The importance of listening (even when its hard)
Carriageworks, Gadigal Country Redfern, Sydney, 13th August 2026
Australian Dance Theatre (ADT)
Created by Daniel Riley, S. Shakthidharan and Jasmin Sheppard
Review by Tammi Gissell
Two Blood presented by Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), co-created by ADT artistic director Daniel Riley with guests S. Shakthidharan and Jasmin Sheppard is a moving evening of dance theatre centred around uniquely Australian experiences of belonging and identity. It is a timely and necessarily multi-cultural work conveyed through absolute emotional commitment from company dancers, Joshua Doctor, Macon Escobal Riley, Yilin Kong, Remy Rochester and Zoe Wozniak and guest artists Zachary Lopez and Carly Sheppard.
The story (in short):
A Tagalaka woman and Cantonese man embark on a forbidden love affair forged in the flames of a burning country. Centuries later, their remains are discovered in a forever embrace, setting into motion a sprawling exploration of belonging that pierces the core of our identity. Two Blood Online Programme
The memories which persist of ‘forbidden love’ between migrants and First Australians are not shared enough on our stages despite significant relationships, families and communities being fostered across generations of post-colonial Australia. Two Blood highlights the many struggles of sitting in a devotion to another person or place which defies cultural and chronological identifiers of selfhood which underpins so much of the mixed-blood Australian experience. Two Blood is an unsettling work as performers excruciatingly deliver through choreography and text what this experience does to mind, body and spirit in holding firm to what one knows to be true; and doing it in the face of open opposition under the ever-encroaching burdens of modernity. Two Blood does not offer a solution to any of this; it lays its wounds bare as bodies break down into trembling messes while words are half-spoken, whispered or spat. Any expectation of linear narrative or resolution is shattered as Two Blood collapses in on itself more than once through seemingly disparate vignettes of remembrance. I believe this was the purpose – to evoke a tangible sense of disorder and discomfort. Whether intentional or not, I had lost all sense of what was going on and for some brief moments throughout, I imagine I experienced what so many of these forbidden lovers must have felt so far from home, clinging to anything at all that made sense among the ever-evolving commotion.
Two Blood spans across continents and flickers between inherited and present memory. It delivers an ache deeply set in the dancers’ bodies and dumps it out for the audience to deal with. The narrative terrain is hunted down, held together, pulled apart and remodelled over and again, reminding us that everyone has, and is entitled to their own stories; and should be encouraged to share them no matter how jumbled or mumbled they seem at first. The important part of any yarning is in the listening, and Two Blood was a stark reminder of this. We must always persist through discomfort and misunderstanding to reveal and refine the truths buried within both speaker and listener. The breathlessness and choppiness in recounting agonies were delivered amongst exquisitely precise movement which switched from languid to ferocious in a heartbeat. Performers seamlessly slipped in and out of full ensembles into solos and smaller groups, while every performer had their moment to shine and took that on with complete conviction. The remarkably intricate duets we've come to appreciate from choreographer Jasmin Sheppard are beautifully emphasized as the performers melted into and out of one another in endless mergers of hope and trust. They gifted us legs and arms for days, pulling and pushing one another, surrendering like corpses together, rolling like quicksilver across each other, raising the other to flight, over and over and over again until any sense of present place, person or time was lost.
The performers are to be congratulated for their unwavering commitment to unpacking these difficult personal yarns which underpin so much of our shared Australian histories and identities as a multi-cultural nation. Their performances were individually and collectively outstanding with every performer clearly offering so much of themselves and their own memories in the process. Two Blood is urgent, but it also delivers its yarning through generous physicality and breathwork both tender and brutal in its longing to be seen and heard despite its apparent narrative confusion. Pain is never pretty or straightforward, after all. I look forward to experiencing more provocative Australian Dance Theatre from this potent collaboration where so many vital aspects to the Australian experience can be amplified with real theatrical rigour and with a shared responsibility of cultural caring. A huge congratulations to Daniel Riley, artistic director of Australian Dance Theatre for bringing such a talented and diverse cultural and creative team together to share this vital yarning for our times.
Two Blood
Carriageworks, Gadigal Country Redfern, Sydney 13-15 August 2026
Produced by Australian Dance Theatre
Choreographers: Daniel Riley, Jasmin Sheppard and Brianna Kell in collaboration with ADT Company Artists
Directors: Daniel Riley, Jasmin Shepppard and S. Shakthidharan
Writer: S. Shakthidharan
Music: James Howard and Andy Qilong Chia of SAtheCollective
Choreographic and Directorial Associate: Brianna Kell
Lighting & Production Design: Matthew Adey from House of Vnholy
AV Design: Elias Nohra
Costume: Zachary Lopez
Tagalaka & Chinese Story Advisor: Jasmin Sheppard
Cantonese Consultant: Nicky Tsz Tung Li
Audio-visual: 宿 (stay) care of SAtheCollective
Chinese Translation and Cultural Consultant: Zhao Liang
Two Blood online programme
Two Blood Learning Resource
Tammi Gissell is a Murruwarri-Wiradjuri performer, theorist and collections coordinator, First Nations at The Powerhouse. As artist and arts worker, she is deeply committed to creative acts of truth-telling. Tammi has written for Australian and New Zealand Journal of Arts, Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum, Lagoonscapes: Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities, Archives & Manuscripts and Performance Paradigm.