Marrow (Carriageworks) ★★★★

Choreographed by Daniel Riley with Australian Dance Theatre’s Company Artists. Australian Dance Theatre. Carriageworks. 10-12 Jul, 2025.

Australian Dance Theatre’s new work, Marrow, hits the ears like a rave and the heart like a punch. Much of this power comes from the work of Kaurna and Narungga dancer Karra Nam.

It starts as many dance pieces do, with an empty stage. Off to the side, a small, solo branch sticks out of the wall with a single blue fairy-wren, the Waatji Pulyeri, sitting on it. As the beats (by Jaadwa composer James Howard—available to purchase on vinyl) begin and the dancers enter, the stage transforms into a contemporary club-like space. The ADT ensemble (Joshua Doctor, Yilin Kong, Zachary Lopez, Karra Nam, Patrick O’Luanaigh and Zoe Wozniak), dressed in loose garments by Ailsa Paterson that add momentum to their movements, divide and recombine in different formations.

Daniel Riley plays with visual textures that have a visceral edge—from ethereal smoke that can be both beautiful and menacing, to a sheet of black fabric that introduces clean lines or a tortured, twisted body depending on how it is used. Marrow hits its peak as the dancers torture the fabric, binding it with plastic ties and hanging it from a hook while the soundtrack blasts a loud, discordant screech (as a middle-aged person, I wished I’d brought some concert earplugs). Then silence, as Karra Nam rescues the form, gently flattens it back out and cleanses it with smoke. The juxtaposition of this mournful, silent movement after the propulsive dance hits hard.

Rooted in ritual and born from the defeat of the Voice to Parliament, Marrow carries layers of meaning and emotion—from our divided society to the pain we cause others and how this pain is taken back out into the world. But for all the anger within its beats, you don’t leave feeling enraged or berated—you leave feeling a sadness. As Nam storms off the stage while the others keep dancing, our eyes are drawn back to the wren on the branch—a symbol with added layers of meaning that you might not at first expect (definitely check out the digital program for more).

Marrow has something to say, and it does so with clarity, but even the message doesn’t upstage the work on stage. Riley and the ensemble create ever-evolving pieces of visual art that are exciting to watch in the moment and will stay with you long after.