Raina Peterson
Raina Peterson is a dancer-choreographer of Fiji-Indian and English heritage who was born and raised on the lands of the Gunaikurnai people of regional Victoria. Raina creates moving experimental dance works that respect and challenge both traditional and contemporary dance. With a substantial body of new work including four full-length company productions, Raina‘s works draw on their training in classical Indian dance (Mohiniyattam) and are critically acclaimed for their subversive and visceral approach to exploring the diasporic experience, cultural identity, colonialism, gender diversity and sexuality. With dance partner Govind Pillai, their full-length works include In Plain Sanskrit (2015), Bent Bollywood (2018), Third Nature (2019), Kāla (2019), and dance film Drishti (Winner of two Melbourne Fringe Awards, 2020), and a solo work, Narasimha: ManLion (2022, winner of Melbourne Fringe Award for ‘Best dance and physical theatre’)

Marco Cher-Gibard
Marco Cher-Gibard is an artist working with sound to explore contemporary culture, expression and experience. He is a constant collaborator who works through sound in a variety of contexts including performance, installation, workshops and composition. Marco’s award winning theatrical compositions and sound designs have been presented internationally by organisations such as London International Festival of Theatre (UK), Vienna Festwochen (Austria), Holland Festival (Holland), Theatre der Welt (Germany) and Melbourne International Arts Festival (Australia), amongst others.

Marco’s solo and collaborative performances have explored live sampling, electronics, home made software and more recently prepared guitar. He has performed in India, China, France, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan and extensively throughout Australia. Sister, an improvised duo with Ben Speth maintains an extensive online archive of their practice, premiered Work at the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music in 2017 and released a mail art CDR in 2020 called 45:02 with artist Moyra Davey.

Creator and Performer: Raina Peterson
Composer, Performer and Visual Effects: Marco Cher-Gibard
Dramaturg: Sepideh Kian
Lighting Design: Alex Nguyen
Costume: Geoffrey Watson
Set Design: Jennifer Tran
Producer: Naomi Velaphi
Stage Manager and Production Assistant: Reis Low

Supported by
MOHINI has been supported Creative Victoria and the City of Melbourne through Arts House. A work in progress was presented at Sangam Festival 2021 at Dancehouse. Auspiced by Karma Dance.

“In the beginning, there was the ocean of milk. The gods and demons came together to churn the milky ocean to produce the elixir of life. Lord Vishnu transformed into the enchantress Mohini, to distribute the elixir of life.”

MOHINI is an experimental dance-theatre work exploring the trans experience through a new interpretation of a trans Hindu deity, Mohini the Enchantress. Raina Peterson uses their training in the classical Indian dance form Mohiniattam (lit. ‘Dance of Mohini’) to retell the story of the eponymous trans deity and namesake of their artform. MOHINI is a sensual and vivid journey of transformation, transcendence, and the chaotic joy of the trans experience.