Blood on the Dancefloor program

ILBIJERRI THEATRE COMPANY & JACOB BOEHME | AUSTRALIA WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY JACOB BOEHME

Photo: Dorine Blaise

blood on the dancefloor

BLOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR ILBIJERRI THEATRE COMPANY & JACOB BOEHME | AUSTRALIA BAY 20 CARRIAGEWORKS 21–25 JANUARY 60 MINS Writer & Performer Jacob Boehme Director Isaac Drandic Choreographer Mariaa Randall Video Artist Keith Deverell Sound Designer James Henry Spatial Designer Jenny Hector Movement Consultant Rinske Ginsberg Script Dramaturg Chris Mead Production Managers Emily O’Brien & Jenny Hector Stage Manager Jenny Hector ILBIJERRI Theatre Company Artistic Director Rachael Maza Executive Producer Simeon Moran Creative Producer Ben Graetz Creative Producer Naretha Williams Education & Learning Manager Kamarra Bell-Wykes Development & Marketing Manager Iain Finlayson Marketing Coordinator Fred Chuang Company Manager Lauren Bok Finance Manager Jon Hawkes

CREATOR’S NOTE Why this story now? After 30 years of dealing with the global epidemic of HIV, the experiences of stigma, discrimination and silence around the HIV virus are just as present today and still being felt by people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. By sharing my personal story, unapologetically, of being Blak, gay and poz, Blood on the Dance Floor is an opportunity to create a space for our mob to have a voice in the dialogue around HIV. We need a conversation at a table we have not been invited to in this country, which has so far been led by and reserved for gay white men.

Our mob has been dealing with HIV right from the early days, back in the 80s, mostly silently and with shame. We are now seeing a spike in detection rates across the country, particularly among Indigenous women and IV drug users in our community.

Now more than ever we need to take our seat at that table, our silence broken and our voices heard.

Jacob Boehme

JACOB BOEHME Jacob Boehme is a Melbourne-born and based multi-disciplinary theatre maker of the Narangga and Kaurna Nations, South Australia. Jacob trained in dance at NAISDA and is an alumni of the Victorian College of the Arts with a Masters in Writing for Performance (2014) and a Masters in Puppetry (2007). Jacob is also an alumni of the British Council’s ACCELERATE Indigenous Leadership Program and is Creative Director of YIRRAMBOI, the City of Melbourne’s First Nations Arts Festival. Blood on the Dance Floor is Jacob’s debut as a playwright, first developed as part of ILBIJERRI’s Black Writers Lab. ISAAC DRANDIC Isaac Drandic is a father, actor, director and dramaturg.

He trained in the Aboriginal Theatre course at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), and made his professional acting debut in One Destiny by Black Swan State Theatre Company in 2001. His directing credits include Astroman (National Play Festival), Coranderrk (ILBIJERRI/ Belvoir), Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country (ILBIJERRI/ La Mama), Archie Roach’s Into The Bloodstream, Yellamundie Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Playwriting Festival (Moogahlin Performing Arts), Black Writers Lab (ILBIJERRI), Peter Pan (Belvoir), Waltzing the Wilara (Yirra Yaakin). Drandic received the Uncle Jack Charles Award at the 2008 Victorian Indigenous Performing Arts Awards. In 2012, he was a participant in the British Council’s ACCELERATE Program.

MARIAA RANDALL Mariaa Randall is a Bundjalung/Yaegl woman from the Far North Coast of NSW. She is a graduate of NAISDA Dance College with a Diploma in Dance and has attained a Graduate Diploma in Performance Creation and a Master in Animateuring (by Research) at the Victorian College of the Arts and Music (VCAM) in Melbourne. Mariaa has been on a creative journey with Blood on the Dance Floor since 2014 and the knowledge gained throughout this process continues to resonate in the works she creates. Her most recent works include the solo performance HA LF, the dance installation Painting the Dance, and Poetry in Motion, created with 2nd year dance students at VCAM. In 2016 Mariaa was Artistic Director of Tanderrum.

Tanderrum (ceremony) is the meeting of the five clans of the Kulin Nation: Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, Taungurung, Dja Dja Wurrung and Wadawurrung. It is the official opening ceremony and Welcome to Country by the First Peoples of Melbourne.

It has become an integral moment in the commencement of each year’s Melbourne Festival. In 2017 her work Divercity will premiere at Art House, North Melbourne as part of the Dance Massive 2017 program.

ILBIJERRI THEATRE COMPANY ILBIJERRI is Australia’s leading and longest-running Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theatre company. They create challenging and inspiring theatre creatively controlled by Indigenous artists. Each year they travel to national, regional and remote locations across Australia and the world. Their collaborative relationships with communities and artists are at the heart of their creative process and all of their work empowers and enlightens their audiences.

ILBIJERRI Theatre Company is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts and the Indigenous Arts & Languages Program, Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne and the RE Ross Trust.

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