Joel Bray
A Melbourne-based artist, Joel Bray is a proud Wiradjuri man, who trained at NAISDA and WAAPA and is an ongoing performer with Chunky Move.
Joel’s early career was in Europe and Israel with Jean-Claude Gallotta, Company CeDeCe , Kolben Dance, Machol Shalem Dance House, Yoram Karmi’s Fresco Dance Company, Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor and Roy Assaf. Joel’s choreographic practice includes making dance, dance-theatre and works for young audiences.
Joel’s solo performance Biladurang sold out and won three Melbourne Fringe Awards. His second work Dharawungara was commissioned by CHUNKY MOVE and was a choreographic lament for the ceremony stolen from him by the Coloniser. Daddy was commissioned by the Yirramboi Festival, Arts House and Liveworks (Sydney). Joel’s works have toured to the Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, Midsumma, Auckland and Dance Massive festivals and to Arts Centre Melbourne.
Joel’s practice springs from his Wiradjuri cultural heritage. His works are intimate encounters in unorthodox spaces, in which audience-members are invited in as co-storytellers to explore the experiences of fair-skinned Aboriginal people, and the experiences of contemporary gay men in an increasingly digital and isolated world. His body becomes the intersection site of those songlines- Indigenous heritage, skin-colour and queer sexuality.
Joel is creating a new work for New Breed 2020. Click here to read his artist statement.