Milk

The cold scent of damp clay, exposed skin covered in a slippery white liquid, limbs slap and slam violently, contort into grotesque sculptures.

‘Milk’ has been choreographed through a process of extracting various techniques from sculpture and clay working such as pressing, pulling, moulding and casting and transferring them to the body, and really seeing what is possible when the body becomes the raw workable material.

‘Milk’ is a performed physical negotiation between a monumental clay object and a solo dancer. The work invites audiences into this slippery squelching scuffle where the question of who is object is explored through a rigorous and brutal sequence of moulding, casting, pressing and shaping one another. ‘Milk’ draws direct parallels between clay sculpture making and the pervasive cultural pressure to control, conform and contort the femme body to best fit a societal script of femininity.

When the wetness transforms into hardened remains, neither can deny the physical impact of their counterpart or easily reverse the carnage inflicted to their respective material matter.

Audience members are invited to participate in the work at close range. They may record their experience of the performance using their own clay mounds or may observe the work in proximity to the Dancer.

Samantha’s Bio

Samantha is a First Nations contemporary dance artist currently living and working in Naarm on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Samantha completed her full time training at the Queensland College of Dance in 2023 where she had the opportunity to be mentored by choreographers such as Amelia Wallace, Bella Hood and was honoured to be able to perform Sydney Dance Company repertoire by the one and only Graeme Murphy.

Prior to her formal training, Samantha worked at Assembly 197 as an associate producer where she had the pleasure of co-facilitating educational outreach programs across the north of the state.

Samantha has worked with Second Echo Ensemble, Lucy Guerin, Merge Dance Theatre, Stompin Youth Dance Company and Drill Performance Tasmania and has performed in festivals such as Dark Mofo, Festival of Voices, Junction Arts Festival, Ten Days on the Island and Moonah Moves Festival.