Abstract
In this essay Indigenous Australian artist Jacob Boehme discusses the genesis and dramaturgy of his play Blood on the Dance Floor. As a performance maker, Boehme has a multi-disciplinary practice that fuses theatre, dance, ceremony, monologue and image as a method for sharing stories. Boehme talks about his cultural heritage and living with HIV, he dwells on questions of shame and resilience and the need to find Indigenous dramaturgies to tell his own story. Blood courses through Boehme’s process of making the work, as both material and metaphor for addressing his self-identity as Blak, Poz and gay. Boehme stresses the importance of finding dramaturgical solutions to resist repeating colonial Western models, moving towards an innovative hybrid form merging traditional and contemporary modes.
Interview with Alyson Campbell and Jonathan Graffam
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- 1.
This interview was conducted at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, on the 16 February 2017 and at Melbourne City Council Buildings, Little Collins Street, Melbourne, 26 May 2017. Blood on the Dance Floor, by Jacob Boehme, directed by Isaac Drandic and choreographed by Mariaa Randall premiered at Arts House, North Melbourne, Victoria, 1–5 June 2016 (viewed by authors 2 June 2016). See https://www.jacobboehme.com.au/projects?lightbox=image20f7, accessed 7 April 2017.
- 2.
Blak is a spelling that marks a deliberate resistance to colonial terms and semantics. As noted in the ‘Blak History Month for Teachers’ online post ‘Why BLAK not black?’, ‘Blak is an expression of taking back power and control within a society that doesn’t encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples an opportunity [sic] for self-determination as individuals and communities’. https://sites.google.com/site/australianblakhistorymonth/extra-credit, accessed 15 June 2017.
- 3.
Jacob Boehme (https://www.jacobboehme.com.au/).
- 4.
ILBIJERRI Theatre Company’s Black Writers Lab offers new Indigenous writers training to expand their skill repertoire and work towards a fully developed play script. Black Writers Lab was founded in 2011, and has since evolved into ILBIJERRI Writers Residency (http://ilbijerri.com.au/artist-development/).
- 5.
By ‘cultural’ Boehme means his Aboriginal heritage and customs.
- 6.
Cath Ennis, a genomics and epigenomics specialist, notes that epigenetics is ‘one of the hottest fields in life sciences’ and needs more research. One area of epigenetics proposes that past experiences, including trauma, are passed on via genetic material; as Ennis writes: ‘[a]ny outside stimulus that can be detected by the body has the potential to cause epigenetic modifications’ (2014). This is the particular area that Boehme is interested in. See also, for example, Moore 2015.
- 7.
National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association Dance College (NAISDA Dance College). Located north of Sydney, the college provides developing artists an opportunity to train professionally in a practice underpinned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture (https://naisda.com.au).
- 8.
National Black Theatre (NBT) was formed in 1972 and was Australia’s first Aboriginal-run theatre company. While creating politically charged street performance and theatre productions, the company also offered workshops in dancing, acting and writing. Due to funding cuts the NBT was closed in 1977.
- 9.
See Chapter 2 in this volume, where Campbell discusses Davis’ practice within the HIV and AIDS sector over more than two decades.
- 10.
Through the 1970s and 1980s the Western suburbs of Melbourne were often considered a disadvantaged region. This was mostly because it was highly industrialised, and with a large, diverse migrant population.
References
Blak History Month for Teachers. https://sites.google.com/site/australianblakhistorymonth/extra-credit. Accessed 15 June 2017.
Boehme, J. (2016). Blood on the Dance Floor (Unpublished).
Ennis, C. (2014, April 25). Epigenetics 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Explaining Everything. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2014/apr/25/epigenetics-beginners-guide-to-everything. Accessed 18 June 2017.
Moore, D. S. (2015). The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Woodhead, C. (2016, June 2). Blood on the Dance Floor Review: Artistry Resounds with the Pulse of Life. The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/stage/blood-on-the-dance-floor-review-jacob-boehmes-artistry-resounds-with-the-pulse-of-life-20160602-gp9onj.html. Accessed 15 June 2017.
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Campbell, A., Graffam, J. (2018). Blood, Shame, Resilience and Hope: Indigenous Theatre Maker Jacob Boehme’s Blood on the Dance Floor . In: Campbell, A., Gindt, D. (eds) Viral Dramaturgies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70317-6_16
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