Yamatji Calisto stage two dance workshops for youth and elders prepare performers for 2024’s FROLIC Opera

Stage two of bringing the Indigenous story-telling opera Yamatji Calisto to life is under way, with an award-winning dancer taking the workshop reins this week. Italian art director Aaron Carpene returned to Geraldton on Sunday for the second round of dance workshops and preparation for the final FROLIC performance set to take place in 2024. In August, Carpene, musician/stage director Stefano Vizioli and soprano Gemma Bertagnolli travelled from Rome for 10 days to share and learn culture with the Yamatji people in Geraldton and Mullewa. This week, award-winning dancer, choreographic facilitator and workshop leader Claudia Alessi visited Geraldton to conduct four workshops with elders and young Indigenous youth. Alessi said she was immersed in dance for the last 30 years locally, remotely, nationally and globally. “When a project comes my way and it ignites some sort of spark of excitement or inspiration I grab it,” she said. Lucia Richardson, 15, is a Amangu dancer from the Yamatji nation and began dancing when she was just three years old. On Wednesday, Alessi and Lucia practised dancing to a Yamatji poem taken from a recently published book written by local author Charmaine Papertalk Green. My eyes dance between the rain receiving trees and the paintingCross waters spread across country to touch what needs healingCountry — Boodjar, Barna — determines water’s movement across it Just like the energy it gives us to heal when we go on countryIf you can see country’s story or message with your heart, you healIf you can have a yarn with country and receive this energy, you heal. “We had a session of what I’d call the elders of the community, we worked on the idea of igniting movement and how that comes to the body through cellular memory,” Alessi said. “We worked on this idea of what movement is and how you can emulate a really simple action like breaststroke through water.” Primary school students from Geraldton joined the Youth Performance Workshop on Wednesday afternoon when Alessi invited the children to write the word Yamatji through dance. Yamaji Art manager Roni Kerley said the workshops allowed the elders and youth to use their bodies to tell a story. “Sometimes the message we want to convey can’t be said, but we can definitely impart our knowledge and connection to culture and country through the way we move,” she said. “Everyone’s engagement in the process was inspiring and it’s made me want to take things a lot further and build a legacy of performance in the community.”