Carly grew up in a cult. The experience partly inspired her latest show

Dancer and choreographer Carly Sheppard joined forces with Alisdair Macindoe to create the "made-up magical land" of The Shepherds. (Supplied: Tiffany Garvie) Link copiedShareShare articleCarly Sheppard met her choreographic partner in a field. She was at a golf course in Torquay for an event to mark the 100th Sidney Myer Fellowship. Past recipients like Sheppard were invited to apply for funding to create a new work. "Alisdair Macindoe came up to me and was like, 'Hey, we don't really know each other, but do you want to apply for this thing together?'" Sheppard tells ABC Radio National's Awaye!. "I'm a Sheppard too on my mum's side," Macindoe continued. "Let's explore that." Together Sheppard and Macindoe created a darkly comedic choreographic work about a pair of lost sheep in a slaughter paddock, The Shepherds, set to premiere this week at the inaugural Australian Dance Biennale as part of Melbourne arts festival Rising. Sheppard — a descendant of the Takalaka people of North Queensland — was thrilled by the coincidence of meeting Macindoe. It brought to mind the idea of being a visitor on someone else's land — a feeling she has living in Melbourne. Having grown up off Country and without learning her language or dances, Sheppard feels like an "orphan of the colony". "[That's what] I'm exploring in this work," she says. "Alisdair is [also] exploring his place, but [there's] also the symbolism of us working together, both settlers in Melbourne, but him being a settler in [Australia]." Their dance work explores many ideas of what it means to be a "shepherd". For Sheppard, the idea is linked to the cult she grew up in. "The concept of a shepherd to me is a Judaeo-Christian biblical concept that is connected to a bunch of trauma and some serious schisms in my upbringing," she says. "It is also reflective of what has happened to our people: the missions, missionaries, the idea there is a deity who has given one group of people dominion over others." All these ideas could've meant The Shepherds felt overstuffed. But Sheppard says she and Macindoe found an elegant solution. "We created a cult and a ceremonial event for this cult, and it's pretty cool and intense. "You can build this thing for the stage, but actually what you're building is the ceremony. The work itself is the ceremony." The Shepherds is in some ways an artistic homecoming for Sheppard. "What's been such a blessing about this situation and Alisdair wanting to work with me is it is in line with my commitment that I made to start dancing again and start choreographing again," she says. Sheppard trained in dance and choreography at NAISDA Dance College and Victorian College of the Arts, but, over the years, her relationship to dance became "rocky" and she leaned more towards experimental performance and acting. Sheppard often works with Jagera/Butchulla director and performer Kamarra Bell-Wykes and Quandamooka sound designer small sound in the collective A Daylight Connection. (Supplied) "There's a lot of craft that goes along with it. I like working with voice and sound design and I like to build my own sets. I like to do sculpture. The opportunity to co-choreograph and perform with Macindoe arrived just as Sheppard had the urge to dance again. "What I am already getting out of it is an entrance back in and a way to build my skills up again after years," Sheppard says. Having a collaborator to bounce ideas off has been invaluable. What happens when a computer tells dancers to "do an unexpected yoga session on a moving train"? New Australian show Plagiary explores the intersection of AI and dance. "[Macindoe] has this mathematical brain," Sheppard says. "I can really nerd out on his way of choreographing because it's a similar way that I would think about choreography, especially for small, gestural things. "Also, what I love about Alisdair is we have the same sense of humour, and that's a really beautiful way to follow ideas through — through laughter." It feels potent that Sheppard has been programmed in the first Australian Dance Biennale as she returns to dance for the first time in several years. "It's amazing and awesome, and I feel really lucky," she says. "There's just a lot of gratitude that I've been able to get to a point where I'm being programmed." Despite the "pinch myself moment", Sheppard is sensitive to the fact that both she and her co-choreographer are visitors to the Kulin Nations. "I really value talking about my First Nations-ness as a hybrid experience," Shepherd says. "It's not this mono-experiential thing." (Supplied: Tiffany Garvie) "When you are on a program and your position is representing First Nations, it is a sensitive thing because you can't help but look at the fact that you're a settler in the Country that you live on," she says. She hopes to see more First Nations artists in future dance biennales. "I'm really looking forward to the future of the Dance Biennale's relationship with

Carly grew up in a cult. The experience partly inspired her latest show

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