Polyphonic Body: The Radiant Storyteller

Julianna Bloodgood
www.juliannabloodgood.com

Julianna Bloodgood, originally from California has resided in Poland since 2009. She is a vocalist, movement artist, performer and teacher whose work includes anthropological performance research and she has traveled the globe extensively in search of different cultural perspectives on the body, voice and the ritual of performance. Many of the performances she creates are made as rituals, meant to be shared experiences of transformation and healing. The core of her work is a detailed practice in the relationship between body and voice and how this can be brought to performance and composition. Her research with the body and voice has led to an in-depth and ongoing development of this connection which she calls Embodied Voice Practices. This practice utilizes integrative somatic trauma therapy techniques and focuses the output in vocal expression, which is a deeply healing and transformative process. Julianna specializes in the research and practice of vocal lamentation, giving shape and voice to our pain and loss, which has become a through line in all of her work. She continues to research the technical, historical and contemporary aspects of lamentation in different European countries, performing and teaching internationally.

Julianna was a performer with the award winning and critically acclaimed Polish theatre company Song of the Goat Theatre from 2009-2018. She was an integral part of the development, devising, premiers and world tours of seven productions; Songs of Lear; Portraits of the Cherry Orchard; Return to the Voice; Umilowanie: Dead Walk Love; Crazy God; Island and Hamlet: A Commentary. Her research and performance with Song of the Goat was focused around integrating movement, polyphonic singing and text through dynamic interpretations of classical plays and during her time with Song of the Goat the company won various awards for these ensemble devised pieces. With this company she has performed throughout Europe, Asia, South America and North America. In Wrocław she was also a founding member of the pedagogical and performance research company Odra Ensemble and developed the piece Eurydice: We Will Leave Only Bone, based in part on her research into Somali Buraanbur traditions as well as Bulgarian rituals and vocal traditions.

Julianna is an associate artist with Brú Theatre of Galway, Ireland. In 2021 she was the composer, music director and a performer for the piece Gol, which explored traditional Irish keening, or lamentation for the dead. She recorded her music with Brú and the ensemble of Gol to serve as the soundscape for the virtual reality piece Olagón, a lament for the land guiding spectators through wild landscapes of west Ireland through the perspective of a single woman.

Julianna is a resident artist with New York based Theater MITU and has collaborated with the company internationally since 2012. She is an associate artist with Slovakian theatre company Honey and Dust and collaborates with Greek company Alki and the Polish Warsaw Stage Society.

An important aspect of Julianna’s professional life is in community based projects and artistic outreach, using art as a vehicle for healing and change. Julianna is the co-founder of The Dadaab Theater Project, a youth based theater project in Dadaab, Kenya, formerly the world’s largest refugee camp and is a founding member and co-artistic director of The Great Globe Foundation, a non-profit organization utilizing the power of creativity to inspire and empower the individual voice and to help build bridges between people and communities.

Julianna holds an MA in Acting, Magna Cum Laude/ High Honors, from Manchester Metropolitan University and graduated in conjunction with Song of the Goat Theatre of Poland. She earned a BFA in Dramatic Performance from the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati; and is a graduate of the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, California. In 2005, Julianna received the prestigious award and scholarship from the College Conservatory of Music “Sustained Excellence in Achievement and Performance during a College Conservatory of Music Career by a Graduating Senior”. In 2017 she was the recipient of the University of Cincinnati’s “Julia Winter Cohen Career Excellence Award” and in 2018 she was given a “Distinguished Alumnus Honor” also from the University of Cincinnati. Aside from performing, Julianna composes and records her own music and is a facilitator and director of original theatrical works.