When Daniel Riley was 12 years old, he started dancing with Canberra's QL2 Dance company.
Now, as the first First Nations artistic director for Australian Dance Theatre, Riley returns to the capital and he's bringing current QL2 performers along for the ride.
Riley's first major work since becoming artistic director, Savage, is on at the Canberra Theatre. Along with the Australian Dance Theatre performers, it features nine young QL2 performers.
"I always liked this idea of this work spanning not just the Australian Dance Theatre company," Riley said.
"The idea of the work is, wherever we go, we engage nine young people from that place, who live on that land that we perform on and open the door to the concepts of the work.
"I think the young people of this generation are incredibly intelligent. They are bold in many ways, the way that they're questioning the world and history and politics. And so it's important that we can open doors to hard conversations."
The work itself is an exploration of the notions of myth and identity, examining fundamental belief systems, turning the spotlight on those who hold the power of storytelling and challenging the audience to question their blind obedience.
"We've had audiences come through Adelaide who have seen different things in the work and I think there's something interesting and powerful about that, because contemporary dance is the most instinctual form of art, in my opinion," Riley said.
"So audience members bring their own sense of history or ideas or knowledge to the space and they see different things in the work.
"But we're in a really interesting point and where we are at with Australian Dance Theatre, with me being the first First Nations artistic director in the theatre's 57-year history. I can be asking these questions, and I can be putting these questions and these themes on stage in a contemporary, powerful way."
It is not lost on Riley what this new position with Australian Dance Theatre means. It places him in a position of opportunity and power, and in a lot of ways, he is representing his Wiradjuri community and the wider First Nations community.
"I'm out representing them and making sure that I'm doing them justice and making them proud," Riley said.
"Dance is the oldest form of storytelling we have. So for me, I'm grateful and fortunate that I get to use dance as an art form to connect to my cultural identity but I get to use it as a storytelling tool," Riley said.
Savage is at the Canberra Theatre on Friday. For tickets go to canberratheatrecentre.com.au.
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