New York rapper Le1f journeys to the Australian outback in virtual reality film VIA Alice

"I'd sit there and rip out blades of grass with my toes," he says.

His splayed toes also caught the attention of Khalif Diouf – his fellow performer in the virtual reality and live dance work VIA Alice – who says he tried to "copy Waanie's feet" during their collaboration.

Blanco's "toe crunches" was one of the lessons learnt by the New York rapper, who goes by the moniker Le1f, during his journey through the Australian outback.

Diouf travelled from Alice Springs to the Tiwi Islands and Cape York, with a production crew in his wake, for the virtual reality film.

VIA Alice will be screened at Carriageworks at a series of sessions from August 31 to September 3 as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Sydney Weekender.

Each screening will feature about 30 guests donning VR goggles seated in a circle on stumps, with red dirt beneath their feet. The duo will perform a dance work after some of the film screenings.

Diouf and Blanco pursue largely separate journeys in the virtual reality film until its final scenes.

"My journey is as an outsider who is black," Diouf says. "It's an experience for me discovering black culture here through country."

Diouf recounts joyous encounters dancing for children and performing alongside Torres Strait Islander musicians at the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival in Cape York.

He has particularly fond memories of meeting Tiwi Islands' community of Sistagirls: "For me it was nice to be with other black queer people."

However, he was shocked by the treatment of Indigenous people in Alice Springs, which "reminded me of a lot of the red-neck suburbs in America".

"But I think it was more jarring to see people and look at how they've been extremely taken advantage of by the entire culture of white Australia."

Blanco's journey in the virtual reality film takes him from Redfern, where he spent his childhood, to the North Queensland country of his father.

"What we wanted to do with the film is show the life I have lived, which is a foot in both worlds having a white mother and a black father," he says. "And showing that even though I'm in both of these worlds, my heart is not completely in either."

Blanco said his dancing in the film was improvised and inspired by country.

"I wasn't sort of doing high kicks and tricky turns in the bush y'know," he says. "It was the land and the country that was informing my movement.

"That's the country that shaped who I am so you've just got to surrender to that."

But dancing in the wet tropics presents its own challenges.

Not only was the bare-footed Blanco bitten by a black ant, but the ever-present threat of tropical downpours threatened to damage the expensive equipment used to create the film.

"The camera we were working with was like $80,000. It's not waterproof so it was very touch and go as to when we could film in the tropics," he says.

Diouf and Blanco were brought together by filmmaker Pete Keen and music producer Daniel Stricker, who describes their first meeting on film as "profound".

"The two had been clicking on a personal level, and although we felt confident, their first run through was rubbish, leaving me slightly concerned," he says. "Stepping into their second take for that shot, was something vastly different, and very, very special."

Keen, Stricker and their film crew covered thousands of kilometres criss-crossing the outback to film in Cape York, Darwin, the Tiwi Islands, Alice Springs and Redfern.

"A lot of time was spent driving, flying, walking across a great variety of terrain in scorching conditions, and huddled in swags on freezing nights," he says. "Though no one had a bad word to say about the journey that the land brought us. I think we all looked forward to falling asleep beneath the Milky Way every night."

VIA Alice is at Carriageworks from August 31 to September 3.