mimi

The Marrugeku Company was founded in 1994 specifically for the project Mimi and based on an original idea by choreographer Michael Leslie. Mimi was commissioned and produced by Festival of Perth 1996.

Mimi explores the relationship between humans and the spirit world. It is a metaphorical journey which takes place over a single night where spirits and humans meet at significant points through time. Performed by five stilt dancers, three traditional Kunwinjku dancers, three Kunwinjku musicians and with narrations by storyman Thompson Yulidjirri. Since its creation, Mimi has been presented throughout Australia and the world to great acclaim. The production was Australia’s ambassador at the World Expo in Hannover in 2000, as well as welcoming in the new millennium live from Uluru during the ABC’s New Year’s Eve coverage.

Mimi was developed as a collaboration between the performers of Stalker, contemporary Indigenous dancers and musicians from Western Australia and the traditional Aboriginal dancers, musicians and painters from the Kunwinjku tribe of Western Arnhem Land. Mimi’s extraordinary success, in Australian arts festivals, remote Aboriginal communities and international arts festivals is a measure of Marrugeku’s early achievement in synthesizing contemporary and traditional practices into dynamic performance.

Mimi was acclaimed worldwide. Audiences and critics are alike in agreeing on its astonishing skill, beauty and lyricism. The reception at the Olympics Arts Festival of Dreaming in Sydney, where it played to over 13,000 people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, was further evidence of the power and beauty of the production universally regarded as the success of that extraordinary event.