The Complication of Lyrebirds is a new dance by Jasmin Sheppard bringing a deeply personal story to Campbelltown Arts Centre in January as part of the Sydney Festival.
The dance draws from her own experience and her family roots looking at questions surrounding Aboriginal identity through the story of the lyrebird.
Lyrebirds are most notable for their ability to perfectly mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment in order to appear attractive and find a mate. However, there is a deeper and more authentic identity to the bird.
Jasmin Sheppard Source: Patl Tyrell
Like the lyrebird, Indigenous people often face external pressures to prove their ‘blackness’, or to adopt different ways of talking and appearing.
