BULLYACHE

Tell us about your company

BULLYACHE is a collaboration between friends and artists Tylor Deyn and Jacob Samuel. A dance company and music duo that explores our working class and queer identity in relation to pop culture. We both choreograph, direct, score and conceptualise our work.

BULLYACHE is the title and character through which we experiment. It’s music, it’s dance, it’s performance. BULLYACHE is in their parents’ makeup, flashing between acoustic balladry and rave somnambulism while feeling comfortable in neither, a hyper regurgitation of capital expectations.

Our collaboration started at the end of the Pandemic and so far has been supported by Arts Council England, PRS, Raze Collective, The Place, Britten Pears, Palm Heights Cayman Islands, Bijloke LOD Muziektheater, Artsadmin, Genesis Foundation, Fabric, Sound and Music + Hackney Showroom.

Tell us about your proposed work/project

TOM is a dance theatre and live music performance that explores working class and queer identity in relation to pop culture. Participants are rehearsing, waiting indefinitely, in a holding room. They have been entered in a pageant competition set up by the Department of Work and Pensions. This competition never comes. TOM asks the question, how do we create communities inside a system of exploitation, especially in such uncertain times?

What do you think are the benefits of working with FABRIC in a Midlands context?

We draw on autobiographical material in the hope of reaching people from similar backgrounds and working with Fabric in Birmingham is an opportunity to connect with new communities and audiences.