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NT's Zorba troupe dreaming of Greece

Rosemary Sorensen

3 April 2008 - THE group of Aboriginal dancers whose version of the Zorba dance became a hit video on the internet has been invited to Greece.

The Chooky Dancers, from Elcho Island off Arnhem Land, first decided to beef up their performance of indigenous dance at a festival in the Northern Territory. A video of the Zorba-goes-indigenous act was posted on the web. Since then, the Chooky Dancers have had 700,000 hits on the video-sharing site, YouTube.

The Yolngu community group's organisers, Frank and Margaret Djirrimbilpilwuy, said Chooky was invited to a Greek festival this year, but declined, because it coincided with the group's appearance at a multicultural festival at Hervey Bay, Queensland, at the weekend.

"But we're hoping we can say yes and go to Greece next year because the Greeks love us," Mr Djirrimbilpilwuy said yesterday in Brisbane, where the dancers are giving a series of impromptu concerts this week.

"It was totally the boys' idea", said Mr Djirrimilpilwuy, whose son and grandson both dance with Chooky. "I came home one day and they were dancing to the Zorba music. People just love it, and now they go wild when Chooky performs their contemporary dance."

The nine dancers, whose ages range from 14 to 36, were shy and cautious when they performed traditional dances on the lawns outside the creative industries faculty of Queensland University of Technology. But when a disco beat started, they grinned and played to the crowd, swivelling their hips and creating their own blend of traditional and contemporary.

When the tape played the song My Superman, the Chookies swayed and punched the air.

Wayne Denning, from Carbon Media, which filmed the Chooky Dancers at the Hervey Bay festival and helped organise their visit to Brisbane, said they were unlike any indigenous dancers he had seen. "We wanted to help them come to Brisbane because they are too good to miss out on," Denning said.

Mr Djirrimilpilwuy said: "I'm very proud of what these boys are doing, and I don't want to see someone spoil them. We want people to hear good stories coming out of our communities, not just the bad ones saying we're all drunks. We want people to know the boys are doing well."

Mr Djirrimilpilwuy said there was also an Elcho Island troupe of girl dancers, whose specialty was line-dancing.

Source: The Australian

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