Bawren was commissioned to make a new work with 28 dancers from Phoenix Youth Academy. The choreography led to a performance piece taking place at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds and at the Bernie Grant Art Centre in London as part of an HIV awareness programme in 2018.
You Created a Disease on My Land is based on controversial notions that HIV was created in a government lab to control people not wanted in society. It explores a further theory that over the years, people have been used as guinea pigs by drugs companies, beliefs that confound many public health efforts still today. Using these themes as a provocation, Bawren and the dancers from Phoenix Youth Academy developed their own choreography in response, thinking about groups in society that are marginalised and controlled and also drawing upon Bawren Tavaziva’s very personal experiences of losing a family member to HIV. The piece is set to original music entitled Escape composed by Bawren.
You Created a Disease on My Land was performed at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre in Leeds and at the Bernie Grant Art Centre in London as part of an HIV awareness programme at the end of November and beginning of December 2018.
Photos: Brian Slater