Biladurang — Joel Bray

Overview

If you're keen to see the winner of the Best Performance Award at 2017's Melbourne Fringe, you'd better be prepared to don a bathrobe. Wiradjuri dancer and choreographer Joel Bray will be holed up in a luxe hotel room at the Sofitel on Collins Street with a small group of strangers he met in the bar downstairs — including you. What starts as a casual conversation begins to gather speed in the form of physical expression. Bray ranges through the intimate space and the room loses its drabness and uniformity.

Using the Dreamtime story of the biladurang (platypus) to loosely frame his own unique tale, Bray has been packing out single suites across the country. Funny, dark and steeped in the vulnerability of the personal, by all accounts the surcharges on this room are purely emotional.

Biladurang is part of Dance Massive, a 13-day showcase of 15 contemporary dance works from Aussie choreographers.