|
Dolphin (Julie Trahan) has been writing, creating video art and performing theatre since childhood. Unable to obtain
traditional theatrical roles after a drunk driver left her with multiple orthopedic injuries and partially paralyzed on one
side, she started dancing off-beat and moved into guerilla theatre, solo performance and experimental documentary video/film
making. She received her dual- major BA in media theory and video production from Antioch College in 1991, followed by a Postgraduate
diploma in arts administration from University of Melbourne in 2001. Her autobiographical video, Memories From A Coma, was
broadcast nationally on Free speech TV in 1993, while she performed and produced community-based theatre extensively around
the San Francisco bay area, as well as continuing studies with freelance artists, such as AXIS Dance Company, Keith Hennessey
and Dorothy Allison.
Dolphin (Julie) was featured in the BBCs award-winning documentary, Julia's Body (the name of the 7 member mixed race,
mixed mobility dance troupe put together for it), and also with other performers with disabilities, in the award winning,
Vital Signs: crip culture talks back. In 2001, while studying in Australia, she performed her best known solo show, Queen
of the Girls, at High Beam disability arts festival and at the University of Melbourne, as well as creating and performing
a commissioned piece on violence and identity for the Institute of Postcolonial Studies. Inspired by DV8's Cost of Living,
she tried her hand at choreography in 'Disposable Bodies', a piece featured in Midsumma, Melbourne's Lesbian & Gay Festival.
She was also fortunate to model for Belinda Mason - Lovering's influential photo series, Intimate Encounter's, which has been
exhibited worldwide and on the web at http://www.intimate-encounters.com.au/.
Now in Seattle, Dolphin continues her explorations in experimental media - sound editing, underwater videography,
computer animation - and dance - Post-modern, Butoh and Contact Improvisation - and has presented solo and ensemble works
on public sidewalks and at such venues as On the Boards (12 Min Max), Freehold theatre and University of Washington. As a
4Culture Special Projects 2005/2006 grant recipient, she will be presenting an evening length multi- media dance/theatre piece
at Velocity Dance Center in October 2006, Tao and the Art of Drowning. An artist book, designed with Lynda Sherman, with the
same title will also be presented. The performance is scheduled for New Zealand's Art of Disablement conference in 2008.
Her autobiographical essays can be found in Contact Quarterly, The Disability Studies Reader, Mouth: the Voice of disability
rights and various anthologies. Try Goggle book search. Try Goggle book search.
Yadda yadda. Not so good at summarizing - I think the most important thing I've done publicly is enjoy my body & life
even when others (and plenty of them!!!) say I can't or shouldn't - some people are victims of circumstance & I am not.
|
