photo: Bryony Jackson
Next week, SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts welcomes the West Coast premiere of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company’s Blood on the Dance Floor by Jacob Boehme. Presented by DanceHouse, SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, and Talking Stick Festival, Blood on the Dance Floor takes the stage February 6th to 9th.. Rooted in Aboriginal Dance, theatre, and storytelling, this award-winning work, is based on the deeply personal experience of performer Jacob Boehme, a renowned dancer, writer, and choreographer from the Narangga and Kaurna nations of South Australia. Blood on the Dance Floor unapologetically shares Boehme’s emotionally honest story of gay, Blak, and poz identities; and explores the struggle, heartache, and enduring spirit of someone living at the intersection of Aboriginal, queer, and HIV-positive communities.
“This work comes at a landmark moment in the history of HIV. With the increasing availability of preventative medication, HIV transmission rates are decreasing and life expectancy for those with the virus is increasing,” says Jim Smith, Artistic and Executive Director of DanceHouse. “However, in both Australia and Canada HIV rates in Indigenous communities are sadly on the rise. Blood on the Dance Floor is a poignant work that shines a powerful and captivating light on the stigma, the discrimination, and the silence that surrounds HIV/AIDS in Indigenous communities. But the work also embraces our need for community, our deepest fears, our secret identities, and what blood means to each of us — questioning how this most precious fluid unites and divides us.”
When Boehme was diagnosed with HIV in 1998, he reached out to his ancestors in search of answers. Blood on the Dance Floor pays homage to Boehme’s ancestors’ ceremonies through a series of vignettes combining video and sound design, choreography, and visceral narrative that transverses time, space, and characters. From a ‘gay elder’ grieving young men lost to disease and despair, to the current culture of hook-ups and casual sex, deeper moments sketched between Boehme and his father will underscore the legacy of racism, homophobia, and shame permeating the work with both personal and cultural history.
Written and performed by Melbourne-based Jacob Boehme, choreographed by Mariaa Randall, and directed by Isaacc Drandic Blood On The Dancefloor runs February 6 – 9, 2019 at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. For more information and tickets visit dancehouse.ca
Warning: For audience members age 15 and up. Performance includes adult concepts (sexual & drug references), coarse language, and loud music.