Phillip Adams BalletLab and Arts House Premieres LIVE WITH IT, Ballet About AIDS, Tonight

Phillip Adams BalletLab presents the world premiere of LIVE WITH IT we all have HIV in July 2014 to coincide with the World AIDS conference. This multi form performance work, supported by the Victorian AIDS Council and their regional networks, tackles the still present and socially important issue of HIV/AIDS. LIVE WITH IT we all have HIV explores how the virus impacts those of us who live bodily with HIV/AIDS and the experiences of those who are profoundly affected in other ways.

BalletLab Artistic Director Phillip Adams and visual artist Andrew Hazewinkel have developed this powerful, life-affirming work with more than 50 project participants of diverse age, gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity, in a series of workshops held in regional and urban centres across Victoria.

The concept of LIVE WITH IT we all have HIV was generated by Hazewinkel and Adams, who having lived through the height of the epidemic when it was still broadly perceived as a Gay only problem, recognised a need to contextualise Australia's 30 year relationship with the virus within the broader Australian cultural landscape.

LIVE WITH IT we all have HIV is an intimate portrait of how we as a broad community have lived through and shaped Australia's 30-year history with the virus. Choreography, written and spoken word, video and other visual media are used in exploring the ideas expressed by the participants. LIVE WITH IT we all have HIV is a unique and timely journey into what HIV/AIDS means to all of us today, it is a compelling, uncensored expression of shared human experience.

"So much has changed for the better in the 30 years since HIV/AIDS has been with our communities. This project will give insight into what it is to live with HIV today, bringing awareness to the forefront. Using dance to do this is really exciting!" - Matt Dixon, Executive Director of the Victorian AIDS Council

LIVE WITH IT has been supported by the Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men's Health Centre; Country Awareness Networks Victoria; the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body; the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria; and the City of Melbourne through the Arts Grants Program and Arts House.

Phillip Adams BalletLab creates compelling contemporary performance work realising the creative vision of Artistic Director Phillip Adams. With over 25 years experience as a dancer and choreographer, Adams' work defies neat and easy categorisation, scrutinising behaviour, sexuality and culture in a manner that resonates with current societal concerns. Phillip Adams BalletLab works with significant artistic partners who bring to new creative vision to their projects in order to create original, distinctive works that are proudly made in Melbourne for a global market. Since its inception, BalletLab has toured nationally and internationally, performing at festivals and venues in the USA, China, Denmark, Scotland, Germany, England, Korea, Mongolia, Romania and Bulgaria.