Blood, shame, resilience and hope: Indigenous theatre maker Jacob Boehme's blood on the dance floor

Abstract

Blood on the Dance Floor is a multi-disciplinary dance theatre performance by Australian Indigenous artist Jacob Boehme (Narangga / Kaurna S.A) and collaborators Isaac Drandic (Noongar W.A), Mariaa Randall (Bunjalung N.S.W) James Henry (Yorta Yorta VIC) and Keith Deverell. The work unapologetically explores the experiences of a contemporary, urban, Indigenous gay man living with HIV and ongoing stigmas associated with the virus, presenting moral and ethical questions around status disclosure. The work also draws on the lived experience of Boehme's father: an Aboriginal man required to assume alternative identities for survival and self-preservation, living under the White Australia Policy in..