MEDIA RELEASE August 01, 2016 For immediate release

NEW BREED 2016 MEET THE NEW BREED OF AUSTRALIAN DANCE CREATORS

29 November – 10 December 2016, Carriageworks

Sydney Dance Company and Carriageworks announce four up-and-coming Australian choreographers commissioned to create new works for the acclaimed New Breed initiative that supports Australia’s next generation of dance-makers.

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Co-presented by two of Australia’s most dynamic arts organisations – Carriageworks and Sydney Dance Company – with generous support from The Balnaves Foundation, New Breed 2016 will provide Australian choreographers Rachel Arianne Ogle (Perth), Shian Law (Melbourne), Jesse Scales (Hobart) and Richard Cilli (Perth) with an invaluable opportunity to work with Australia’s finest contemporary dancers on the creation of a newly commissioned dance piece. The four new works created by the New Breed 2016 choreographers will be presented at Sydney’s premier multi-arts precinct, Carriageworks, from 29 November to 10 December 2016.

Sydney Dance Company and Carriageworks’ New Breed initiative made its debut in November 2014, supporting five young Australian choreographers through the creation and presentation of unique new dance works. Two sold out seasons in 2014 and 2015 ensued.

Following the New Breed program, Adelaide-based New Breed 2014 choreographer Gabrielle Nankivell was the recipient of the 2015 Tanja Liedtke Fellowship for her work Wildebeest. Wildebeest will now be part of Sydney Dance Company’s stunning new double bill Untamed, performed alongside Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela's latest work, Anima. New Breed 2015 premiered to much acclaim in Ludwigshaven, Germany and to meet the demand for tickets in Australia, the Sydney season was extended.

The third instalment in the New Breed initiative, delivered during 2016, will see Carriageworks and Sydney Dance Company continue their commitment to the future of Australian contemporary dance, by supporting independent choreographers Rachel Arianne Ogle, and Shian Law, and Sydney Dance Company members Jesse Scales and Richard Cilli. From August until December 2016, these dance makers will benefit from the extensive support from all departments of Australia’s leading contemporary dance company, in readiness for the showcase of their four new works from 29 November to 10 December 2016 at Carriageworks.

Sydney Dance Company Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela says, “For almost half a century, Sydney Dance Company has been the home of contemporary dance in Australia, with a strong dedication to nurturing the next generation of Australian choreographic artists. We are proud to further contribute to this legacy through a unique program, and to invest in what we believe is the very foundation of the future of Australian contemporary dance – its creators.”

Carriageworks Director Lisa Havilah says, “With New Breed 2016, Carriageworks reinforces its commitment to supporting the development of contemporary Australian Dance and to creating professional pathways for emerging choreographers. We are proud to be partnering with Sydney Dance Company and the Balnaves Foundation for the third year on this important initiative that is helping to develop new audiences for Australian dance.”

Victoria Balnaves of The Balnaves Foundation says, “The Balnaves Foundation in association with Sydney Dance Company and Carriageworks is excited to be involved in the third year of New Breed, an innovative partnership which showcases emerging choreographers. This partnership provides a commitment to ensuring that supportive creative pathways exist for independent artists. We are delighted that the previous performances of New Breed have been so well received both on a local and international platform and we are confident that this year’s selection of choreographers will enjoy equal success"

NEW BREED is made possible by

ABOUT NEW BREED

Sydney Dance Company and Carriageworks’ New Breed debuted in 2014 as a platform for the next generation of Australian choreographic talent. The initiative is made possible thanks to generous support from The Balnaves Foundation.

‘How lucky are these five 'emerging' choreographers to have the support and resources of the Sydney Dance Company and Carriageworks for their early efforts? Best of all, to have the wonderful SDC dancers to help bring their ideas to physical reality.’ – Sydney Morning Herald

Being given such an opportunity to work with the Sydney Dance Company has been likened to ‘being taken into a Rolls-Royce showroom [and] … given a bunch of keys ’ - The Australian

ABOUT SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY

Sydney Dance Company is Australia’s leading contemporary dance company, presenting new works in Sydney, around Australia and internationally, under the Artistic Direction of Rafael Bonachela. Since 1985 the Company has been resident in purpose-built studios at Pier 4 in Sydney’s Walsh Bay, minutes from the city’s famed Harbour Bridge. Its studios house the largest public dance class program in Australia, attracting nearly 80,000 participants each year. Sydney Dance Company’s DancED program is a national initiative supporting dance education for all ages, from primary students through to pre-professional dancers. A legendary force in contemporary dance in Australia, Sydney Dance Company will celebrate its 50th year in 2019.

ABOUT CARRIAGEWORKS

Carriageworks is the largest and most significant contemporary multi-arts centre of its kind in Australia. Engaging artists and audiences with contemporary ideas and issues, Carriageworks has a reputation for presenting large-scale immersive programs that are artist led and emerge from Carriageworks’ commitment to reflecting social and cultural diversity. The Carriageworks artistic program is ambitious, risk taking and unrelenting in its support of artists.

ABOUT THE BALNAVES FOUNDATION

The Balnaves Foundation is a private philanthropic organisation established in 2006 by Neil Balnaves AO to provide support to charitable enterprises across Australia. The Foundation disperses over $2.5 million annually to organisations that aim to create a better Australia through education, medicine and the arts, with a focus on young people, the disadvantaged and Indigenous communities.

Tickets are currently on sale for this limited season presentation, from 29 November to 10 December 2016 at Carriageworks. All tickets $35, for more information and bookings go to sydneydancecompany.com/newbreed2016 or carriageworks.com.au

NEW BREED is made possible by

The New Breed initiative is made possible through generous support from The Balnaves Foundation.

CHOREOGRAPHER BIOGRAPHIES

Rachel Arianne Ogle Perth, WA

Rachel Arianne is a dance artist with an extensive career as a performer, choreographer, educator and arts worker. Her investments in dance as a contemporary art form are deep and multi-faceted, encompassing artistic roles in company and independent dance, international residencies and exchange projects, tertiary lecturing, and a dedication to long-term projects within disability arts and remote communities.

She has performed with Melbourne dance company Phillip Adams’ BalletLab; Perth’s Buzz Dance Theatre, Hydra Poesis, Kompany Kido, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre and pvi collective; companies in Hong Kong, Nigeria and Europe; a range of independent artists; and the global 50collective.

Rachel Arianne’s original works include precipice (2014), Of Snowflakes and Spacetime for the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2014), We Are Made Of Stardust for Link Dance Company, which undertook a European and Australian tour (2013); and her solo work Where You End & I Begin in Perth’s Proximity Festival (2013). In 2009 Rachel was the recipient of the inaugural Future Moves Mid-Career Contemporary Dance Fellowship, participating in the international project ‘50 Days in Costa Rica’ with renowned dance artist David Zambrano.

Shian Law Melbourne, VIC

Shian Law received formal training in dance at The Victorian College of the Arts and regularly works as a performer, collaborator and choreographer in the context of dance, live art intervention and trans-media performance.

Shian’s investigation expands across many artistic platforms through his collaborative practice. His works utilise other formal tools to assign discursive frameworks, investigating the way we experience dance in the theatre. Grandeur, intimacy, spectatorship and historicity are the recurring motifs.

Shian has worked closely with choreographer/mentor Jo Lloyd, Phillip Adams, Deanne Butterworth and Mikala Dwyer and presented works in International Symposium of Electronic Art, Melbourne International Festival, Dance Massive Festival, Melbourne Now, MONA FOMA, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Next Wave Festival, Pieces for Small Spaces Lucy Guerin Inc and Critical Path.

Shian received Melbourne Fringe Best Dance for Proximate Edifice, Dance Australia Best New Work and the award for Innovation in Dance (Judith Wright Centre) for Body Obscure Object respectively. He was also named ‘Dancer to Watch’ by Chris Boyd in Dance Australia, Time Out and Triple R SmartArts. His most recent work, Personal Mythologies was premiered in Next Wave Festival 2014. Shian has been supported by The Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne, City of Port Phillip, Next Wave

NEW BREED is made possible by

Kickstart, JUMP National Mentoring Program, Performance Space Stephen Cummins residency and Lucy Guerin Inc residency.

Currently, Shian is developing two new works, Psycho and Vanishing Point. He will also undertake two international residencies at Movement Research, NY and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany with the support of Tanja Liedtke Foundation and Ian Potter Cultural Trust.

Richard Cilli Perth, WA

Richard Cilli began dancing with STEPS Youth Dance Company in Perth, before studying at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Cilli joined Sydney Dance Company in 2009 and in 2010 won the Helpmann Award for Best Male Dancer for his performance in Rafael Bonachela’s We Unfold. During his four years at the Company he worked with renowned choreographers including Emanuel Gat, Jacopo Godani and Kenneth Kvarnström, and toured extensively nationally, regionally and internationally.

He was the winner of the Australian Ballet’s 50th Anniversary Ballet Competition, along with composer James Wade and designer Monica Morales, pitching the concept and treatment of a new full length ballet entitled Corpus Callosum.

In 2013 Cilli danced for London based choreographer Alexander Whitley in The Measures Taken at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. He restaged Rafael Bonachela’s work The Land of Yes and the Land of No on the students of the New Zealand School of Dance and developed and performed Qualia, a short work in collaboration with Natalie Allen for Perth’s STRUT Dance.

Cilli spent 2014 as a member of K. Kvarnström & Co, the resident dance company of Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm, Sweden. He also choreographed and staged an excerpt of his work Corpus Callosum on the dancers of the Australian Ballet for their emerging choreographers’ season Bodytorque.DNA.

2015 saw Cilli return to Sydney Dance Company. He performed in Rafael Bonachela‘s Frame of Mind, William Forsythe’s Quintett, De Novo (2015), New Breed (2015) and Triptych (2015). Frame of Mind won the 2015 Helpmann Award for ‘Best Choreography in a Dance Work’ and ‘Best Dance Work’.

Jesse Scales Hobart, TAS

Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Jesse Scales completed her early training in Adelaide with Terry Simpson where she gained the RAD Solo Seal at 16. Jesse then went on to study at the New Zealand School of Dance, majoring in Classical Ballet, and graduated in 2011 with a National Certificate in Dance Performance.

In 2011, Jesse was a recipient of the Adopteer een danser Scholarship which allowed her to attend the

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Nederlands Dans Theater Summer Intensive in The Hague. During this Intensive, Jesse experienced the works of renowned Choreographers – Lightfoot/Leon, Crystal Pite, Jiri Kylian and Ohad Naharin’s contemporary Gaga technique. In 2009, Desmond Richardson awarded Jesse a full scholarship to study with him and Co Artistic Director Dwight Rhoden at the Complexions Contemporary Ballet Summer Intensive in New York.

Jesse has also received two Project & Development Grants from the Carclew Youth Arts Board and a Travel Grant from the Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation to help achieve her goals.

At the end of 2009, Jesse joined the Melbourne Ballet Company for Project Six: Moment of Inertia and worked with choreographers Simon Hoy and Robert Kelly for which she was awarded the Artistic Director’s Young Dancer Award.

Jesse also appeared in Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre performance of 1998 and Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake with the Australian Ballet.

Jesse joined Sydney Dance Company in 2012 and performed in the world premiere of Rafael Bonachela’s 2 One Another (2012-2015); Project Rameau (2012-2013); Emergence (2013 and 2015); 2 in D Minor (2014); Scattered Rhymes (2014), Frame of Mind (2015), New Breed (2015) and Triptych (2015). Frame of Mind won the 2015 Helpmann Award for ‘Best Choreography in a Dance Work’ and ‘Best Dance Work’.

She has also worked with guest choreographers Stephanie Lake (Dream Lucid) as part of Contemporary Women and Elektra; Alexander Ekman (Cacti); Jacopo Godani (Raw Models); Gideon Obarzanek (L’Chaim!); Andonis Foniadakis (Parenthesis); and New Breed (2014) including Gabrielle Nankivell‘s Wildebeest and Cass Mortimer Eipper‘s Dogs and Baristas.

Jesse was a part of the 2013 collaboration with Kaldor Public Art Projects for the contemporary art exhibition 13 Rooms where Sydney Dance Company featured in Allora and Calzadilla’s Revolving Door. She also toured North America, South America and Russia with the acclaimed 2 One Another, winner of the ‘Best Ensemble’ Award in the 2012 Green Room Awards and the 2013 Australian Dance Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement in Choreography’ and ‘Outstanding Performance by a Company’.

Jesse performed a feature role in William Forsythe’s Quintett for which she was nominated for a 2015 Helpmann Award for ‘Best Female Dancer’ for her performance and the winner of the 2015 Green Room Award for ‘Female Dancer’.

ENDS/

Images: by Peter Greig.

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MEDIA CONTACT

For more information, images or interview requests, please contact: Alexandra Barlow, Sydney Dance Company, [email protected] / 0416 128 282 Kym Elphinstone, Articulate for Carriageworks, [email protected] / 0421 106 139

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