"The Ishar Multi cultural Centre for Women’s Health operates with a working style that focuses on the healing of lifestyle related problems that detrimentally affect the health and well-being of women of all ages, particularly these from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The name Ishar was adopted by the Centre and means ‘women’ in one language and is close to ‘mother’ and earth in others.

With these principles in mind, and with the support form Community Arts Network WA, Ishar collaborated with the Living Dance Institute to create a community dance project, Ran Away, to facilitate an awareness of refugee issues in Australia and more specifically in Western Australia. Ishar’s vision is that their services should place an emphasis on health and healing, happiness and peace that would meet the real health requirements of women from different cultural backgrounds. Part of this process of healing included the creation of Ran Away by clients of Ishar’s centre.

Working with choreographer Rebecca Byrne of the Living Dance Institute, twenty migrant women of varying ages from the Middle East, Iran, Iran, Africa, Europe and Asia spent eight months piecing together their stories and working on the confidence and courage many required to perform in front of an audience. Project co-ordinator Violetta Sukoski, noted that Ran Away conveys the central truth of the experience of a refugee. “Leaving home is a painful and often dangerous thing for every refugee. Many refugees leave once happy homes, extended families, property and wealth, careers, position and status, all left behind only because they are forced to”, she said.

Under the direction of Brian Balen, four heart wrenching stories were scripted from the experiences of the women and recorded by Undaground Records. These recordings provided the haunting backbone to the performance as the performers, with no formal dance training, moved in a small space, recreating the stories of there lives and exploring the tragedy, hope and courage of their journeys and eventual integration into society. Sukoski commented, “I feel that the production has enabled refugee women to communicate their story in the open and let the community know the troubles they experienced in order to come to our country. I believe that through this production we have been able to create strong friendships between women with different cultures and experiences. The women have gained a lot of confidence and feel that now they are able to achieve a lot more in life. They have gained a lot of respect from friends and families and because of this they are willing to give a lot more to the community.”

The underpinning philosophy behind the work was a notion the “nobody chooses to be a refugee”. Costumed entirely in black, the performance employed multi cultural dance forms, drama and the intensity of the spoken word and recorded voices to take the audience on a journey into the extraordinary and often devastating lives of the performers."

Article written by Kate Boyle
and published in August/September
edition of Dance West Ausdance WA.

Special thanks to Brian Balen
Email: brian.balen@iinet.net.au