The Make a Start program provides 1- to 2-week in-studio residencies, for artists to explore new ideas or initiate early-stage developments. Participants have the opportunity to experiment, take creative risks, and push their practices into uncharted territory.
The selected artists will be in residence between Jan-July 2026.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Amelie Logan and Opal Russell
Opal Russell and Amélie Logan are Naarm/Melbourne based dance artists who have developed a collaborative choreographic practice grounded in endurance, precision and constraint. Over several years, they have worked closely on duet-based research, cultivating a shared artistic language through mutual trust, physical inquiry, and curiosity. Their practice is currently focused on pushing the limits of extreme synchronicity, both physically and mentally.
Chelsea Byrne
Chelsea is a Naarm-based dance artist and producer. Her movement practice draws from Body Weather, Skinner Release Technique, Deborah Hay & Rosalind Crisp, exploring spectrums of presence and creating spontaneous moments of curiosity, indulgence and ridiculousness. She has performed at Short Sweet + Dance, Sydney Fringe, Melbourne Fringe, Midsumma, Dance Massive, Montsalvat Artist Colony, Dancehouse and Cage Me a Peacock Gallery, and in screen based works for Melbourne’s Signal Screen, Chin Chin Art Wall, and SXSW Festival (Texas, USA).
Erin O’Rourke and Rachel Mackie
Erin O’Rourke is an award winning contemporary choreographer, dancer and researcher based in Naarm. Her choreographic credits include ‘TUG’ presented in The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque season at Arts Centre Melbourne, ‘Three Blak Ravers’, a theatre work created by Motherless Collective for Yirrimboi Festival (Malthouse, Melbourne 2025), ‘grate’ for Australasian Dance Collective’s Youth Ensemble (2025), her first full length dance work ‘object-shun’ for Dancehouse X Melbourne Fringe Festival (2023) and ‘when the water gets cold’ for Transit Dance (2023). Erin was awarded The Australian Ballet/Telstra Emerging Choreographer in 2022 for her dance film ‘yellow mellow’ which has since shown at Dancehouse’s Dance (Lens) Official Selection in Melbourne and Perth. As a dancer, Erin has performed in festivals across Australia and beyond including Melbourne Now, Mona Foma (Tasmania), Now or Never Festival (Melbourne), Yirramboi Festival (Melbourne), Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance (QLD), and Ars Electronica Festival (Linz, Austria), working with notable artists including The Farm, Jenni Large (Tasdance), and Harrison Hall.
Rachel Mackie is a Naarm/Melbourne-based dance artist and a 2020 graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (BFA Dance). Her recent performance highlights include The Folded Scene (2025) by Alice Dixon, Safehold (2024) and Temporary Hold (2023) by Sandra Parker, and object-shun (2023, 2022) by Erin O’Rourke. Rachel’s practice centres on improvisational modes and increasing her ability to witness and direct the thinking of her dancing body. Her work is informed by ongoing research into a range of somatic practices.
Hayley Roe
Hayley Roe is a dancer, creator, and teacher based in Naarm. Her work focuses on site-specific performance, using somatic and observational practices to layer movement, information, and spatial texture, fostering deep engagement with place and environment. A 2019 graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (BFA Dance), Hayley has a strong technical foundation in contemporary and ballet, while continually expanding her practice through other movement styles and physical disciplines. She has performed in works by Stephanie Lake, Alisdair Macindoe, Rhiannon Port, Sarah-Jayne Howard, James O’Hara, Anna Smith, and Aimee Schollum, as well as in musical theatre, live music gigs, screen dance projects, and music videos.
Niki Verrall and Texas Nixon-Kain
Texas Nixon-Kain and Niki Verrall have been dancing together since 2021. They share an interest in the interdisciplinary possibilities of choreography and in the ways the body can be presented and circulated across contexts. Their collaborative work has been supported by Critical Path, Dance Base Yokohama (JP), Studio Kura (JP), Seventh Gallery, Darebin Arts Speakeasy, and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. As performers, Niki has worked with Ivey Wawn, Angela Goh & Sarah Aiken, and Texas with Rebecca Jensen.
Rena Sangawa
Rena Sangawa (she/her) is a dance artist based in Melbourne/Naarm and Sydney/Gadigal, holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) from the Victorian College of the Arts. Led by existentialism and Japanese philosophy integrating Shinto beliefs and diverse intellectual tradition, she finds passion in performing and creating works that question realness in digitalised lived experience. Rena has a training background in classical ballet and contemporary, in 2025 she trained with ImPacT at ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival mentored by Kerstin Kussmaul (with Ultima Vez, Alleyne Dance, Alexander Vantournhout) and b12 Berlin Workshop Festival (with Vasko Nasonov, Dual Rivet).
Sam Osborn
Sam Osborn (he/they) is a queer freelance dancer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Their practice is rooted in a desire for liberation, truth, and reconnection to the joy of dancing; both as personal expression and as a catalyst for social and political change. Sam has worked across contemporary dance, art and film, collaborating and performing with artists Alisdair Macindoe, Melanie Lane, Amelia Jean O’Leary, Lauren Brincat and Stephanie Lake Company. A graduate of Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year, Sam collaborated with artists including Jenni Large, Gabrielle Nankivell, Lucy Guerin and Melanie Lane. Creatively, Sam loves to work in ways that are both playful and honest, challenging his desire to exist with both strength and softness. Their work often explores tenderness, queerness, and the tension between comfort and discomfort; seeking movement that feels like both release and return.
Trevor Santos and Martijn Sedgfield
Trevor Santos is a Naarm/Melbourne-born dance artist and choreographer with nearly 20 years of experience in arts, entertainment, and education. He has collaborated with artists including Guy Sebastian, Mo’Ju, Missy Higgins, Hayden Calnin, Sheppard, and Hangeng, and worked with brands such as Toyota, Lee Jeans, Nuform Clothing, Baker’s Delight, Vicks, and Boost Juice. Expanding into musical theatre, Trevor has performed in Jagged Little Pill, Miss Saigon, the global phenomenon Hamilton, and most recently, In The Heights.
As a choreographer and teacher, he has worked on the 2022 Miss World Australia finals and created acclaimed independent works 100 Haikus and In Other Words.
Martijn Sedgfield is a Melbourne-based professional dancer, choreographer, and creative director with over a decade of experience across television, commercial, and live stage productions worldwide. Beginning his journey at 17 under hip-hop pioneer Arch Illias, Martijn quickly rose to prominence leading award-winning crews Alpha Delinkwentz and The Collektive, and representing Australia at Hip Hop International in Las Vegas.
Yuiko Masukawa and Aaron Choulai
Aaron Choulai is an award winning and critically acclaimed pianist and composer whose work is recognised as innovating new directions in jazz, hip-hop and improvised music. From large scale multi media cross-cultural festival commissions. to Japanese hip-hop beat tapes, Choulai’s career spans over 20 years, crossing international borders and intersections between genre and culture.
Yuiko Masukawa is a Japanese choreographer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her work brings together the inclusive and iconoclastic ethos of contemporary performance with her deep expertise of ballet. She has worked extensively between Japan and Australia to create connections between her two homes. Yui’s intercultural work between Japan and Australia takes many forms including co-creating artistic work, reciprocal residencies, leading workshops and teaching as well as acting as a cultural liaison and interpreter for organisations such as Tokyo Ballet, The Australian Ballet, and Terrapin for Asia Topa. Her choreographic work has been presented at Arts House for Bleed Festival, at The Australian Ballet for Frame Festival and Bodytorque as well as the Bowery Theatre, Dancehouse, and Lucy Guerin Inc