, who were the world's unlikeliest cyberspace superstars in 2007. A three-minute clip uploaded onto YouTube [Click Here] showed the young indigenous men interpreting the classic Zorba the Greek the Yolngu way – on an outdoor basketball court wearing nothing more than colourful loin cloths and white body paint.
Nigel Jamieson (award winning theatre-maker) saw the clip while pulling together the program for the opening-night ceremony of the 2009 Sydney Festival.
He immediately booked the troupe, who flew to Sydney to perform in front of 40,000 ecstatic festival-goers.
After securing a commission to further work with the Chookies, as they're affectionately known, Jamieson made four trips over 18 months to the traditional community 550km east of Darwin to create an indigenous take on the age-old Romeo and Juliet love story.
Ok I didn't write that (but I could have). It was great. In parts strange but well worth seeing.
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