And What Will People Say? · fortyfivedownstairs Melbourne · 9 – 12 July 2026
Book Tickets →Past Production · Sacred Music Festival 2019
Bhoomi
— how ancient practices migrate, and what they become here.
A choreographic work examining how ancient artistic practices migrate and become part of the culture of new communities. Inspired by Bhoomi, the Hindu goddess of the Earth — and developed in collaboration with Aboriginal author and historian Bruce Pascoe.
A meeting of earth and earth.
Bhoomi is a choreographic work that asks how ancient artistic practices travel — across borders, generations, and continents — and what they become when they arrive somewhere new. Its name is taken from Bhoomi, the Hindu goddess of the Earth.
The work was developed in collaboration with Aboriginal author and historian Bruce Pascoe. Together, the work explores how stories from different countries can converge to create shared cultural narratives — without erasure, without flattening, without one swallowing the other. It honours First Nations peoples and their relationship with Country, and it sits in the question of what it means to dance Bharatanatyam on unceded land.
This was a foundational piece for what became BCD Theatre. It established the collaborative ethic, the cross-cultural rigour, and the commitment to honouring the land we work on — values that thread through every BCD work since.
Performed 22 September 2019 at the Sacred Music Festival, Sydney. Choreographed and performed by Kersherka in collaboration with Bruce Pascoe.
- VenueSacred Music Festival, Sydney
- Date22 September 2019
- FormChoreographic work, Bharatanatyam & cross-cultural movement
- ChoreographerKersherka
- PerformerKersherka
- CollaboratorBruce Pascoe
Aboriginal author & historian - ThemesMigration, Country, shared cultural narratives, First Nations sovereignty
- StatusArchive — performed once
What was written.
“Such a collaborative, buoyant work offers critical perspectives on our contemporary positions as immigrant on Indigenous land while celebrating our inextricable links to our homelands.”
Roanna Gonsalves · Southern Crossings
From the festival.
