The artists of this work condemn the current genocide in Gaza and call for a permanent end to the occupation of Palestine.

Jessie McCall is a queer female movement artist based in Tamaki Makaurau who explores the uncanny ways that psychological and emotional experiences can be evoked through the interaction of body, space and object. Her work harnesses visual design, sound, and distinct movement vocabularies to build darkly humorous worlds that are slippery and disruptive. Jessie has created commissioned work for Footnote Dance NZ, Auckland Arts Festival, UNITEC, SPLORE Festival, alongside full-length independent works The Bloom (2024), I Get So Emotional Baby (2022), Daybreak Estate (2020, 2022), Cover Lover (2016), Tassel Me This (2015, Winner Best in Fringe), and The Way We Fall (2014). She is the co-founder of SOFT. co with Rose Philpott, creating HEALR (2016, 2018) and INFLATED REBEL (2021). Jessie’s choreographic work harnesses spatial design, costume and distinct movement vocabularies to create darkly humorous worlds that juxtapose the familiar with the transcendent. She has held the positions of Artistic Curator for Short + Sweet Dance Festival NZ, and Festival Producer for Tempo Dance Festival. Jessie is a lecturer in creative practice on the UNITEC Contemporary Dance Program.

Artists Hana Miller and Jacob Perkins are founders of RDYSTDY, an independent production studio based in Melbourne (Aus) and Wellington (NZ), working in the expanded field of the moving image. Recent art works include QWERTY a choreographic visual performance with Atlanta Eke and Daniel Jenatsch, UNARCHIVAL, in development with Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand; short film SOURSWEET in collaboration with Victoria Chiu and premiered at Dance (Lens) Festival; Centre for New Geography commissioned by Multicultural Arts Victoria with Victoria Chiu, Raina Petersen, Katina Olsen, Kristina Chan and Nebahat Erpolat.

Past collaborations include animatronic puppets for Disney, Cirque and Wynn Casinos with kinetic theatre company Michael Curry Design; Genetrix with Victoria Chiu, Rudi van der Merwe. RDYSTDY has mounted installations and performances at Carriageworks, MONA, Dark Mofo, SPLORE, Soundstage, the National, Coil Festival in NYC.

Sofia McIntyre is a 2011 graduate of UNITEC’s Performing and Screen Arts degree majoring in Contemporary Dance. Sofia has been dancing for Mary-Jane O’Reilly’s neo-burlesque show ‘In Flagrante’ since 2012, which has seen her perform in the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe and numerous shows both in New Zealand and overseas. She has recently developed and performed in Jessie McCall’s I Get So Emotional Baby in a 2 week season at Basement Theatre, 2022. Sofia premiered her first solo work ‘Faceless Hair Cry’ in 2018, which went on to win the Risk Taker award at the festival 2018 Short and Sweet Dance Festival. The following year she co-choreographed and performed in ‘Communal Human’ with Rosa Strati, in which their performance won best Production Design at Short and Sweet Dance Festival. Sofia was commissioned to develop ‘Faceless Hair Cry’ into a full-length work for a season in Tempo Dance Festival 2019, and it is currently being made into a dance-film for international presentation in 2024.

Raven Afoa-Purcell is a New Zealand born Samoan queer contemporary artist. They grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and gained an interest in dance during their time in high school, they then furthered their studies in contemporary dance studying at Unitec and completing a bachelors of performing and screen arts majoring in contemporary dance graduating in 2019. They are a keen collaborator and have since worked with the likes of Alicia Frankovich, Luck and Schooney, Alexa Wilson & Dance Plant Collective. They have toured internationally with Deep Soulful Sweats (AUS) and presented their choreographic work Let Them Eat Cake in Experimental Dance Week Aotearoa 2020, and won Best Dance in Auckland Fringe in 2021. Raven is interested in collaboration, improvisational scores and live performance art.

Sasha Matsumoto is a queer dance artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau who is interested in improvisation and investigating anti-binary ways of making and existing. Since graduating from Unitec with a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts majoring in Contemporary Dance in 2021, Sasha has worked on various projects as a dancer and collaborator including Daughters of Willow (2022-2023) in the Auckland and Wellington seasons with EKC Choreography, Retail Therapy (2023) with Brandon Ross, and understudied for Jessie McCall’s Daybreak Estate (2022).