Joel Bray Dance

Garabari

by Joel Bray Dance, Wiradjuri

Garabari means Corroboree in Wiradjuri and will be a large-scale new work by Wiradjuri choreographer Joel Bray in co-production with CHUNKY MOVE, Victoria’s leading contemporary dance company. The Wiradjuri are called The People of the Three Rivers and Garabari will be a contemporary Corroboree celebrating rivers as the veins of Country and as the ancient songlines and trade routes that have always connected the many Peoples of this continent. The work will be developed over a series of creative developments in Melbourne and out on Wiradjuri Country.

“This work has been appearing in my dreams. Sometimes it is a series of pilgrimages through manicured gardens, sometimes it is a massive rave in a warehouse, sometimes it is a collection of canoes on the river with the audience watching from the riverbank. Sometimes it is on the stage. Perhaps it will happen in all of these places.“ - Joel Bray

Garabari is supported through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund - an Australian Government initiative, the Australian Government through the Indigenous Languages and Arts program and through Creative Australia, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, BlakDance through BlakForm, the Besen Family Foundation, and Eastern Riverina Arts.

Garabari was commissioned by Chunky Move with the support of the Tanja Liedtke Foundation through the Chunky Move Choreographer In Residence program.

Garabari

by Joel Bray Dance, Wiradjuri

Garabari means Corroboree in Wiradjuri and will be a large-scale new work by Wiradjuri choreographer Joel Bray in co-production with CHUNKY MOVE, Victoria’s leading contemporary dance company. The Wiradjuri are called The People of the Three Rivers and Garabari will be a contemporary Corroboree celebrating rivers as the veins of Country and as the ancient songlines and trade routes that have always connected the many Peoples of this continent. The work will be developed over a series of creative developments in Melbourne and out on Wiradjuri Country.

“This work has been appearing in my dreams. Sometimes it is a series of pilgrimages through manicured gardens, sometimes it is a massive rave in a warehouse, sometimes it is a collection of canoes on the river with the audience watching from the riverbank. Sometimes it is on the stage. Perhaps it will happen in all of these places.“ - Joel Bray

Garabari is funded by Australia Council through Signature Works initiative. Garabari is supported by BlakDance, through BlakForm. BlakForm is funded through Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.

Considerable Sexual Licence

image3.jpeg

by Joel Bray Dance, Wiradjuri 

Date Premiered: May 2021
Presenting/host partner: Northcote Town Hall and, Yirramboi Festival
Location: Melbourne 

A queer pop caberet immersive audience experience that reimagines the sexual ecology that might have existed on this continent before the Coloniser. Considerable Sexual Licence brings together four award winning performers. Proud Wiradjuri man Joel Bray and a talented team of collaborators including Carly Sheppard, Dan Newell and Niharika Senepati come together for a flirty, occasionally filthy and deeply passionate look at the true history of sensuality ‘down under’.

Considerable Sexual License is a playful invitation to explore your own history and relationship to sex, sexuality and personal freedom, and a celebration of Country, community, consent and kinship.

Through painstaking research and personal reflection, the team delve deep into the deliberately misrepresented practices of ceremony to reimagine the songs, dances, partying and perhaps something a little sexier. 

Considerable Sexual License was created with development support from Creative Spaces, PACT and Lucy Guerin Inc. YIRRAMBOI Festival, Australia Council for the Arts, Arts House, Creative Victoria and Chunky Move. Considerable Sexual Licence is supported by BlakDance, through BlakForm. BlakForm is funded through Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative.