Marrugeku

Marrugeku is Australia’s leading Indigenous intercultural dance theatre company, based in the remote town of Broome, North Western Australia and in Sydney. Marrugeku is led by co-artistic directors: Yawuru/Bardi woman and choreographer/ dancer Dalisa Pigram, and Celtic-settler director/dramaturg/researcher Rachael Swain. Working together for three decades, they co-conceive and facilitate Marrugeku’s productions and research laboratories, introducing audiences to the unique and potent structures of Indigenous knowledge systems and the compelling experience of intercultural performance. Marrugeku’s performers come from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, collaborating to co-create each production. Marrugeku harnesses the dynamic of performance exchange drawn from remote, urban, intercultural and trans-Indigenous approaches to expand the possibilities of contemporary dance. Their productions tour throughout urban and remote Australia, to other Indigenous contexts, internationally and throughout the world. Some of their recent works are Cut the Sky (2015 & 2024) co-choregraphed with Serge Aimé Coulibaly and Jurrungu Ngan-ga (2022) with forth coming new work in progress Ngurragabu (2026). Together, Swain and Pigram have co-curated Marrugeku’s four Australian-Pacific Indigenous Intercultural Choreographic Labs (2009-2015) and two multi-modal dramaturgy research laboratories: ‘Dance and Cultural Dramaturgies in Contested Lands’ (2022-23). marrugeku.com.au