Daddy
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GATHERING | POWERFUL | CONNECTION
Daddy is a participatory dance work created by First Nations choreographer Joel Bray.
From the sugar-coated idyll of childhood reminiscence to the glazed excesses of queer adulthood, Daddy is Joel Bray’s search for a place of belonging.
He weaves his way through and around the audience, one moment channelling childlike innocence, the next exuding muscular gay-male bravado and moments later crashing to the floor in torment.
The audience gradually learns the true story of lost innocence, colonisation and sexual assault that has led to his family and cultural dislocation. Daddy also portrays that Joel Bray, a proud Wiradjuri man, seems more comfortable in European danceforms and images than his own traditional dance.
He twists and contorts himself as he struggles to remember his Aboriginal father and the snippets of culture he learnt from him.
Credits
- Director/Choreographer/ Performer Joel Bray
- Composition & Sound Design Naretha Williams
- Lighting Design Katie Sfetkidis
- Set & Costume Design James Lew
- Collaborating Director Stephen Nicolazzo
- Collaborating Choreographer Niharika Senapati
- Dramaturgy SJ Norman
- Audio Technical Support Daniel Nixon
- Lighting Associate Nicholas Moloney
- Piano Niv Marinberg
- Voices Peter Paltos, Jason Tamiru
- Tour and Veronica Bolzon
- Distribution Producer ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Presented by
Daddy was commissioned by the City of Melbourne through Arts House, YIRRAMBOI Festival, and the Arts Grants Program; and by Performance Space, Sydney. It was developed for YIRRAMBOI’s KIN Commissions and the Liveworks Festival 2019. Thanks to the Wiradjuri Condobolin Corporation for the recordings from the Wiradjuri Language App, based on the research of Dr Stan Grant and Dr John Rudder.
Geelong Arts Centre's Rewire 2025 is proudly supported by
The Victorian Government Through
Major Artistic Partner
