Do memories in our blood connect and help define who we are?

Blood on the Dance Floor at Arts House in MelbourneOn June 1-5, dancer Jacob Boehme will premiere Blood on the Dance Floor at Arts House in Melbourne. Written and performed by him, the hour-long work is directed by Isaac Drandic and choreographed by Mariaa Randall.

 

An unapologetic, passionate and visceral narrative that traverses time, space and characters, Blood on the Dance Floor will explore the legacies and memories of bloodlines, the need for community and what blood actually means. The work will question how this most precious fluid unites and divides us. 

 

While paying homage to his ancestor’s ceremonies and reaching out to them in search of answers, Boehme—hailing from the Narangga and Kaurna nations of South Australia—will humoursly intersperse his personal experiences as a gay man with his positive diagnosis of HIV throughout the narrative.

 

Blood on the Dance Floor will blend theatre, image, text and choreography to create a multi-disciplinary autobiographical experiment where Boehme will dissect the politics of gay, Blak and poz identities. A story about the desire to love and be loved, Blood on the Dance Floor promises to be a “striking and entertaining monologue that reveals secret identities and the deepest fears.”

 

Earlier this year, Boehme was announced as the Creative Director of the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival. He’s also associate producer of ILBIJERRI, Australia’s leading and longest-running Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre Company. For more information on Blood on the Dance Floor, visit www.melbourne.vic.gov.au.

 

Photo: Jacob Boehme. Photo by Dorine Blaise.