White Lies – in development
Desert Hothouse – GUTS Dance Central Australia
Australia (as we know it) is built on the legal fiction of terra nullius (land belonging to no-one, the basis of the British claim to possession of Australia). Sovereignty has never been ceded and Australia is the only Commonwealth country without a Treaty with their First Nations peoples. Many of these policies have affected Katina and others’ own ancestors directly and have left lasting effects on the systemic and cultural landscape we know, understand, operate within and still benefit from today. Whilst some might inherit stolen wealth, others inherit intergenerational trauma. White Lies attempts to show the disparity between truth and a lie and one version of history versus another whilst asking: “if we muzzle the truth of the land and its people, how are we to learn and understand how to care for it and live within it?”.
Choreographers: Katina Olsen, Frankie Snowdon and Madeleine Krenek
Sound Composition/Design: Serina Pech
Lighting Design: Jen Hector
Set Design: Elliat Rich
Dramaturge: Ashleigh Musk
Producer: Art Oracle, Erica McCalman
Creative Consultant: Angela Flynn
Preparing Ground – in development
By Marilyn Miller (Kukuyalanji and Waanyi), Jasmin Sheppard (Tagalaka and Kurtitjar) & Katina Olsen (Wakka Wakka and Kombumerri).
Produced by BlakDance.
Preparing Ground is a powerful First Nations-led independent contemporary dance project by leading choreographers Marilyn Miller, Jasmin Sheppard and Katina Olsen.
Employing a framework founded on a deep relationship between humans and environment, Preparing Ground is an urgent call to action to us all to address colonisation’s impacts on Country, language, people and place through First Nations knowledges.
It will feature a dance work for mainstage presentation alongside audience engagement activities chosen and led by local First Nations knowledge holders to platform local responses to the project’s themes.
Preparing Ground is currently in creative development.
more info: https://www.blakdance.org.au/profile-projects/preparing-ground
Woman’s Work
The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
Friday 16 June 2023, 7pm
Saturday 17 June 2023, 2pm and 5pm
A woman’s work is never done.
But what is a woman’s work today?
Anya and Katina connect with five inspirational Australian women from their communities, as a way to begin to unpack and rediscover what this phrase means today.
Woman’s Work is an evolving work for the real and digital world. Site-specific and adaptable, the work integrates a kaleidoscope of image, movement and sound including dance-film, live dance performance, and seven moving video portraits of Australian women.
From land to flesh and back to land Katina and Anya uncover and share stories, discovering the relentless beauty and hopeful determination that exist within a woman’s work.
This project is cumulative, this is just the beginning, its structure is built to be infinite, eventually including more female-identifying voices. This project is our contribution to the ever complex and indescribable work that women do.
Sunshine Super Girl
2020 – 2022 Griffith Regional Theatre, Sydney Festival – Sydney Town Hall and National Tour (Darwin Festival, Northern Festival Centre – Port Pirie, Fiddleback Arts Centre – Whyalla, State Theatre Company South Australia, Playhouse, QPAC Brisbane, HOTA Gold Coast, Geelong Arts Centre, Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Arts House Wyong, Wollongong Town Hall, Merrigong Theatre Company, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, Melbourne Theatre Company.
Creator & Director Andrea James
Movement Director & Additional Choreography Katina Olsen
Original Choreographic Concept & Initial Movement Direction Vicki Van Hout
Composition & Sound Design Gail Priest
Lighting Design Karen Norris
Set & Costume Design Romanie Harper
Dramaturg Louise Gough
Mentor Paige Rattray
Video Media Design Mic Gruchy
Production Manager Jason Thelwell
Produced by Performing Lines
Namu Nunar – Yonder Festival
Yonder Festival
30 November 2019
https://yonderfestival.com/katina-olsen/
Choreography and performance Katina Olsen
Composer Cameron Bruce
Videography MO Productions, Merryn Trescott & Jamie Connor // @m_oproductions
Namu Nunar has received contributions to artist fees through Critical Path / Mirramu, AusDance QLD’s Bell Tower Residency supported by BlakDance, ReadyMade’s Happy Hour and Bundanon’s First Peoples Residency. Namu Nunar has also received space support through Legs on the Wall Spark #3 Residency and Campbelltown Arts Centre’s Floor Plan.
Namu Nunar was developed in consultation with Wakka Wakka Elder Aunty Evonne Chapman and stories shared from my Great Grandfather Colin Wagg.
Mother’s Cry – Sydney Dance Company
New Breed 2018, commissioned by Sydney Dance Company
29 November – 8 December 2018
Carriageworks, Sydney
https://www.sydneydancecompany.com/productions/new-breed-2018/#.XB8QSC1L3OQ
Choreography Katina Olsen in collaboration with the cast and Pre-Professional Year dancers
Composer Cameron Bruce
Costume Design and Realisation Aleisa Jelbart
Lighting Design Alexander Berlage
Cast Chloe Leong, Chloe Young, Emily Seymour, Janessa Dufty, Jesse Scales and Josie Weise
Photography and Video Pedro Greig
Our time on Earth has come to an end. This is the space between, the clouds are strings that guide us to the sky.
As told by the Elders, the night sky is where you find the stars that are the campfires of our ancestors.
Is it here where we gain perspective to reflect and see how we’ve tread on our mother?
I’d like to acknowledge Wakka Wakka Elders Colin Wagg and Aunty Yvonne Chapman, and Emerald and Clinton Brewer (Kombumerri Custodians) for your cultural guidance. Heartfelt thanks to Cameron Bruce for helping shape this world through his musical score.
namu nunar (mother, mountain, sky) – Festival 2018
Commonwealth Games Festival 2018
Saturday 14 April, 3:45pm
The Circle, Cultural Forecourt, South Bank, Meanjin (Brisbane)
https://www.gc2018.com/event/namu-nunar-mother-mountain-sky
Choreography and performance: Katina Olsen
Composer: Cameron Bruce
I was told stories of land, the sky and the feminine connections.
One is the story of the Bunya Mountains and Namu; the mountain, her breast and the mother’s milk, the Bunya nut.
The Wakka Wakka people would travel to the Bunya Mountains to feast on the Bunya nut when they were in season. Many people from surrounding areas would also travel to the mountains where they would all meet and feast on the nut.
My Aunt spoke of the clouds that sit on the mountains and that these are called Namu. They are the strings that carry our loved one’s spirit away to the sky once they have passed.
Nunar is the Wakka Wakka word for sky but also the same word for clouds, Namu is the mountain which is also the breast. The mother gives life and then sends the passed life to the sky.
We are the sky, we are the stars.
I dearly thank my Wakka Wakka Elder Aunty Evonne Chapman for sharing this story and also thank my other Wakka Wakka and Kombumerri Elders for their guidance, support and wisdom. This work is dedicated to my mother Warru.
This research has been supported by Critical Path and Mirramu First Nations Residency.
Yalu Dad – Festival 2018
Blak Friday, Festival 2018
Festival Hub, South Bank, Meanjin (Brisbane)
Friday 13 April, 5 – 10pm (I’m on around 9:45pm)
https://www.gc2018.com/event/yalu-dad
One an Aboriginal man, the other a white Australian; Katina intertwines and embodies both dance histories of her two father figures from two different bloodlines.
Her Great Grandfather, a Wakka Wakka man, was a drover who not only wasn’t able to practice his own cultural dances but also wasn’t allowed to enter dance halls in his youth.
Her direct father, an Australian of Norwegian and British heritage celebrated Australia’s 1988 Bicentenary year on an official Tall Ship dancing away on Sydney Harbour with Katina as the youngest crew member aboard, one year old.
Merging these two distinctively contrasting and ironic dance histories of her patrilineal bloodlines, we go on a journey of nostalgia delving into Australia’s historical truths.
From the Australian Dance Award Nominated show DADS choreographed by Dance Makers Collective with direction by Miranda Wheen; Dance Makers Collective member Katina Olsen presents her story of her own Dad’s dance histories.
min min – QUT Dance ’17
Dance ’17, Queensland University of Technology 3rd Year Graduation Performance
Gardens Theatre, Brisbane
31 October – 4 November 2017
http://www.gardenstheatre.qut.edu.au/whatson/2017/dance17.jsp
Choreography: Katina Olsen
Performers: QUT 3rd year Graduating Students
Sound: Norrlands Riviera, School of Kraut and Favour of the Season by Peter, Bjorn and John. Remixed and edited by The Mattmosphere.
Lighting Design: Glenn Hughes
…surface, glow, fear, night, follow, darkness, light, hear… here?
What is thought of as dark can also be light, emerging from the land to return once again. They look after you but must also be feared as they will hold us accountable with lessons to learn or messages to give.
Thank you to the dancers for going on this journey with me, my ancestors for letting me know you’re always there and everyone along my path for sharing about the spirits of the Min Min light.
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Turrbal and Jagera people of Meanjin on which this work was created and performed.