"...[Foley manages] to capture [parent]hood as it truly looks and feels, using abstraction and movement to loosen and redefine a rigidly, often oppressively defined role." —Pittsburgh City Paper, 11/28/23
Blood Baby premiered September 2023 at Velocity Dance Center (Seattle) and is now available to tour.... activating in responsive, collaborative iterations specific to our local partners and communities where we have the privilege to connect.
THERE ARE FIVE PARTS that can be presented in parts or in total
Blood Baby
is an iterative performance project exploring gender, parenthood, family-building, and sexuality from a queer and gender non-conforming perspective and as acts of belonging - to Earth, to lineage and culture, and to ourselves-- //how we are created and how we are shaped (our bodies as ourselves) //through the forces of parenting and family //considering those efforts as part of geology + nature (Earth's progression) and social community
It looks like this:
Blood Babyembraces performance, dance and somatics as expansive, extending beyond a discrete theatrical moment. Four unique events--Carpet Womb, Communion, Primordial and Touch Library—can be presented together or accordioned apart, each embracing a distinctive aspect and materiality of the experience of parenting queerly. Created and performed by a community of queer and trans artists and developed alongside a series of Queer Parent Convenings, Blood Babyutilizes multiple materials and performative formats to unhinge the intersectionality of gestational experience, queer experience, and parenthood and bring distinct parts into relief. The whole project becomes a prism, bridging visual and experiential art, participatory workshop, text-based performance, and dance.
Blood Baby is site-relational.
creation and direction Meg Foley Carpet Womb performance Charli Brissey, Meg Foley, Zara Martina Lopez, Kristine Manuel, Majesty Royale-Jackson, and Fox Whitney Communion performance Meg Foley Carpet Womb scenic design Rabbit aL Friedrich and Sunny Lucas Touch Library design Rabbit aL Friedrich, Meg Foley, and Lucia Alber Communion sculptureJesse Harrod Primordial video and installation Carmichael Jones
Original text for Blood Baby: Communion written and assembled by Sylvan Oswald based on interviews with Meg Foley, Dr. Shaunna Morrison and Jason Young, used by permission, interpreted and altered by Meg Foley.
Blood Baby is
Carpet Womb: An environment of overwhelm and totality. A dance amongst viewers inside a small constructed room entirely covered in soft materials so that every surface provides tactile feedback, designed by Lucas.
Communion: A spare theatrical environment, an alternative re-situating of our physical selves in the universe that embraces an extended lineage and immediate sensory noticing, and a soft somatic journey, enacted by both audience and performers, led by Foley's facilitation.
Primordial: Alternative drag performance as a fabric rock, performed in various environments and presented through visual installation created by visual artist Carmichael Jones. A durational, devotional somatic process of inserting oneself into environments, exploring one’s body, warmth, wild, and edge pressed into an earthly or architectural other.
Touch Library: A participatory somatic workshop with the sculptural and prop materials to share the choreographic practices of Blood Baby.