AustLit

'When you’re an artist from the world’s oldest living culture, expectations crowd your work. With gleeful humour and sharp observation, plenty serious TALK TALK clears a personal path through this tangled territory. Whether she’s stomping Country in thongs on concrete or using rugby league to explore the thorny politics of kinship protocols, choreographer Vicki Van Hout tackles hard issues of art, culture and community with fast-paced wit and arresting honesty.

plenty serious TALK TALK puts front-and-centre the parts of Indigenous art-making that usually remain behind the scenes. From the consultative process to intricate community obligations, Vicki skilfully lays bare the complexities of negotiating culture across disciplines, genres and eras.

Taking dance theatre and weaving in threads of stand-up, visual art, multimedia and performance, this production has dazzled and charmed audiences since its 2018 premiere. Throughout, Vicki’s droll narration is punctuated by the signature style of idiosyncratic Indigenous movement that has elevated her to one of the most respected tiers of Australian dance-making today.'

Source: Yirramboi Festival

'To live "Long Grass" is to live on the fringe, yet right in the middle of the city, the term referring to Aboriginal people perceived as being homeless, in the Northern Territory. But is living Long Grass a sign of disadvantage, or a choice, a refusal? Can honour, courage, solidarity and belonging exist outside a formal postcode and the trappings of stable living. Long Grasscombines live weaving methods, shadowplay, text, sparse video footage, an idiosyncratic dance language indicative of Australia's Northern Territory, and Viki's distinctive choreographic voice, finding warmth, humour and play in a situation so often seen as unremittingly bleak.' (Source: Intimatespectacle website)