‘Making Art Proper Way’ Workshop/Forum
with Joel Bray Dance

More and more there is a desire to work with First Nations communities, artists and content – but how do you actually do that in a way that is culturally appropriate and doesn’t add labour to your First Nations collaborators?
Join Joel Bray (Creative Director, Joel Bray Dance), Jacob Boehme, Angela Flynn (Ilbijerri), and Veronica Bolzon (Executive Producer, Joel Bray Dance) to unpack these issues, and discuss ways to create Contemporary performance that engages with Elders, community and other blakfella artists.
Other Naarm based FN artists will be invited to contribute their experiences.
Join other arts workers in an open forum to exchange best practice approaches to working on projects with, and lead by First Nations artists. Develop practical tools and strategies around specific issues and participate in group yarns and a Q&A.
A Naarm-based performer and maker, Joel Bray is a proud Wiradjuri man and Artistic Director of Joel Bray Dance. Joel danced in Europe with Kolben Dance, FRESCO Dance Company, Roy Assaf and Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor, and in Australia with CHUNKY MOVE.
Joel’s intimate dance-theatre encounters in unorthodox spaces spring from his Wiradjuri heritage, and use humour to engage audiences in rituals about sex, history, trauma and healing. His experimental work challenges white audience expectations of Aboriginal performance and blur the colonial genres.
His works Biladurang (2017), Dharawungara (CHUNKY MOVE, 2018), Daddy (Yirramboi Festival 2019), Considerable Sexual License (Yirramboi 2021), I Liked It, BUT (2021) and Garabari (2022) have toured to the Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, Midsumma, Auckland, LiveWorks and Dance Massive Festivals, and to the Arts Centre Melbourne and Canberra Theatre Centre. Joel’s seven-channel video installation called Giraru Galing Ganhagirri (The Wind Will Bring the Rain) was presented at the National Gallery of Australia, and Storage Unit (2023) was commissioned by the National Gallery of Victoria.
Joel was the 2019 National Library of Australia Creative Arts Fellow, a 2020 Sydney Dance Company New Breed choreographer and the 2021-22 inaugural CHUNKY MOVE Choreographer-in-Residence, and a member of the Melbourne Fringe Board.
Veronica Bolzon is a performing arts industry professional working in arts management, community engagement and programming roles, in a broad range of organisations within the independent arts, government, corporate and not for profit sectors.
Significant leadership roles include; Creative Producer Outer Urban Projects (2012 -2013) Program Producer at Dancehouse (2013-2016), Executive Producer of YIRRAMBOI First Nations Arts Festival(2016 – 2019), Executive Director, Philip Adams Ballet Lab (2019 -2021) and Senior Producer for Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival 2019 and 2022. She is currently the Executive Producer of Joel Bray Dance.
Veronica is passionate about community engagement, strategic planning, relationship management and artistic collaboration, and is actively involved in the arts and culture sectors both locally and nationally. Veronica is a board member of Dancehouse, Melbourne. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts, Cultural Leadership.
Veronica is focused on leadership in small to medium arts organisations, and working and collaborating with diverse and underrepresented cultures, artists and individuals, with a contemporary arts focus.