Sisa Sisa opens like a doorway into two intertwined lives that have carried more than most bodies should ever be asked to hold. Premiering at Bankstown Arts Centre as part of Sydney Festival 2026, this groundbreaking work introduces a double bill from choreographers Alfira O’Sullivan and Murtala known for their energetic blend of dance, body percussion and song shaped by both Indonesian heritage and contemporary Australian influence, and is commissioned by Bankstown Arts Centre and InSite Arts.Here, that lineage becomes the foundation for two singular solo performances shaped by memory, trauma, and the space between ritual and revelation.

Both pieces move within Indonesian cultural lineages that pulse through Gondrong Gunarto’s score, creating moments that ask not only what remains after the unendurable, but how those remnants transform through healing. Alfira and Murtala use restraint as a form of power, and the space as a place of genuine exchange, trusting stillness as fully as motion.

Jejak & Bisik is Alfira O’Sullivan’s excavation of the stories of a woman’s body gathered over a lifetime. The title means Traces and Whispers, and the work moves exactly in that register, following the quiet marks left by fertility struggles, perimenopause, cultural expectation as well as the daily negotiations of being both an artist and a mother. 

The storytelling is intimate and grounded, gently touched by the interruptions of the present.There is a gentle irony in watching ancient dance traditions coexist with the practical realities of making a living through one’s craft. Alfira’s movement is precise yet fluid, a blend of contemporary abstraction and inherited vocabulary that allows her to speak about experiences usually kept behind closed doors. The symbolic masks by Khoirul Mutakin and Kyati Suharto Martin appear like alternate selves, each one hinting at a story she rarely names aloud.

Sam James’ superbly crafted projections wash over a large paper kite with patterns and the faint suggestion of blood, a visual thread tied to her medical history. Through it all, Alfira holds both beauty and pain without spectacle, letting the emotion rise with a steady, meditative focus. By the final moments, the work gently culminates into something close to a spiritual offering, a quiet, hypnotic prayer shaped by a woman telling the truth of her own lived experience.

Gelumbang Raya (Great Wave) carries the memory of the 2005 Aceh tsunami not as spectacle but as something lodged deep in the body, a core memory that has waited twenty years to be spoken aloud. We know what happened that day, but Murtala was there five days later, standing in the ruins of his home.

He moves as if releasing a long‑held tension between body and soul, a slow unravelling of grief he says he is only now ready to express.It’s a deeply honest and quietly transformative work. The stage is covered in pristine Acehnese sand, a quiet shoreline shaped by Sam James’  evocative design, where gentle waves wash across the surface until a warning siren slices the air.

As Murtala the sand shifts beneath him, creating patterns that feel like a new story forming in real time. Each sweep of his foot redraws the shoreline, as if memory itself is rearranging. Rebana drums are arranged and echo like distant calls across water, stepping stones, small weights he lines up and releases one by one. The space gradually transforms into a map of what he has carried and what he is finally ready to set down.The result is a performance taut with feeling yet ultimately cathartic, a personal act of reconciliation with a world that changed him forever.

Suara Dance is a living practice. Alfira and Murtala carry their heritage with a clarity that feels both rooted and forward‑moving, inviting audiences into stories that are personal, communal and still unfolding. Their artistry shows how dance can hold memory, question silence and imagine new futures all at once.

Two stories held in one shared breath, Sisa-Sisa isa form of meditative intensity and courage that makes the past feel both unbearably close and newly understood. It was a privilege to witness this world premiere performance- and two artists whose presence gives the story its unmistakable soul and spirit.  

For further information see ;https://www.bankstownartscentre.com.au/sisa-sisa

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