stephen page

As the ABC celebrates its 90th birthday, we delve into our archives to revisit key moments in Australian performing arts history. Highlights include Laurence Olivier on tour, Nureyev and Fonteyn dancing into Australian hearts and Indigenous theatre taking centre stage.

Also, Ian McKellen makes his Australian debut, Dorothy Hewett revolutionises Australian playwriting, Philip Glass writes a piece for organ and didgeridoo and Joan Sutherland records a stupendous La Traviata in a 17th-century Italian theatre.

As the ABC celebrates its 90th birthday, we delve into our archives to revisit key moments in Australian performing arts history. Highlights include Laurence Olivier on tour, Nureyev and Fonteyn dancing into Australian hearts and Indigenous theatre taking centre stage.

Also, Ian McKellen makes his Australian debut, Dorothy Hewett revolutionises Australian playwriting, Philip Glass writes a piece for organ and didgeridoo and Joan Sutherland records a stupendous La Traviata in a 17th-century Italian theatre.

Elaine Crombie is a powerhouse of an actor and singer on stage and screen. Her new role sees her performing with Bangarra Dance Theatre in Wudjang: Not the Past — a co-production with the Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Festival.

Also, we're joined by Bangarra's artistic director Stephen Page and his recently announced successor Frances Rings and we visit Australian artists from Circa currently navigating a tangled web of border closures and health measures on tour in Europe.

The incredible Frances Rings, Bangarra's Associate Artistic Director, joins us on this episode of Talking Pointes. A descendant of the Kokatha people, Frances was born in Adelaide and spent her childhood traveling, dancing, and living all around Australia while her father worked on the railways. However, it was a teacher at her boarding school in Queensland that spotted her talent, and encouraged her to audition for NAISDA, the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association.

And so at 18 years of age, Frances boarded a Greyhound bus and traveled the 12 hours to Sydney. In this beautifully raw and personal interview, Frances talks about her journey into dance, her incredible career with Bangarra, and finding confidence in her own body. But Frances talks about more than that. Her onstage connection with the late Russell Page, becoming a mum, and the pressure but also the importance of not only being a female leader, but a First Nations female leader in dance in Australia.

Listen here or find us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

For our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners, this episode of Talking Pointes contains the names of people who have passed. Please pause now, if you'd prefer not to hear their names. The Page family have given Bangarra Dance Theatre permission to use their names for the purpose of this interview. And just a trigger warning for this episode, we discuss issues around suicide, so if you'd prefer not to listen or read, please press pause or stop reading now. 

Your host and producer is Claudia Lawson, additional production by Penelope Ford, with editing and sound production by Martin Peralta. And for the latest in all things dance, head to fjordreview.com.

Production dream team ✨

Hosted by @byclaudialawson

Produced by @fjordreview

Additional Production @clinttopic

Sound & Editing @outputmedia

Studios @brightsidesydney

@sawtoothstudios

Stephen Page is a force of nature. As artistic director for Bangarra Dance Theatre, he’s told the stories of Indigenous Australia through movement, for more than thirty years. Bangarra began in the late 80’s, but it was Stephen’s appointment as the first Aboriginal artistic director that shaped what it has become today. And the story of Bangarra is not only one of dance, but of brothers.

Stephen comes from a big family in Meanjin. A descendent of the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali clan of the Yugambeh Nation. Two of his brothers came with him to Sydney, to Gadigal Land, and would shape what he did from that moment forth. His younger brother Russell was renowned for his incredible talent, and a body that could express story like no other. Older brother David, was the songman. He composed beautiful scores to every Bangarra production, laced with language and culture, until his death in 2016.

Stephen has a big story, so I was hugely grateful when he joined me to Take 5 and share it. His theme, was unbroken songs. The music that had marked big moments in his life, and continued the stories of him and his culture. From Elvis to Rihanna to his brother’s beautiful compositions, this is a heartfelt conversation about family, storytelling, and passion.

Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock

Warumpi Band – Fitzroy Crossing

David Page – Gift (from Bangarra’s 2003 work “Bush”)

Whitney Houston – Why Does it Hurt So Bad

Rihanna – Love on the Brain

Stephen Page is a successful entrepreneur who has built and exited his own business, he has subsequently turned his hand to launching a fund, with Startup Funding Club, now called SFC Capital, which is a multi-award winning FCA regulated fund manager specialising in investing into early stage companies through the SEIS and EIS. Startup Funding Club is one of the most active early stage investors in the UK, with a portfolio of 200+ companies invested into to date.

Stephen discusses his philosophy in terms of investment, what he looks for in a company, and offers some handy hints and tips for founders and potential entrepreneurs for the characteristics that he looks for when making investments into companies and provides some history to his career and some of the things that he has done to form his investment philosophy.

A great episode with some really interesting stories which we hope you will enjoy!

Take away tips:
- Find people who can be your mentors
- Own the product not the licence, if you want to list on the markets
- Make sure that you have very strong agreements in place - particularly if you are distributing someone else's product
- When an exit comes around, take it - you never know what may be around the corner
- COVID is a big opportunity for people
- Investors have capital to invest, looking to use that
- Startups can be a great source of return
- If you have any idea of being an entrepreneur, now is the opportunity to do it
- Team up with other successful entrepreneurs, single founders are potentially a barrier to accessing funding, SFC prefer to invest in teams, 2 or 3 people that start a company together
- What SFC is looking for, is all about the people
- You have to get outside!

If you are looking for funding for your early stage business, or considering investing into early stage companies get in touch with SFC Capital today.

A wide range of perspectives in the boardroom is critical to effective corporate governance. Multiple views on the possible outcomes of any action makes for a decision-making process that is more likely to take into account the various risks, consequences and implications of possible actions. Progress has been made in recent years and for example gender diversity has increased. We now see a shift and realisation that diversity is more complex and what really is needed is to go beyond the labels and achieve cognitive diversity. 

In this podcast I am delighted to talk with Stephen Page Head of the EMEA Board Engagement at the NASDAQ Centre for Board Excellence about Board Performance & Cognitive Diversity in the Boardroom.

Stephen is is Head of EMEA Board Engagement, Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence. He has been a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute for over 25 years. During his career, Stephen has acted as director, corporate secretary, head of legal, and independent advisor for many UK and non-UK public and private companies, including professional service firms, multinationals and a UK development capital concern. Stephen established his own successful corporate compliance services business in the early 2000s, which was eventually sold to a Hong Kong Bank. In recent years, Stephen has spoken on many governance topics at a number of international conferences.

Our mission at Better Boards is to contribute to creating better boards. We do this by providing clients with an evidence-based approach for board evaluations and board development programmes. 

To fulfill our mission, we give a voice to all who are care about creating better boards. Every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month, I speak with insiders that have a seat on the table and those that provide professional services about topics that rank high on the agenda of boards.

How can we help you and your board to become more effective? We at Better Boards are always delighted to hear from you. Get in touch. You can best reach us on info@better-boards.com. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performers and creatives are finding mainstream audiences as never before. To mark NAIDOC Week, we revisit conversations with three prominent Indigenous artists: Rachael Maza, artistic director of Ilbijerri Theatre Company, and Stephen Page, artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, with his hugely talented son, Hunter Page-Lochard.

Bangarra Dance Theatre turn 30 this year and are marking the occasion with a triple bill called 30 Years of Sixty Five Thousand, Playwave aims to bring more young people into theatres by offering cheap tickets and special events for people under 20, contemporary circus company One Fell Swoop's new show Sensory Decadence indulges our senses, and audiences are invited to join the band in the ukulele musical Uked!