NATIONAL DANCE FORUM 2015 BIOGRAPHIES

FACILITATOR

Andrew Morrish

Andrew Morrish began performance improvisational work, part time, with Al Wunder's 'Theatre of the Ordinary' in Melbourne in 1982.

In 1987 he co-founded the improvisational movement theatre duet 'Trotman and Morrish' with Peter Trotman. Together they performed 14 self-funded seasons in Melbourne in addition to numerous other one-off performances (including the Greenmill Dance Festival, Melbourne in 1994, 1995 and 1997). They also performed in the United States, most notably in the New York Improvisation Festival in 1995 and 1997. In 1999 they performed in 'Antistatic' at the Performance Space (Sydney) and in 'Dancers are Space-eaters' at PICA (Perth). In 2000 he moved to Sydney and based his teaching and solo performance practice at Omeo Dance Studio. In 2002 he relocated his work in and now teaches and performs extensively in , Nederlands, , Switzerland and the U.K.

He is also often invited to work with individual and small groups of performers to mentor their improvisational development. Artists with whom he has worked in this way include Samir Akika Company, (Munster- dance/theatre), Ulrike Quade (-puppetry), Mischa van Dullerman, Anat Geiger and Klaus Jurgen (Amsterdam-theatre/dance), Antje Pfundner (Hamburg-dance), All Audreys (Hobart- theatre, Jens Biedermann (Lucerne theatre/dance) and Bronja Novac (Goteberg) with Suzanne Martin () and Katherine Eriksson(San Francisco) in dance and performance.

He has developed, and continues, long term collaborative relationships with Tony Osborne (improvisation) in Sydney, Crosby McCloy (writing and performance improvisation), Sten Rudstrom (performance improvisation) in Berlin, and Martha Rodezno (improvisation) in Paris.

He has been a Research Associate at University of Huddersfield since February 2006, and was appointed as an Honorary Research Fellow in December 2008. In Huddersfield he regularly collaborates with John Britton and Hilary Elliot on a variety of research and performance projects relating to improvisational performance.

In October 2006 he facilitated a research project on improvisation for 14 artists and a team of 4 researchers in 'Precipice' at the Australian Choreographic Centre, Canberra. In collaboration with Peter Trotman and Tony Osborne he also facilitated Precipice in 2007.

In 2008 he facilitated the Huddersfield Improvisation Project (HIP), 3 days of directed reflective practice for experienced improvisers, which led to a research report completed in 2009. (Extracts soon to be published on his site). He has been a member of Neil Thomas' Urban Dream Capsule, an extended 'live-in'

installation in store windows, which initially appeared in the 1996 Melbourne International Arts Festival. Between 1996 and 2006 it ran 14 times in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania. http://www.andrewmorrish.com/

CO-FACILITATORS

Annette Carmichael

Annette is an Australian dance artist and creative producer who specialises in regional cultural development.

Between 2009 – 2013 Annette was the State’s Regional Contemporary Dance Facilitator for Ausdance WA creating the ground-breaking ‘Future Landings’ model for animating regional communities through dance.

Annette won the 2011 West Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Community/Regional Dance and was shortlisted twice in 2013. In 2012 Annette was short-listed for an Australian Dance Award.

Annette has created numerous multi-art performance works that use contemporary dance at their core but also include theatre, writing, textiles and installation. She is particularly known for working with regional communities to create works that investigate contemporary people’s connections with Australian history particularly in the areas of solastalgia, settler guilt and ‘unspoken’ stories. In 2014 Annette performed her solo show Solace+Yearning at the Regional Arts national summit. In January 2015 Annette will premiere her latest work My War? created with young people for the centenary of Anzac.

As an Arts Manager/Consultant Annette has worked with West Australian Ballet, STEPS Youth Dance Company, Buzz Dance Theatre, STRUT Dance Inc., Festival of Perth, Women’s Art Library () and Arts. Annette is a graduate of West Australian Academy of Performance Arts (BA Arts Man. 1996) and is a member of Virtual Dust, an online choreographic project. www.annettecarmichael.com.au

Ashley Dyer Ashley Dyer is a performance maker, producer and workshop facilitator based in Melbourne, Australia. Although not a classically trained a dancer, singer, actor, visual artist or writer, over the past ten years he has developed his extensively in these areas often borrowing from these traditions. He works very slowly. His practice consists largely of asking questions and solving personal riddles in order to discover better questions and new riddles. His work is heavily influenced by artists, groups and performances that emerged out of Sydney's Performance Space between 1985 and 2005. Some of these artist and their work he knows personally and others he knows through hearsay, mythology and oral tradition. Some of his most notable public work has involved working with materials, falling objects and smoke, and presenting, choreographing and composing them in relation to a dancer's and the audience's bodies.

His two most well known works And then something fell on my head... (Next Wave Festival 2010) and Life Support (Dance Massive 2013) received significant peer and industry acclaim.

More recently, he was a collaborating artist on the Greenroom Award nominated Nothing to See Here... (Dispersal) and Flatland; an adaptation in dance that won four of the seven BOH Cameronian awards it was nominated for in Malaysia; including best choreography. This year he is working on four projects; The Chat a theatre performance featuring ex-offenders about the parole process to premiere at La Boite Theatre; Tremor a dance performance/installation about the our bodies and the planet coupe with the effects of trauma; SK!N a new dance collaboration with Malaysian based artists about human trafficking and the plight of asylum seekers; And two new works in the series titled Nothing to See Here that will be presented at PICA and Salamanca Arts Centre.

He has made work for, and performed in works in, a diverse range of contexts both nationally and internationally; sometimes as a dancer, other times as a performer, other times as a dramaturg, musician or collaborating artist. He was also employed as an Associate Producer at Next Wave Festival 2012 and founded and program managed Erskineville's Tiny Stadiums Festival in its first two years. He was awarded a Creative Australia Fellowship by the Australia Council for the Arts in 2013.

Fiona Winning Fiona Winning is the Head of Programming at Sydney Festival. Prior to that she worked as an independent writer and producer working in contemporary arts, across theatre, dance and visual cultures. She curated The Australian Theatre Forum in 2011 and worked with Bundanon Trust as Co-convenor of Siteworks - an ongoing conversation between artists, environmentalists and scholars. She also collaborated on the development of intercultural and interdisciplinary projects by independent practitioners.

From 1999-2008 Fiona was Director of Performance Space, a national contemporary arts hub based in Sydney. During this time she collaborated with artists and communities to conceive and produce events in theatres, galleries and public spaces as well as developing a range of training and residency programs. This included producing and co-curating six Time_Place_Space interdisciplinary arts laboratories (with Teresa Crea, Julianne Pierce and Sarah Miller); collaborating with peers to set up Mobile States - Touring Contemporary Performance Australia; and programming intercultural exchanges with national and international artists and companies.

KEYNOTES

Lemi Ponifasio

Theatre artist Lemi Ponifasio founded MAU in Auckland in 1995, a collaboration of communities and artists from all over the world.

MAU is a Samoan word that means a declaration to the truth of a matter or revolution as an effort to transform.

In his artistic universe, Ponifasio orients the modern individual towards other dimensions of consciousness by way of the decelerated rhythm of his strict aesthetic, making use of striking images, movement and dynamic interplay of light and darkness. A pioneer at the international frontier of dance and theatre art, his theatre vision transcends the barriers between genres and cultures and transmits the universal power of art. Lemi Ponifasio presents his productions in such places as the Avignon Festival, BAM, Ruhrtriennale, Edinburgh International Festival, Theatre de la Ville Paris, London's Southbank, Holland Festival, Luminato Festival, Festival and Berliner Festspiele. I AM, Ponifasio’s most recent work, premiered at the Avignon Festival 2014 followed by seasons at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Ruhrtriennale, Germany, and I AM MAPUCHE for Festival Santiago a Mil, Chile. His other creations include Birds With Skymirrors responding to the disappearing Pacific Islands, homelands to most of his dancers and devastated by climate change; Tempest: Without A Body, concerning our collective paralysis in the face of truth, symbolized by increased and unlawful use of state power post 9/11; Le Savali: Berlin confronting the imperial City of Berlin with its own communities, the young generation of immigrant families in search of belonging and constrained by threat of deportation; The Crimson House probing the nature of power and subjectivity in our panoptic state – a world that sees all and no longer forgets; and Stones In Her Mouth, a work with Maori women as transmitters of a life force through oratory, ancient chants, choral-work and dance. In 2012 Ponifasio staged the epic opera Prometheus by Carl Orff for the Ruhrtriennale.

Jerril Rechter

Jerril Rechter is the CEO of VicHealth. She has extensive experience in leadership across the areas of government and not-for-profit sectors.

Jerril is a World Health Organization Advisor, a board member of the International Network of Health Promotion Foundations, a member of Victoria’s Justice Health Ministerial Advisory Council and a member of the Liquor Control Advisory Council. She regularly presents at state, national and international conferences and events to share her experiences in health promotion, leadership, the arts, and the potential of innovations to improve health and wellbeing for everyone.

She has served on various state and national boards and committees, including VicHealth's, as Board Member from 2004 to 2010. Her Ministerial appointments have included the Victorian Eating Disorders Taskforce, Australia Day Committee Victoria, Australia Council for the Arts Deputy Chair Dance Board, Arts Tasmania Board, Brand Tasmania Board and the Community Leaders Group Tasmania.

Jerril is a recipient of a Centenary Medal, Tasmania Day Award, and Fellowships from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, Australia Council, Harvard Club of Australia, the Australian Davos Forum-Future Summit, and Williamson Community Leadership Program (Leadership Victoria).

Jerril holds a Master of Business Leadership from RMIT University. Jerril has held executive positions at Leadership Victoria, Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, Footscray Community Arts Centre, and founded Stompin Youth Dance Company.

PANELS

The academic artist: oxymoron or creative synergy?

Chair - Cheryl Stock

Professor Cheryl Stock, PhD, AM has a career spanning 40 years as a dancer, choreographer, director, educator, researcher and advocate, and in 2014 was honoured for her service in these areas with an Order of Australia. Currently Cheryl is Secretary General of World Dance Alliance and Adjunct Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology where she previously held positions as Head of Dance, Coordinator of Doctorate of Creative Industries and Director of Postgraduate Studies. Founding Artistic Director of Dance North, Cheryl has created over 50 dance works and her doctorate in intercultural performance engendered 20 collaborative exchanges in Asia. Her publications and practice encompass interdisciplinary and interactive site specific performance, contemporary Australian and Asian dance, and practice-led doctoral research. Cheryl is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2015 was appointed Artistic Advisor to Dance North in addition to guest teaching appointments at National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and Taipei National University of the Arts. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Stock,_Cheryl.html www.accentedbody.com

Speakers – Julie-Anne Long, Shaun McLeod, Jo Pollitt

Julie-Anne Long is an award winning independent dance artist based in Sydney. Since graduating from the Victorian College of Arts in the early 1980s she has performed and choreographed on a wide range of projects with companies such as Human Veins, One Extra, Theatre of Image, Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Bell Shakespeare Company, Open City and Dance Works. From 1991-1996 Julie-Anne was Associate Artistic Director of One Extra Company with Artistic Director Graeme Watson. She has worked in a variety of dance contexts as mentor, dramaturg, curator and producer including Acting Director of dance research organisation Critical Path (2006/2007) and Dance Curator at Campbelltown Arts Centre (2009/2010). Julie-Anne was awarded an Australia Council Dance Fellowship in 2007, which encompassed research, development and the realisation of a body of work entitled The Invisibility Project. Julie-Anne has a PhD from University New South Wales and is currently Lecturer in Dance and Performance in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University.

Shaun McLeod is a lecturer in dance at Deakin University where he is also completing a PhD. He is interested in the ways in which performance improvisation intersects with choreography and particularly enjoys the qualities of attention and the presence that manifest in improvisation. The performance component for the PhD took place over 3 nights and provided the audience with watching scores to contextualise the witnessing of an improvisation practice. As a dancer he danced with Australian Dance Theatre, Danceworks, One Extra and Company in Space, as well as dancing in various independent projects. He has also choreographed in Melbourne over many years creating or collaborating on works such as In Visible Ink (1995), Cowboy Songs (1997),Fallow (for Danceworks in 1997) and Chamber (2002 winner of Green Room award for best video). He was invited to perform at the 2005 Seoul International Crossover

Improvisation Festival in South Korea, Centre, performed in john cage’s musicircus for the 2008 Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, remounted the weight of the thing left its mark in Dance Massive 2011, and was one of the 20 choreographers chosen for Dancehouse’s 20th year celebration performance Alive! (2012).

Jo Pollitt is a dancer, choreographer and writer whose practice is grounded in performance improvisation and creative arts research. As the director of the response project - initiated in 2000, Jo works with performers as authorities in revealing traces of lived experience and physical imagination. Her response work is focused on the development of improvisation as a performance form and on the integration of embodied methods for writing like dancing through an investigation of timing, structure and disruption on the continuum of creative process. Jo holds an MA in Creative Arts and has worked with various companies and artists including Tasdance, STRUT, Jennifer Monson (Syd/Melb/New York) and Rosalind Crisp (Perth, Berlin, Sydney). Jo was Co-director of the 1999 Hobart Fringe Festival and was dance curator of Boiler Room - a national improvisation festival in 2002-03. Choreographed works include Room, Re-render for Chrissie Parrott; Check Point Solo for Rhiannon Newton performed at Judson Church, New York, and Under the Radar Festival, Brisbane; the Beast trilogy with Paea Leach, and Divided. She has created work by commission for PICA, LINK dance company and KATH - The , and has been published in journals and magazines, led multiple workshops on writing for dancers, and written several dance scripts. She is an Australian Dance Awards panellist and honorary life member of Artrage. Jo lectures in improvisation at WAAPA, works as a dramaturg and mentor for artists Nationally, reviews for The West Australian, fronts the writing/dancing project co-works with Paea Leach and is the Co-Creative Director of both BIG Kids Magazine and the Mother Artist Network. 2015 sees her embarking on her PhD with the working title “Attention, Momentum and Compression: A danced document of embodied fiction”

Dance Massive Artists Panel

Chair – Emily Sexton Emily is a curator, producer and festival director from Melbourne. She is currently Head of Programming for The Wheeler Centre of Books, Writing and Ideas, and a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow for 2015-16.

From 2010-14 Emily was Artistic Director and co-CEO of Next Wave, Australia’s leading contemporary arts organisation for emerging artists.

Over 2010-14 Next Wave became a festival of contemporary ideas and debate, as well as a riveting and explosive context for the presentation of outstanding new work by emerging artists. According to The Age, Emily’s key achievements for Next Wave include diversifying its demographic reach through a radical rethink of an arts festival model. She also expanded the organisation’s representation of culturally diverse practitioners, and achieved substantial increases in funding, ticket sales and festival attendance.

From 2008-10 Emily was Creative Producer for Melbourne Fringe. During this time Emily’s demonstrated her passion for interdisciplinary practice, and seeding provocative collaborations between contemporary artists in Australia and in Asia. This was seen in such projects at 2010’s keynote, Visible City, in collaboration with Martyn Coutts.

Emily is a regular public speaker on leadership, festivals and contemporary art, in Australia and overseas.

Speakers – Martin del Amo, Katrina Lazaroff, Anouk van Dijk, Zaimon Vilmanis, Clare Watson

Martin del Amo, originally from Germany, is a Sydney-based choreographer and dancer. He started out as solo artist, acclaimed for his full-length solos, fusing idiosyncratic movement and intimate storytelling. In recent years, Martin has also built a strong reputation as creator of group works and solos for others including Slow Dances For Fast Times (2013), Anatomy of an Afternoon (2012) and Mountains Never Meet (2011). Martin regularly teaches for a wide range of arts organisations and companies and has extensively worked as mentor, consultant and dramaturg. He also writes and frequently contributes to RealTime magazine. Martin has been nominated for a Helpmann Award (2012) and two Australian Dance Awards (2010 and 2005). His work has toured nationally and internationally (UK, Japan, Brazil). Last year, he presented Anatomy of an Afternoon with great success at Southbank Centre in London. His most recent venture has been Songs Not To Dance To, a collaboration with Lismore-based dance artist Phil Blackman presented at Paramatta Riverside earlier this month. Martin is supported through MAPS NSW and Performing Lines.

Katrina Lazaroff is the founder and Artistic Director of SA independent dance theatre company, One Point 618.www.onepoint618.com.au She has worked extensively as a dancer, choreographer, director, creative producer and dance educator. She graduated with a BA in Dance at the University of in 1996, Honours in Dance at WAAPA in 2001 and studied at the Hooger Instituit Voor Danse in in 1997. She has worked

for companies such as; Buzz Dance Theatre, Steamworks Productions, & Dancers, Patch Theatre Company, Restless Dance Company, Strut Dance, Perth Theatre Company Steps Youth Dance Company, Diwali Dance House and with numerous independent choreographers including; Thomas Lehmen (Germany), Clare Dyson (QLD), Bianca Martin, Claudia Alessi (WA) Sarah Neville, Naida Chinner (SA), Olivia Millard, Ingrid Voorendt and Vanessa Ellis (Vic.)

She is a casual lecturer at Adelaide College of the Arts and has worked as technique teacher for Australian Dance Theatre, Move Through Life Dance Company and numerous other dance organisations. She has worked as the creative producer of Expressway Arts, Carclew and directed the 2008 Ausdance ACT Youth Dance Festival.

Katrina has enjoyed numerous national tours and international tours to the Shanghai International Arts Festival, the Beijing International Dance Festival, the Assiitej Festival in Seoul, Korea and recently to IPAY in Philadelphia, USA.

Anouk van Dijk is the Artistic Director of Chunky Move, Victoria’s flagship contemporary dance company. She is a choreographer, director and the creator behind the movement system Countertechnique.

Van Dijk premiered her debut work for Chunky Move, An Act of Now, at the iconic Sydney Myer Music Bowl as part of the 2012 Melbourne Festival. The production went on to win The Age Critics’ Award for Best New Australian Work. This was followed in 2013 by 247 Days (Dance Massive), the first installment of the Embodiment series – 1:1:1 – at ACCA, gentle is the power at the 2014 SOLO Festival of Dance in Brisbane and SummerSalt Festival 2015, and Complexity of Belonging at Melbourne Festival 2014. Her latest work, Depth of Field (Dance Massive 2015), forms the second part of the Embodiment series.

Before relocating to Australia, Van Dijk had an extensive career in Europe, touring worldwide with her Dutch company anoukvandijk dc, performing at the world’s leading festivals and venues including Festival d'Avignon, , Sydney Opera House, MASS MoCA, Perth International Arts Festival, Dance Triennale Tokyo, American Dance Festival and Festival TransAmériques. Van Dijk’s long collaborative partnership with German writer and director Falk Richter has resulted in the creation of five critically acclaimed productions that have toured in Europe and internationally. Van Dijk started to create site-specific work in 2011 with the Mensch series - her first serial work. In 2012 Van Dijk was awarded the Golden Swan (Gouden Zwaan) – the ’ most prestigious dance accolade – in recognition of her outstanding artistic and academic contribution to dance in her home country.

Zaimon Vilmanis - A revered performer, Zaimon’s twenty year international career has included dancing for Random Dance Company and Attik Dance Company (U.K.), EDC (Brisbane), Leigh Warren and Dancers (Adelaide), as well as a number of independent artists in Australia.

In 2008, frustrated with the limitations of working for others as a professional dancer, he moved into the pioneering world of independent dance to discover his own artistic voice. In 2010, as an inaugural recipient of the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts' Fresh Ground Residency, he collaborated with performer Liz Vilmanis and video artist, Ryadan Jeavons on the "A Likely Distrust Project"(ALDP). This collaborative

investigation into (DIS)trust realised the strength of his partnership with Liz and initiated the formation of Prying Eye Productions.

A Brisbane Powerhouse PowerLab Residency (2012) continued the "ALDP”, developing effective collaboration and rewarded exciting dance theatre material. JWCoCA recognised potential and supported Prying Eye to premiere their first full length work, "White Porcelain Doll". Stage Whispers recounts that "The audience was spellbound." (2014)

Zaimon represented Australia for the International Young Choreographers Project (Taiwan 2011) and participated in the Annual -Croatia-Australia Artists Dance Exchange (2014).

Prying Eye received an Ausdance QLD Creative Development in 2014, kick starting the development of "WOLF", marking the next step in Zaimon's development as a creative collaborator/director. Prying Eye showcasing material for the Dance Massive Open Studios this March has brought Zaimon here to Melbourne.

Clare Watson Since graduating from VCA in 2002, Clare has worked freelance in a wide range of contexts, from intimate and intricate installations to large-scale presentations at the Victorian Arts Centre and the Sydney Opera House. Her work has won and been nominated for a number of awards including the Inaugural Best Direction Award for Melbourne Fringe, Green Room Awards and Sydney Theatre Awards. She has a particular penchant for the synthetic aesthetic of The Eighties, as evidenced by her work on The Man with the September Face by Kylie Trounson (Fairfax, Arts Centre) and Smashed by Lally Katz (Griffin Theatre). The solo work, Sucker, which she created with Lawrence Leung, (Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Fringe – Assembly Rooms) is currently in production as a feature film.

In 2014, Clare participated in the MTC Women Directors program and was the Female Director in Residence at Malthouse Theatre. Her most recent works include I Heart John McEnroe (TheatreWorks – nominated for 5 Greenroom Awards) and What Rhymes with Cars and Girls (MTC). Fitter. Faster. Better. is Clare’s first work as Artistic Director of St Martins.

From black box to white box

Chair – Hannah Mathews

Hannah Mathews is a Melbourne-based curator with a particular interest in performative modes of practice. She graduated with a Master of Art Curatorship from the University of Melbourne in 2002 and has worked in curatorial positions at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (2005-07); Monash University Museum of Art (2005); Next Wave Festival (2003-04); The South Project (2003-04); Vizard Foundation Art Collection, the Ian Potter Museum of Art (2002); and the Biennale of Sydney (2000-02). Hannah has completed curatorial residencies in New York, Berlin, Tokyo and , and in early 2008 commenced freelance curatorial work, including an ongoing role as Associate Curator with the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art where she has curated Framed Movements (2014), In the Cut (2013); Power to the People: Contemporary Conceptualism and the Object in Art (2011), NEW11 (2011), ART#1 and #2 ACCA’s Regional Touring program (2011-10) and Johanna Billing: Tiny Movements (2009). Hannah has recently initiated an occasional series of projects that engage with choreography and the visual arts. To date this has included: Action/Response, a two night cross-disciplinary program for the 2013 Dance Massive Festival; a 4-day workshop and performance of Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney (2013); a week long workshop of Trisha Brown’s Early Works (2014) in Melbourne; and To write, a writers program for the 2015 Dance Massive Festival. Hannah teaches curatorial studies at RMIT University of Melbourne and sits on the boards of NAVA, Art Monthly Australia and International Art Space, Western Australia.

Speakers – Phillip Adams, Atlanta Eke, Alison Currie, Latai Taumopeau

Phillip Adams is the founder and Artistic Director of BalletLab, forming the company upon his return home from New York in 1998. Phillip Adams BalletLab creates unforgettable contemporary performance that defies expectation. Rooted within its founding notion of a laboratory, sixteen years later PABL continues to experiment with choreographic form and collaborative artists; creating powerful, interdisciplinary works both in Australia and around the world.

Phillip is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and his performing arts background spans a 25 year career in contemporary dance. Phillip lived and worked in New York for a decade after being awarded the ANZ International Fellowship Award in 1988. He was a member of several leading dance companies and worked with many independent choreographers including BeBe Miller, Trisha Brown, Irene Hultman, Sarah Rudner, Amanda Miller, Donna Uchizono and Nina Wiener.

His achievements and qualifications cover a range of creative ventures including commissions, touring, awards, residencies, mentoring and a highly regarded body of artistic works. Phillip has been commissioned by several leading dance and theatre companies including The Australian Ballet, Arena Theatre, Chunky Move, Back to Back Theatre, Festival of Mexico for Lux Boreal, Guongdong Modern Dance Company (China), Dance Works Rotterdam (Nederlands), City Contemporary Dance Company (Hong Kong), Tasdance, Sydney Mardi Gras and One Extra Co. Phillip is regularly commissioned by Australian dance institutions and universities, and teaches workshops nationally and internationally.

Alison Currie is a maker and performer of dance with a BA in Dance Performance from Adelaide Collage of the Arts 2003. In 2007 she was awarded the inaugural Arts SA triennial project grant for her first major work 42a which premiered at the Australian Experimental Art Foundation in 2008 and toured to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne in 2010. Alison choreographed Restless Dance Theatre’s Bedroom Dancing that was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Youth and Community Dance 2010 Australian Dance Awards.

Her other major works include: Three ways to hold co-directed with visual artist Bridget Currie for South Australian School of Art gallery in 2010, this work was viewed as four performances and three weeks of sculptural installations created by each of the performances. Solo a reinterpretation from a memory of Pere Faura’s work she viewed once in 2005 and performed in 2011 as part ofReturn to Sender at Performance Space, Sydney, and Build, Hold, Destroy as part of Window World free outdoor event commissioned by Adelaide Fringe Festival 2013. Her latest work I Can Relate will screen as part of 24 Frames Per Second at Carriageworks, Sydney later this year.

Alison is currently based between Adelaide and London completing a research masters in choreography and performance at Roehampton University.

Atlanta Eke is a dancer and choreographer working internationally. Atlanta was a DanceWEB Europe scholarship recipient 2010 in Vienna, and received Next Wave Kickstart 2011, Dancehouse Housemate residency 2012 in Melbourne, and ArtStart Grant recipient. She performed for Sidney Leoni in Undertones atTamz in August Berlin and Marten Spangbergs Page 74, ImPulsTanz Festival Vienna. Atlanta performed in Jan Ritesmas Oedipus My Foot throughout Europe as well as participating in Allianz-The Agora Project (Performing Arts Forum). Her solo MONSTER BODY has been presented at the 2012 Next Wave Festival, SEXES Festival Performance Space Sydney, 2013 Dance Massive Festival Melbourne, MONA FOMA Festival Hobart, MDT , BACKFLIP Feminism and Humour in Contemporary Art, Margaret Lawrence Gallery and the Fierce Festival in Birmingham. Atlanta presented her work Untitled at the NVG for the Melbourne Now exhibition, she performed the work of Marina Abramovics and Joan Jonas at the Kaldor Public Art Project #27: 13 Rooms in Sydney and is currently performing in Maria Hassabis work Intermissionfor the Melbourne Festival. In recent months Atlanta has premiered her works Fountain at Chunky Move, andOrgan, made in collaboration with composer Daniel Jenatsch, at Liquid Architecture Festival, she is an Arts House Culture Lab resident for her work I CON and is the recipient of the 2014 inaugural Keir Choreographic Award for her latest work Body Of Work.

Latai Taumoepeau is a Punake, body-centered performance artist; her story is of her homelands, the Island Kingdom of Tonga and her birthplace; the Eora Nation – Sydney, and everything far and in-between. She mimicked, trained and un-learned dance, in multiple institutions of knowledge, starting with her village, a suburban church hall, nightclubs and a university.

Latai activates Indigenous philosophies and methodologies; cross-pollinating ancient practices of ceremony with her contemporary processes & performance work to re- interpret, re-generate and extend her movement practice and its function in and from Oceania. She engages in the socio-political landscape of Australia with sensibilities in race, class & the female body politic; committed to bringing the voice of marginalised communities to the frangipani-less fore ground.

Her last name Tau-Moe-Peau translates battle with waves a title, inherited form her ancestor a master celestial navigator and sea voyager. She will embark in this training as an ancient form of embodied practice and resistance to climate change and eventual submergence of her home-Is-land.

Contemporary dance happens here: deploying dance in regional settings

Chair – Annette Carmichael (see biography above)

Speakers – Jacob Boehme, Britt Guy, Lesley Graham, Julian Louis

Jacob Boehme is a Melbourne born and based artist, descendant of the Narangga and Kaurna nations of , www.jacobboehme.com.au .

Jacob is an independent artist and the Artistic Director of IDJA: Melbourne based Indigenous contemporary dance theatre, established in 2011. Jacob is a trained Dancer / Choreographer (Diploma in Dance, NAISDA, 2000), Puppeteer (Post Graduate Diploma & Masters in Puppetry, Victorian College of the Arts, 2006/2007) and Playwright (Masters in Writing for Performance, Victorian College of the Arts, 2014) creating multi-disciplinary theatre, dance and ceremony, for stage, screen, large-scale public events and festivals, including Melbourne Festival Tanderrum, ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, FINA World Swimming Championships & Dreamtime at the G.

Jacob’s contemporary theatre practice is influenced by and has its foundations in traditional Aboriginal dance and storytelling. Jacob has worked with Elders (Song Men and Song Women) and youth from remote and rural Aboriginal communities for over 20 years, leading Inter-generational Cultural Maintenance Programs and the Research and Revival of Traditional Dance, ensuring traditional Aboriginal culture remain a living and contemporary practice. Jacob is alumni of the British Council’s ACCELERATE Indigenous Leaders Program 2014 and recipient of Asialink 2010, working across disciplines of puppetry and dance, with Ishara Puppet Theatre in New Delhi.

Jacob is currently in development of his solo dance theatre work Blood on the Dance Floor, to premiere in 2016.

Lesley Graham has been active in dance and dance education for over 30 years. She is employed by the Tasmanian Education Department.

Lesley holds a Masters in Dance Studies and was a dancer with Tasdance (Jenny Kinder). Teaching positions include Lecturer in Dance Education, QUT and UTas. For the past two years she has taught into the Salamanca Arts Centre Space Dance Certificate IV and Diploma of Dance Teaching and Management courses and currently lectures into the UTAS Masters of Teaching (Arts Education) and B Ed. Primary courses.

Lesley was the Education Consultant on Lagaw Gub Torres Strait Island Dance Kit (featuring the dance of Dennis Newie and St Paul, Moa Island - unpublished) and contributed Dance units to the. Lesley has recently developed the Education Resources for Bangarra Dance Theatre in partnership with Education Services Australia and was recently engaged to write online support material for the ABC Splash project including a Dance Digibook.

Lesley is actively involved in community projects, assisting on the Mkono Kwa Mkono project, with Kickstart Arts and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and recently received an award for her contributions to the African Australian community.

She actively mentors artists working in schools through the AIR project and less formal partnerships. In her position of Curriculum Area Leader – The Arts at Ogilvie High, she has developed formal partnerships between the school and MADE, Kickstart Arts, Salamanca Arts Centre, Second Echo Ensemble, DRILL performance and Tasdance to allow access for these companies to professional studio spaces and for the community to professional artists. Lesley writes for The Mercury and Dance Australia, and has just completed a term of four years on the Ausdance Australian Dance Awards panel.

Britt Guy is a producer, curator, community arts and youth worker who has worked across a range of agencies both nationally and internationally. Britt’s experience includes roles within not for profit organisations (Flying Arts, Youth Arts Qld, Metro Arts), festivals and events (Brisbane, Sydney, Darwin, Melbourne, Newcastle, Slovenia, Cambodia, Croatia) and local government (Brisbane, Logan and Darwin). Within these roles she has established and built upon programs and festivals that invest in the work and development of artists and their creative practices while creating high quality creative community programming. Britt established her own company in 2013 which independently facilitates and produces high quality programming with experimental artists, working with innovative community participation models. Through this she established and runs two unique trans – cultural artist exchange programs in Slovenia, Croatia and Cambodia, and a contemporary dance initiative Dance Satellite that develops and presents contemporary dance with regional communities. She currently is also the Producer: Dance and Theatre at Artback NT.

Julian Louis is an Australian theatre director, dramaturg and devisor - graduate of CSU Theatre Media, NIDA Director’s course and trained with Phillippe Gaulier.

Julian has worked across a range of theatre sectors including physical theatre, children’s theatre and community art projects.

Julian is Artistic Director of NORPA (Northern Rivers Performing Arts), one of Australia’s most exciting regional theatre companies based in Lismore, Northern NSW. NORPA creates site - specific, high quality devised theatre that connects to the region through its process, and by staging works outside the conventional theatre model. NORPA presents an annual Season, made up of original productions, national and international touring works and community cultural events.

For NORPA Julian has conceived and Directed Railway Wonderland (2012/2015), performed on Lismore’s disused railway train station, and commissioned My Radio Heart (a co-production with Urban Theatre Projects). Current works also include Devisor/ Director Dreamer, collaborator/outside eye on Cockfight a dance theatre work with THE FARM and Co -Director on Bundjalung Nghari: Three Brothers with leading artists including Rhoda Roberts, David Page and Frances Rings.

Julian’s practice focuses on devised theatre and infusing movement or dance language into narrative based work. www.norpa.org.au Twitter @NORPAOz

Dance criticism, writing & discourse

Chair – Ashley Dyer (see biography above)

Speakers – Matthew Day, Jana Perković, Vicki van Hout, Jordan Beth Vincent

Matthew Day (1979) is interested in the potential of choreography to negotiate unorthodox relationships and propose new ways of being human. Utilizing a minimalist approach, he often works with duration and repetition, approaching the body as a site of infinite potential, and choreography as a field of energetic intensity and exchange.

Raised in Sydney, Day was a teenage ballroom dancing champion. He studied Dance and Performance Studies in Sydney and Melbourne (2003-2005), before collaborating with students at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam (2006-2009). Day has been an artist in residence, and presented his work extensively in Australia and Europe. He is currently based between Melbourne and Amsterdam where he is undertaking the Amsterdam Masters of Choreography.

Jana Perković is a performance and dance writer, dramaturg and urbanist. Her work focuses on the intersection between urban policy and arts, immersive design and performance practice, and geographical theories. She teaches at Victorian College of the Arts, and in Melbourne School of Design, at University of Melbourne.

Her writing on performance has appeared, among others, in The Guardian, RealTime, Exeunt Magazine, Dancehouse Diary, The Lifted Brow, Crikey. She has been the Literary Manager for MKA Theatre of New Writing since 2012, and is currently a member of Artistic Counsel for Malthouse Theatre.

Vicki Van Hout is a Wiradjuri woman born on the south coast of NSW. An independent choreographer, performance-maker and teacher, she has worked across a range of performance mediums nationally and internationally. Her work practice emanates from the belief that all cultural information is fluid in its relevance and that we both exchange in and adhere to patterns of cultural behaviour and its tacit meanings. In particular, Vicki’s work aims to explore the commonality between traditional and urban cultural experience, and how indigenous cultural information can be drawn upon to make sense of both.

A graduate of the National Aboriginal Islander Dance College (NAISDA), Vicki has learnt and performed dances from Yirrkala, and Christmas Creeks, Mornington and Bathurst Islands, as well as Murray, Moa and Saibai Islands in the Torres Strait. Vicki also studied at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York and has danced with companies including Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre and Bangarra Dance Theatre. Vicki has danced for culturally significant events, including the 30th Anniversary of the 1967 Aboriginal Referendum and the first Indigenous opening of Parliament in the lead up to the 2008 National Apology. In addition to her ongoing work in Australia, Vicki has secured several international choreographic residencies, which have included engagements in and Singapore through the World Dance Alliance. She regularly choreographs for a range of diverse educational and arts organisations and collaborates with other performance artists. She has been part of de Quincey Co’s

ImproLab over several years. Vicki performed for the 2010 Sydney Festival in Urban Theatre Projects’ critically acclaimed production of The Fence, which won Best Independent Production at the Sydney Theatre Awards.

Her last show, Briwyant, premiered at Performance Space in 2011, and toured to Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne), Brisbane Powerhouse and Darwin Festival in 2012, the first ever national tour of a work by an independent indigenous choreographer. It was nominated for an Australian Dance Award for Best Achievement in Independent Dance. Vicki was recently awarded the 2014 NSW Dance Fellowship for established and mid- career artists – the first Indigenous winner of the Fellowship.

Vicki is Resident Blogger for FORM Dance Projects http://form.org.au/blog/

Jordan Beth Vincent has a dance background and a PhD in 20th century Australian dance history. She is an Associate Research Fellow at the Deakin Motion.Lab, researching movement and digital technology, and lectures in dance history at the Victorian College of the Arts. Jordan reviews dance for The Age newspaper, Dance International Magazine and DanceTabs (UK) and has previously contributed to the Australian Book Review and the Sydney Review of Books.

Crossing borders: International collaboration

Chair – Jeff Khan

Jeff Khan is Artistic Director of Performance Space, Sydney. He is a writer and curator working across dance, visual arts and performance.

Speakers – Tim Darbyshire, Thomas E. S. Kelly, Pirjetta Mulari, Paul Selwyn Norton, Ade Suharto

Tim Darbyshire's works employ physicality, choreography, sound, set and lighting design, visual installations and text, exploring ambiguities and paradox between performative states.

Tim studied Dance at Queensland University of Technology (2003). His education has continued through programs including DanceWEB (Scholarship recipient in 2006 and 2009), Formation d'artiste Chorégraphique at Centre National de Danse Contemporaine (France 2006-2007) and Victoria University’s Solo Residency program (2008). He has worked with choreographers including Vera Mantero, Emmanuelle Huyhn, Nuno Bizarro, Meg Stuart, David Wampach, Marianne Baillot, Antonio Julio, Christine de Schmedt, Eszter Salamon, Shelley Lasica and Matthew Day.

In 2012 he presented More or Less Concrete at Arts House, followed by a remount for Dance Massive in 2013 and a European premiere at Noorderzon Festival in the Netherlands. In 2014 he was commissioned to develop a short work for the Inaugural Keir Choreographic Awards as well as undertaking an IETM residency program in Europe and an exchange project between Campbelltown Arts Centre and Zodiac Centre for New Dance in Helsinki. His new work Stampede the Stampede premieres in Dance Massive 2015, after which he will undertake an Australia Council Residency at Cite des Arts in Paris and research for his next work Entitled TITLE.

Thomas E. S. Kelly is a proud Wiradjuri and Bundjalung man from Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.

In 2012 he graduated from NAISDA Dance College (National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association) and has since worked with the likes of Graeme Watson, Kim Walker, Taane Mete(NZ), Tairoa Royal(NZ), Jock Soto(USA) and Lina Cruz (CAN).

In 2014 Thomas had a Jump Mentorship under Vicki Van Hout. During that time he had the opportunity to complete the NIDA Acting Techniques 1 short course at NIDA. He also was able to begin a first stage development on a 25 minute solo work, “Jarrah’s Old Uncle”, at Campbelltown Arts Centre.

Thomas choreographed a small work for Short + Sweet Sydney titled “NYUNGA” which was received quite well, remounted twice and extended into a 20 minute piece for the Homeground Festival at the Sydney Opera House.

In September 2014 Thomas went to Canada where he partook in a 4 week professional Indigenous Dance Residency where he danced and choreographed in the show “Trace” which was performed at the Summer Banff Festival in Alberta, Canada under the direction of Red Sky’s Artistic Director Sandra Laronde(CAN).

He toured to Hong Kong and Singapore for Kids Fest 2015 as a puppeteer with Erth Visual & Physical Incorporated as part of their Dinosaur Petting Zoo. Thomas is currently performing in Vicki Van Hout’s latest full-length work “Long Grass” which had it’s world premiere at the 2015 Sydney Festival at the Seymour Centre and will have a season as part of the 2015 Dance Massive Festival in Melbourne.

Pirjetta Mulari (b. 1971) has been working as the manager for international affairs at Dance Info since 2005. She has been developing Dance Info Finland’s international work and within that programmes such as Korea-Finland Connection; exchange, co-production and residence programmes between Japan and Finland; and Australia-Finland Dance Exchange. Mulari is active through her job in Nordic collaboration projects (kedja, ICE HOT), and also the Finnish partner for Aerowaves network in Europe. Prior to her current job, Mulari has been working in different managerial positions including Helsinki 2000 – European Cultural City office, Nomadi Productions, Heureka – the Finnish Science Centre and Dance Arena. She has MA in Dance Studies from the Laban Centre, London, and studies in Physical Education, Law and Cultural Politics from Finland. She worked as a choreographer and dance teacher before turning into arts management.

Paul Selwyn Norton (1964) has been a professional dancer, choreographer and teacher for the past 27 years. As an autodidact he ‘hunted and gathered’ his way up to the Batsheva Dance Company and William Forsythe’s prestigious Ballet Frankfurt.

Paul initially worked under the auspices of Korzo Theatre in the Netherlands and after a series of successful productions, set up his own foundation ‘no apology’ in 2003. These productions have toured extensively in most of the major global dance festivals receiving a range of national and international prizes.

Commissions include Batsheva Dance Company, Frankfurt Ballet, Pretty/Ugly Dance Company, Galili Dance. His Australian works are to be seen at Chunky Move, Stalker Theatre and String’s Attached.

Paul has taught choreographic practice to both undergraduate and post-graduate students in Amsterdam and Rotterdam Academy of Performing Arts and has worked as a freelance consultant and dramaturge.

As Director of STRUT Dance, Paul has now positioned the organisation to become the National Choreographic Centre based in Perth, Western Australia. Paul is an avid gardener, SCUBA diver instructor and writer of children’s literature.

Ade Suharto - Adelaide-born dance artist, Ade Suharto has worked with prominent artists in the Asia-Pacific region, including choreographers Boi Sakti (IND), Hartati (IND) and Lemi Ponifasio (NZ).

As solo performer/choreographer, Ade’s collaboration with composer David Kotlowy, ‘In Lieu’,debuted at the ’s OzAsia Festival in 2011. In 2013, ‘In Lieu’ made its UK premiere at the Southbank Centre to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the South Bank Gamelan Players. Ade premiered her second full- length work, ‘Ontosoroh’ in collaboration with Indonesian-based composer/vocalist

Peni Candra Rini, at OzAsia Festival 2013, with subsequent performances at WOMADelaide and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in 2014.

Most recently, Ade has performed with Brian Ritchie on shakuhachi and Simon Barker on percussion for the 2015 Adelaide Festival of the Arts.

For her performances in her work, Ade has been acknowledged as a ‘Dancer to Watch’ in Dance Australia magazine’s Annual Critics’ Survey in 2011 and 2013.

Ade has received project funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, Australia- Indonesia Institute, Arts SA, Carclew Youth Arts and Ian Potter Cultural Trust. Her work has been developed with the support of Australian Dance Theatre’s Enhancement program, Ausdance SA, Bundanon Trust and a 2012 Asialink Performing Arts Residency.

Integrated practice

Chair – Andrew Morrish (see biography above)

Speakers – Philip Channells, Janice Florence, Michelle Ryan, Kate Sulan

Philip Channells (director / choreographer) is an artist with disability – considered one of Australia’s leading disability-inclusive dance practitioners. He is Creative Director of Dance Integrated Australia, former Artistic Director of Restless Dance Theatre (2009 – 20012), and has worked in the UK with Candoco, StopGAP and Corali dance companies, Adam Benjamin and the Scottish Dance Theatre.

Philip is fiercely committed to the development of thriving artistic cultural communities that integrate people from diverse age groups, backgrounds and life experience.

Through his work in regional NSW, across Australia, the UK, , Finland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea, Philip builds a collaborative environment conducive to creativity and social inclusion.

As an Ambassador of Bundanon Trust’s Artist In Residence program Philip initiated the Beyond Technique Residency project and is collaborating with filmmaker Sam James on NO TIME LIKE NOW. In 2014 & 2015 he joined forces with Gavin Webber (The Farm) and local, interstate and international artists on The Corner Dance Lab project in Federal, NSW.

Some of his choreographic credits include: The Main Event (2014 & 2015), PERFECT (im)PERFECTIONS – stories untold (2014), Skin-deep, Enter & Exit (2013), Second Skin, inPerspective #1, Lythophytes & Epiphytes (2012), Next of Kin (2010).

Janice Florence (Artistic Director Weave Movement Theatre) has been dancing for many years before and after becoming paraplegic. She has trained in and the USA(Anna Halprin, Joan Skinner, Nancy Stark-Smith). Her dance explorations have spanned many years and many places, with improvisation techniques a strong focus. For over 10 years she was a performer, teacher and researcher in State of Flux, a small company researching Contact Improvisation in combination with other dance improvisation forms . Janice has developed her own unique vision and style for integrated dance, directing Weave Movement Theatre for the past 17 years, including numerous productions, inviting many dance and theatre artists as collaborators. She has taken part in residences including CanDoCo and Blue Eyed Soul (UK). She plays an important role as an inclusive arts advocate. She is part of the management team at Cecil St Studio, Fitzroy. She has twice been awarded professional development grants by the Dance Board at the Australia Council to research inclusive and other dance artists and companies in the USA and UK. In 2014 the Australia Council selected her to participate in the Sync Disability Arts leadership residency.

Michelle Ryan - Michelle has worked in the arts for over twenty-five years. She was a performer and assistant for in Canberra, at Australian Dance Theatre in Adelaide and on projects in Europe. Michelle was a founding member of Splintergroup and Associate Artist for lawn, roadkill and underneath. From 2005–2010 Michelle worked at Dancenorth in various capacities and created the dance film Nerve Ending.

Michelle worked in the disability sector for two years before returning to the stage after a 10-year hiatus. She performed in Alain Platel’s Out of Context for Pina in Brisbane Festival and Take Up Thy Bed and Walk by Gaelle Mellis in Adelaide.

In 2013, Michelle was appointed Artistic Director of Restless Dance Theatre. Since joining the company she has been a mentored for the Debut 4 season, Assistant Director for Salt, choreographed the Audrey’s film clip Baby Are You There and created In the Balance for the company’s Youth Ensemble.

Michelle continues to develop her own performance practice. She worked in collaboration with Torque Show to create Intimacy, which premiered at The Malthouse in 2014. The production was also presented at the Southbank Centre, London as part of the Unlimited Festival.

Kate Sulan is the founding Artistic Director of Rawcus, an award winning theatre company of performers with and without disability. Her work draws on dance, theatre and visual art disciplines and has been described as “a moving assertion of humanity with a wicked sense of humour”. Kate is a long-term collaborator with Back to Back Theatre. She worked as a devisor for Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, and has toured with the work as the show director to over 14 cities worldwide. She was the dramaturge for Back to Back’s Super Discount (STC, Malthouse). She has also worked as a director and dramaturge with companies such as Malthouse Theatre, Restless Dance Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Stuck Pigs Squealing, The Women’s Circus and Theatre of Speed. In 2009, Kate created a work in Ahmedabad, India as part of an Asialink Performing Arts Residency. The work was a collaboration between Darpana Performing Arts Academy and performers from Apang Manav Mandal, a home for girls with physical disabilities. Kate was a board member of the Next Wave Festival (2006-2014)