About First House Forum

On 7 October 2022, in partnership with BlakDance, Dancehouse hosted the inaugural First House Forum of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Island dance artists.  The Forum invited artists to agree collectively and to direct Dancehouse on how to allocate funds across collective projects and practices: new works, commissions, residencies specifically for First Nations dance artists. 

The Forum identified a need for artists to learn, work and return to country with existing and developing projects. 

The Forum agreed to support each artist, under the guidance of a Project Elder, to develop new work on Country or present existing works to communities on their homelands for the first time. Dancehouse was directed to assist in the producing of these projects and to reconvene artists at the end of the year, at Dancehouse, to reflect on their experience.

First House Forum has supported projects such as Birrpai by Wakka Wakka, Ngugi, Birrpai woman Ngioka Bunda-Heath and Spaces in between by Djabugay, Kuku Yalanji, Munujali, Butchella and Samsep Meriam man Luke Currie-Richardson.