Out of Bounds is an exciting choreographic ideas sharing platform presented by Lucy Guerin Inc and Temperance Hall.
This April, 34 independent Victorian dance artists will develop and present a short showing of their recent choreographic investigations to local audiences and fellow artists at WXYZ Studios. The initiative also provides participants with the opportunity to receive creative feedback about their work, with post-showing discussions facilitated by experienced Victorian dance practitioners.
Out of Bounds seeks to represent dance artists from across all forms, practices, cultures, histories, lineages, styles, disciplines, aesthetics and experimentations. The program’s aim is to show new work in a raw state—providing a generous, open space for artists to take risks and try out their ideas.
Out of Bounds 2024 is taking place at WXYZ Studios Saturday 20 & Sunday 21 April 2024. Registrations to attend the event will open soon.
Congratulations to the following artists joining the Out of Bounds 2024 program:
Aimee Schollum, Alec Katsourakis, Amélie Logan & Jake Ware, Arabella Frahn-Starkie & Oliver Cox & Samuel Kreusler, Callum Mooney, Chiharu Valentino, Chung Nguyen & Gav Barbey, Daniel R Marks, Ebony Olsen & Alyse Canton, Gabriel Sinclair & Jazmyn Carter, Gabriella Imrichova, Gemma Sattler, Jack Birdseye & Anjelica Menta, Jackie Sheppard, Karlia Cook & Danni Cook, Manjusha Manjusha, Naavikaran, Nadiyah Akbar, Raina Peterson, Rebecca Jensen, Ren Milera, Ronan Armstrong, Siobhan McKenna & Tra Mi Dinh, Walt Isaacson.
About the Artists
Aimee Schollum is a Naarm/Melbourne based, New Zealand born dancer and choreographer. She graduated with a Bachelor of Art and Design (Honours AUT 2010), a Diploma of Dance (2015), a member of TrIPP (Transit International Professional Pathway 2018) and the 2019/20 Dancehouse Emerging Choreographers Program. Choreographic credits include ‘Sonos’ winner Best Dance/Physical Theatre (2018 Melbourne Fringe), ‘Eyes Wide Open’ (2019 Melbourne Fringe), ‘MOTH’ (2021 Dancehouse) and ‘Skin Affinity’ (2021 finalist Australian Ballet Telstra Emerging Choreographer). She has most recently performed in Chunky Move’s 4/4 by Antony Hamilton (2023), has collaborated in residency for Amaara Raheem (2022), performed in Stephanie Lake Company ‘Colossus’ (2018, 2019), Chunky Move & Contact Gonzo ChoreoLab performance at NGV (2020) and was a rehearsal director for ‘Simulcast’ Bendigo by Chunky Move (2019). Alongside her arts practice, Aimee is an experienced dance, Barre, Pilates and RYT500 Ashtanga Yoga teacher.
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Alec Katsourakis is an emerging Greek-Australian Dancer, Dance-Filmmaker, and Choreographer, and is deeply fascinated by the concept of ‘play’ in their artistic exploration. Their practice seamlessly integrates movement, choreography, logical systems, games, and the moving image. From a young age, Alec has been passionate about both dance and filmmaking, aspiring to unite these disciplines in their live performance endeavours.
Having dedicated three years to full-time dance studies in Aoetaroa New Zealand, Alec embarked on a personal film project titled ‘dance yearly,’ aiming to produce one dance film per month throughout their academic journey, serving as a platform to refine the art of choreography on screen. Alec is collaborative at heart and thrives on working with others to bring creative visions to life. They have choreographed two full-length dance works for Melbourne Fringe and a twenty-minute piece as part of a triple bill for Wellington Fringe. The latter was commissioned into a twenty-minute dance-film by SIGNAL youth arts for Melbourne Fringe. Alec’s commitment to the intersection of dance and filmmaking shines through in their dynamic approach to combining the disciplines of film and choreography in live-performance contexts.
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Amélie Logan & Jake Ware
Amélie Logan (she/her) was born and raised in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Having pursued her contemporary training at the New Zealand School of Dance, she had the opportunity to learn from various national and international choreographers including Sarah Foster-Sproull, Holly Newsome, and Tyler Carney-Faleatua. During her graduation season in 2022, Amélie was notably reviewed for her “natural and organic movement” by Dance Train Magazine Australia. Amélie has since worked on several projects in Naarm/Melbourne such as ‘A Quiet Motion’ (directed by Erin Taube and Anna Tolotchkov for Melbourne Fringe Festival), ‘NightVisions’ (co-created with Opal Russell for Mudfest), ‘Hush’ (directed by Reuben James for Muse Fest), and Okage Sama De (choreographed and performed by Julie Minaii). Amélie is specifically interested in working with interdisciplinary mediums by utilising a range of visual, digital, textual, and soundscapes to form the worlds in which her choreography exists within. She is also fascinated with the connection between art and escapism, often considering how this plays a role in the way we engage with physical performance.
Jake Ware (they/them) began dancing in Bendigo, Australia, immersing themselves in creative dance practices and discovering a contemporary practice at Victorian College of the Arts in Naarm / Melbourne where they had the opportunity to collaborate with renowned choreographers and artists such as Alleyne Dance (UK), James Batchelor, Nicole Correa, Siobhan McKenna, and Kialea-Nadine Williams. During their studies, Jake participated in the ‘Impact’ program at the Impulstanz International Dance Festival in 2022. Notably, they performed in ‘Before, between, beyond’ as part of ‘Fractal’ by Nicole Correa during their graduation season in 2023, earning recognition with the Orloff Family Trust award for Outstanding Talent. They participated in ‘Hush’ (directed by Reuben James) and ‘Mae Mobly’ (directed by Samira Reason) at MUSE Fest 2023. Jake continues to collaborate with Samira, performing at venues for her album. Driven by collaboration and a desire to push boundaries within movement, Jake actively engages in collaborative endeavours, working with peers to develop innovative works that explore these possibilities. Currently, they are in two developmental projects: ‘Trance,’ a multidisciplinary performance, and a piece by Amélie Logan (she/her) that delves into the process of transformation.
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Arabella Frahn-Starkie, Oliver Cox, Samuel Kreusler
Arabella Frahn-Starkie is a dance artist, and researcher. She is passionate that the skills of dancing and choreographic thinking can be useful in just about any situation. Arabella is currently working as an archivist across several Australian performing arts archives. She is studying a Masters in Cultural Materials Conservation. In 2021, she completed her Honours at the Victorian College of the Arts, where she also received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Contemporary Dance) in 2016. Over the past few years her artistic practice has seen a preoccupation with documenting and thinking about how to archive the ephemera of dance. Working across movement, video, photography, and text, Arabella creates contemplative performance meditations for audiences to encounter. As a dancer she has worked with and array of choreographers, visual artists, and researchers including Rebecca Jensen, Jo Lloyd, Siobhan McKenna, Sandra Parker, David Rosetzky, Dr Katie Lee, and Dr Petra Gemeinboeck. She is a founding member of the collaborative group Polito who perform improvised techno and dance across various venues and contexts in Melbourne. Arabella is driven to use the body in her work, as she believes that at the junction of the artwork, audience, and artist, is a sentient and volatile body.
Oliver (Ollie) Cox is a Melbourne-based composer, drummer and improvisor, who works in the liminal spaces between sound and music. Drawing in equal measure from his background in jazz and love of experimentalism, Cox seeks to craft emotive compositions that flicker between spans of contemplative ambience to moments of frenetic sonic chaos. Ollie holds a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in Contemporary Music from the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne). It was during his studies that Ollie developed a penchant for experimentalism, drawing inspiration from the compositional stylings of ambient music, musique concrete and surrealist cinema movements. Ollie’s rich textural palette and sensitive, considered, and creative playing style at the kit have paved the way for a diverse range of collaborative projects, across a broad scope of genres. Cox performs frequently with some of Melbourne’s most exciting songwriters including Juice Webster, Armlock, Hannah McKittrick, Phoebe Go and Maple Glider. Away from the drum kit, Ollie is well-known for his Avant Garde percussion stylings and techniques, that can be heard in duos with musicians including Zela Papageorgiou and Helen Svoboda, as well as with the local cult-favourite “post-stadium rock band”, Dragonfruit (led by Theo Carbo).
Samuel Kreusler is a composer, guitarist and performer whose work often explores audio-visual relationships in live performance and film. Beyond completing his Bachelor of Music Honours degree at the University of Melbourne, Samuel has participated in the ACMI X residency, the Flying Fruit Fly Circus residency, the Annual Pacific Alliance of Music Schools Summit in Singapore, the Sō Percussion Summer Institute held at Princeton University and the mentorship program from Australian Art Orchestra. In 2019, Samuel was commissioned by the University of Melbourne to create an original work which was showcased at the Accademia Dell’arte in Florence. In 2020, Samuel was commissioned by Arts Centre Melbourne to produce an original composition which has since been showcased at SIGNAL sound walk. Samuel performed live juggling and solo electronica and guitar for the circus show Escalate which premiered at Arts Centre Melbourne in the Fairfax studio 2022. This work was co-created by Samuel and
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Callum Mooney is an Australian artist that has been working in dance theatre. Callum has been performing and creating work through a multitude of fields, contemporary dance, theatre, physical theatre and street-dance / Hip Hop. As a performer Callum has also worked with Chunky Move, Antony Hamilton, Dancenorth, Dream Dance Company, Caetlyn Watson, Sarah Boulter, Maxine Doyle, Stephen Tannos, Stephanie Lake, Lucas Jervies, Meryl Tankard, Cass Mortimer-Eipper, Charmene Yap, Legs on the Wall, Larissa McGowan, Projection Dance Company, Benjamin Hancock, Broad Encounters, Callum has also performed for Baker Boy at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. As a choreographer Callum has created four works, ‘Train of Thought,’ at Annandale Arts Centre, ‘The Artists Mind,’ performed at KABA Festival, Indonesia commissioned by STRUT Dance, and ‘The Flying Nun Festival by Brand X,’ ‘Cosmos’ commissioned by DirtyFeet, and ‘Jeppee Peppee’ in collaboration with Jess Goodfellow at ‘The Flying Nun Festival.’ As well creating a dance work on Austinmer Dance Theatre and Indefinite Dance Company. Callum has also worked closely as a movement director, choreographer and performer with musicians such as Keiynan Lonsdale, Macca 47, Second Idol and Friendless.
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Chiharu Valentino is an Asian-Australian multidisciplinary artist based in Naarm (Melbourne), working in dance, costuming, and theatre. She is interested in fiction, adaptation and artifice, as well as creating theatrical work that interrogates the impact of cultural phenomena on the body. She is a key member of Flesh Cube Collective, which aims to increase access for diverse emerging artists through multidisciplinary events and installation. She has performed and displayed work in spaces such as Testing Grounds, Temperance Hall, Abbotsford Convent, Miscellania, La Mama Courthouse, Mycellium Studios, Melbourne Town Hall, Gallery 17, Blackcat Gallery and Trades Hall (Fringe Hub).
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Chung Nguyen & Gav Barbey
Chung Nguyen is a dance artist, somatic movement facilitator and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist based in Melbourne/Naarm. Chung’s artistic practice explores the intersection of performance art, dance, and healing through somatic practices, which aim to cultivate a therapeutic relational presence between the artist and the audience. Chung’s performances and cross-disciplinary collaborations have been presented across Asia, Europe, America and Australia, including AM/FM Therapy (Grey Space, Cont-act Contemporary Dance Festival with a development residency ARTEFACT #5, supported by Dance Nucleus 2022, Singapore), Bardo (Live Dreams: Transcend, Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art 2021, Sydney, Australia, to name just a few. Over the past decade, Chung has participated in artist-in residencies including Deep in the Mountains (South Korea), Southeast Asia Choreolab, (Malaysia), The International Choreographers Residency-American Dance Festival (Durham, USA), Southeast Asia Choreographers Network 2 & 3 (Indonesia and online), and Grey Space, Cont-act Contemporary Dance Festival (Singapore).
Gav Barbey is an interdisciplinary artist, with a diverse skill set ranging from visual artistry to performance, to designing immersive theatrical experiences. Gav’s journey as an artist is deeply rooted in collaborative processes, fostering an environment where audience and medium coalesce in the act of creation. Gav has a degree in theatre and film design from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts and an ongoing study in somatic movement practices. His multidimensional approach informs the mediums he may utilise within a given work and or study. Gav has a strong practice and belief in inviting participants to engage in immersive movement experiences that transcend traditional boundaries of artistic expression.
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Daniel R Marks is an artist, researcher and performer based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia, working with interdisciplinary modes of choreographic practice which engage surveillance, digitality, and queer erotics. Their interest in choreography is as a means toward exploring the material complexities where queerness and the body meet with digitised systems of representation and control. They work primarily in a hybrid practice incorporating performance art, virtual and screen-based formats, sculpture (including wearable sculpture and installation), experimental text, and sound composition. Daniel undertook a PhD at RMIT University School of Art from 2020-2024 and have worked as an educator in both RMIT School of Art and School of Fashion & Textiles. They have shown their work with Temperance Hall, Liquid Architecture, RMIT Gallery, Midsumma Festival, Foreign Objekt, and several artist-run initiatives in Naarm/Melbourne, alongside performing in public programs at NGV Australia and ACCA. They are affiliated with the Performing Dress Lab (RMIT, Aalto University & London College of Fashion), an inter-institutional research group studying relationships between performance and fashion, and the Posthuman Art Network (Foreign Objekt), a global collective of artists and researchers investigating posthuman theory within artistic practice. They are also a current research/artist resident at ACMI X.
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Ebony Olsen & Alyse Canton
Ebony Olsen was born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, and started dancing at the age of 7. Training for 14 years, Ebony is now in her third year of the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts, continuing her study of multiple forms/styles of dance and movement. Some of these include Cunningham Technique, Counter Technique, Classical Ballet, Dance History and more. During this time, she was selected to perform a piece for a French travel program filming here in Melbourne and performed with a group of students at the Victorian College of the Arts Variety Show at Government House. Ebony also performed in a USMU performance of Command Shift Break and danced a solo representing VCA Dance in the Evening of Gratitude and Celebration for the Donors of the VCA and MCM. Most recently Ebony traveled to the Cook Islands in October 2023 as part of the New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant for overseas studies. In the future, she aspires to work interdisciplinary through dance and audio-visual mediums, completing three practical/academic subjects with the VCA Film and Television Faculty.
Alyse Canton has been dancing for over 16 years and has since moved to Melbourne to continue studying at the Victorian College of the Arts completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) Degree. Alyse has an acrobatic background, completing 4 years in the national team allowing her to travel to South Africa for the Commonwealth Cup and compete on the Australian Team. She has been a part of two youth dance companies; QL2 Dance and Yellowwheel Youth Dance Company. She has a passion to choreograph and has choreographed a few works in 2019 - 2021 whilst at QL2. These works include Programmed Pulse (By Alyse and Mia Canton) and Crawl (By Alyse Canton). At university she has learnt many choreographic tools and aspects to keep exploring. VCA has given Alyse the opportunity to undertake placement at GUTS in Alice Springs. She sat in on the development/rehearsals of SUB by Ash Musk, giving her the opportunity to understand how an industry level process works during a project. This placement gave Alyse the resources and tools to utilise whilst making a piece of her own.
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Gabriel Sinclair & Jazmyn Carter
Gabriel is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, composer, and dancefilm director. Based on Ngunnawal land (Canberra), Gabriel is a company dancer for Australian Dance Party. Whilst studying his Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the University of Melbourne, he collaborated with and performed for choreographers such as Stephanie Lake, James O’Hara, and Sue Healey. Gabriel has produced and directed several original dance films, most recently screening in Adelaide’s Trilogy Film Festival 2023. Gabriel has composed soundtracks for his own choreographic works and those of Phaedra Brown. His ongoing sequence of ‘science non-fiction’ works explore scientific principles, and uses them to explore the human experience. This series includes live works ’Temperate Climber’, ‘Under New Management’, and dance film ‘Dragonfly’.
Jazmyn Carter is a dance artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. She is an alumni of youth dance company FLING Physical Theatre where she performed for seven years before completing a BFA in Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts. Jazmyn has most recently performed for Sandra Parker in ‘TEMPORARY HOLD’ (2023) presented at Temperance Hall, and in Rhys Ryan’s ‘Sermon’ (2023), shown at Dancehouse for Melbourne Fringe Festival. In years previous she danced for Alisdair Macindoe’s ‘A.I.D.’ (2022), Jason Pearce’s ‘ALL BLANK WASTELAND’ (2022), Aimee Schollum’s ‘Skin Affinity’ (2021), Stephanie Lake Company’s ‘Colossus’ (2018,2019), and Lee Pemberton’s ‘Heritage, Lineage and Future’ (2018). She is involved with ongoing work in development for Aimee Schollum, and movement research for Sarah Saxon’s ‘Inhabitance Project’.
Jazmyn’s choreographic works include ‘Whose Thoughts Are They’ (2020), a performance and film project with the FLING Physical Theatre Company, and short dance film ‘OBSERVER’ (2019), which was shown at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris.
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Appropriating political horseshoe theory, Gabriella Imrichova’s live performance practice zeroes in on purely formal inquiries—the surface material, the superficial, and the shallow. Particularly suss on ‘Shoulds’, namely what is regarded as the stuff of the “good” artist and “good” art, Imrichova has adopted a bastard practice invested in reassessing hierarchies of value within live performance. Assembling flotsam (aka crap), Imrichova manipulates the overlooked with superfluous specificity to produce works in a manner that complicates perceptions of worth and worthiness, imbuing what would otherwise be hollow garbage with the serpentine. Via irreverence, and audacity they play with what is permissible inside and outside the pristine white cube, dance space, and theatre. Imrichova hopes to one day choreograph car commercials.
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Gemma Sattler is a performance artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. Gemma graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2021 with a BFA(Dance), and was the recipient of the Orloff Prize for excellence in Dance. Since graduating Gemma has established an artistic partnership with Molly McKenzie, working under the name of gemma+molly. Their recent work includes LUSH, presented by Dancehouse as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival 2023. LUSH received a five-star review and won the ‘Best Dance & Physical Theatre’ award. In 2023 gemma+molly also presented ‘Our+ Anthem’, a video installation and durational performance, presented by Temperance Hall for Midsumma Festival. As a recipient of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Fund 2023 Gemma recently undertook a professional development tour across Greece, France and Belgium. This tour included the Marina Abramović Institute’s ‘Cleaning The House’ workshop, a 3-week creative development residency at Performing Arts Forum France, and engagement with choreographic symposiums and performance festivals.
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Jack Birdseye & Angelica Menta
Jack (He/Him) is a contemporary artist based in Naarm. Jack graduated from Transit Dance in 2021, where he worked with the likes of Cass Mortimer Eipper, Chimene Steele-Prior, Kayla Douglas, Callum Mooney & Alya Manzart. In 2022, Jack performed in CoExist Collective’s debut work, ‘In [The] Making’, and was later commissioned by CoExist to co-choreograph a work for Melbourne Fringe Festival, ‘Unapologetically, Me’.
Later in the year, Jack collaborated with Kayla Douglas on a short work, ‘G2D’, for CoExist Collective’s multidisciplinary arts event, ‘ARTECA’. He has also participated in secondment opportunities with Stephanie Lake Company in development for their work, ‘Manifesto’, and with Australian Dance Theatre. In 2023, Jack worked alongside Jel Menta for her full-length work ‘Layered Point’’. A work he assisted in creating with Jel with the hopes for a second iteration in 2024. Jack frequently holds class at Transit Dance and has gone on to work with Transit Dance Company on their season of ‘Opus’, choreographed by Jayden Hicks. He recently finished his season with Melbourne Fashion Week’s ‘Fashion X Theatre’ event, performing a contemporary piece with Melbourne artist Jayden Wall. Currently, Jack is working with the Australian Ballet as an extra in their season of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Angelica (Jel) is a contemporary artist based in Naarm. Graduating from Ev and Bow in 2018 and Transit Dance in 2021, she has collaborated with esteemed figures such as Marlo Benjamin, Cass Mortimer Eipper, Chimene Steele-Prior, Kayla Douglas, Olivia McPherson and Paea Leach. Her professional journey includes the remount of Stephanie Lake Company’s ‘Colossus’ at the Melbourne International Festival (2019). In 2022, performed in CoExist Collective’s inaugural piece, ‘In [The] Making,’ and later co-choreographed ‘Unapologetically, Me’ with Jack Birdseye, commissioned by CoExist for the Melbourne Fringe Festival. In 2023, Jel performed in Transit Company’s ‘Opus,’ choreographed by Jayden Hicks. She then debuted her first full-length work ‘Layered Point’ for the Co-Exist event ‘Give me a microphone and some warm bodies’, with creative assistance from Jack. In 2021, she seconded with Lucy Guerin during the development of ‘Flux Job’ and Stephanie Lake Company’s ‘Manifesto’, followed by an extended secondment with Dancenorth in 2023. In 2024, Jel received the Transit bursary for Strut Dance’s Perth Moves program and spent three weeks working with International and Australian choreographers expanding her palette and passion for contemporary.
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Jackie Sheppard is a mixed-medium performing artist whose creative forms are grounded in dance, movement, and embodiment. They are a workshop facilitator, writer, and somatic storyteller. They have experience as a creative provocateur, cultural & creative consultant, lecturer & social impact facilitator through storytelling. Jackie attempts to identify and interrogate Ancestral, Intergenerational, and embodied story relevant to their lived experience as an Indigenous person. Drawing on Somatic, symbolic, & archetypal interrogations, Jackie seeks to shed light in dark places, identifying and speaking to narratives that reverberate within our deep psyches. Jackie’s latest project, The Black Artery is an experimental dance theatre platform that explores Indigenous choreographies as a form of ritual to maintain Indigenous relationality. Jackie has been accepted into the Master of Dance course at the Victorian College of the Arts where they will articulate & evolve this project. Some notable projects Jackie has worked on: ‘The Honouring’, A self-devised dance theatre production with puppetry and projection, presented in its new evolution at Arts House for FRAME Festival, 2023; ‘Wild Australia – Men in Chains’ by Jacki Sheppard (Yirramboi Festival 2017); Force Majeure’s 2-week INCITE intensive; Bursary recipient for STRUT Dance Perth Moves Workshop Series, 2024, in partnership with BlakDance.
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Karlia Cook & Danni Cook
Karlia is a Naarm based contemporary dance artist of Māori, Mā’ohi and European descent with ancestral connection to the Ngāpuhi people of Aotearoa. Karlia is currently working as a freelance Dancer and Choreographer and recently completed a Masters of Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts. Previously, Karlia completed a Bachelor of Performing arts (Contemporary Dance) at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and since graduating has worked with companies and artists such as Chunky Move, Joel Bray Dance, New Zealand Dance Company Julie Minaai and Bella Waru. Most recently performing in Joel Brays world Premier of Garabari at Arts house in December 2022. In 2023 Karlia choreographed a short work ‘Oneness’ on New Zealand Dance Company apart of the Matariki Hunga Nui program. Through the support of Critical Path, a duo iteration of this work was co-developed, alongside Gamileroi Women Amelia Jean O’leary and presented at Lucy Guerin Inc. and Temperance Halls program Out of Bounds and will continue to be developed into 2024.
Danni Cook is a contemporary dancer of Māori, Mā’ohi and European descent with ancestral connection to the Ngāpuhi people of Aotearoa. She grew up on Dharawal country, training as a company member with Austinmer Dance Theatre under the direction of Michelle Maxwell. She has recently graduated from Western Australia Academy of the Performing Arts (WAAPA), receiving a Bachelor of Arts in contemporary dance. Danni has been influenced by who she has worked closely in creative spaces with, some names include: Ohad Naharin, Thomas Bradley, Sam Coren, Jenni Large, Anouk Van Dijk, Lloyd Newson, and Didier Théron. In 2022, Danni embarked upon WAAPA’s study abroad program at Purchase Conservatory of Dance in New York. During her time outside of Australia, she sought many new learning opportunities which led her to be involved in intensives, masterclasses, festivals, and performance experience across Europe and United States of America.
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Manjusha Manjusha
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Naavikaran
Goddess Naavikaran [she/they] is a Naarm based transformational DJ, rapper & storyteller. Previously awarded the 30 Under 30 LGBTIQ+ Leaders in Australia in 2019, Goddess Naavikaran is also the producer of Mothprocess, Naarm’s very own access driven club night for BIPOC, disabled and queer folk. Naavikaran’s latest club-pop-rap EP, Chiq Discotheq will out on all streaming platforms on the 1st of March.
Naavikaran headshot by: Masimba Sasa @masimbasasaphoto
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Nadiyah Akbar (she/her) is a contemporary dancer born and raised on Eora land. Nadiyah has lived and worked across Aotearoa, New Zealand and Australia performing and touring in many dance works, most notably with Footnote NZ Dance, Joel Bray Dance and her solo work “Freestyle In Shades of Yellow”. Nadiyah has most recently performed with Movement of the Human at the Aotearoa Arts Festival.
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Raina Peterson is a neurodivergent, transgender dancer-choreographer of Fiji-Indian and English heritage who was born and raised on the lands of the Gunaikurnai people. Raina creates moving experimental dance works that respect and challenge both traditional and contemporary dance. With a substantial body of new work including six company productions, Raina’s works draw on their training in Mohiniyattam and Kathakali, classical Indian dance and theatre of Kerala, and are critically acclaimed for their subversive and visceral approach to exploring the diasporic experience, cultural identity, colonialism, gender diversity and sexuality. They are the only Mohiniyattam dancer in the world queering the art form. Their full-length works with dance partner Govind Pillai include ‘In Plain Sanskrit’ (2015), ‘Bent Bollywood’ (2018, shortlisted for a National Dance Award), ‘Third Nature’ (2019), ‘Kāla’ (2019) and award-winning dance film ‘Drishti’ (2020, winner of two Fringe Awards; nominated for two Green Room Awards: ‘Best performer’ (Raina Peterson) and ‘Best digital work’ (won)). Their solo works include ‘Narasimha’ (2022, winner of the Melbourne Fringe Award for ‘Best dance and physical theatre’) and ‘MOHINI’ (2023). Raina is currently being mentored in audio description by Vitae Veritas.
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Rebecca Jensen is a dancer, choreographer and teacher. Her work includes performance for theatres, galleries, unconventional spaces and video. She works through dance, utilising it’s equally speculative and practical powers to, encourage reflection, sensory recaliibration, connection and transformation.Rebecca has presented work in FRAME: A biennale of dance (2023), Kier Choreographic Award (2016/2022), Front Beach Back Beach (2022), CONTACT HIGH, Gertrude Glasshouse (2021), Blindside Gallery (2021), Dance Massive (2015/2017). Since 2013 she has co-directed Deep Soulful Sweats with Sarah Aiken. Rebecca is influenced by her extensive history working as a performer with artists including Jo Lloyd, Lucy Guerin, Shelley Lasica, Adam Linder, Alicia Frankovich, Lee Serle and Harrison Ritchie-Jones. She is a 2015 DanceWEB scholar, Australia council Cité internationale des arts resident 2020 and was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc in 2023.
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Ren Milera (He/Him) is a proud, Queer, First Nations entrepreneur, movement/dance artist, facilitator, and the visionary of ‘BLAKcurrant’. Born and raised in Kaurna country. His bloodlines in Nharangga and Laritja; being fiercely proud of his lineage and determined to continue the legacy of his ancestors with power and pride in all that he does. After attending the Victorian College of the Arts; coming straight into the Naarm/Melbourne dance industry joining Hamilton’s Chunky Move in his final year of college. He has worked as a dancer in ‘Token Armies’ and ‘Yung Lung’ by Chunky Move, ‘Colossus’ by Stephanie Lake Company and ‘Monumental’ by Amrita Hepi. In 2022, he joined Australian Dance Theatre for the first part of the year, before moving forward onto other ventures. Over the past two years, Ren has been working towards the launch of his company; BLAKcurrant, focused on creating movement and artful experiences of influence and cultural change. He is passionate about working and collaborating in ways that centre people first, with care and nurture as the utmost priority, knowing this as the most expansive way forward in art and life alike.
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Ronan Armstrong is a queer-based dancer and choreographer in Naarm. He is currently a dancer with SCIMM Dance Company and a graduate of Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional program. Ronan has worked and collaborated with several of Australia’s esteemed contemporary dance artists such as Stephanie Lake, James O’Hara, Rafael Bonachela, Gabrielle Nankivell and James Vu Anh Pham. Ronan recently performed in the Midsummer festival (2024) with SCIMM dance company for the work ‘PINK’ an all-queer lead production and cast. As well as Stephanie Lake’s ‘Soliloquy’ at the Sydney Festival (2024).
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Tra Mi Dinh & Siobhan McKenna
Tra Mi Dinh is an Australian dancer and choreographer working across Naarm/Melbourne and Gadigal/Sydney. Graduating in 2014 with a BFA in Dance from Victorian College of the Arts, Tra Mi was awarded the Orloff Family Charitable Trust Scholarship for Most Outstanding Dancer. As a dancer, Tra Mi has worked for artists and companies including Lucy Guerin Inc, Chunky Move, Stephanie Lake Company, Dance Makers Collective, Victoria Chiu, Joel Bray Dance, Michelle Heaven, Nithya Nagarajan, Siobhan McKenna, Isabelle Beauvard, and Monica Bill Barnes & Company. In 2019 Tra Mi received a Green Room Award nomination for her performance in Lucy Guerin’s ‘Make Your Own World’. Tra Mi presented her debut solo work ‘Holding’ (2021) at March Dance and the following year was commissioned to create a work for the Keir Choreographic Award, which she won for her work ‘The ___’ (2022). ‘(UP)HOLDING’ (2023) was presented in Sydney (Brand X, January) followed by a season in Melbourne (Dancehouse, April). Recently, Tra Mi was commissioned by Sydney Dance Company to choreograph a work for New Breed, presenting ‘Somewhere between ten and fourteen’ in December 2023. Tra Mi’s work as dance artist was recognised with a fellowship from the late Chloe Munro AO in 2022.
Siobhan McKenna is a Melbourne/Naarm based choreographer and dancer. She grew up in the Bega Valley in NSW, on Yuin Country before moving to the city where she had the privilege of studying a BFA in Dance at VCA, graduating in 2016. The journey she has undertaken as an artist over the last six years includes experience performing in other’s work, creating her own work and both teaching and participating in various workshops and residency programs. Siobhan has presented her award-winning choreography internationally as well as in key Australian festivals such as Dance Massive, and developed ongoing relationships with major Melbourne companies and organisations such as Temperance Hall, Lucy Guerin Inc., Dancehouse and Darebin Arts. Siobhan’s choreographic credits include, ‘Rhythmic Fictions’ (Darebin Arts Speakeasy 2022), ‘Relay’ (Melbourne Fringe Festival at Temperance Hall 2022), ‘Drama 2,3,4’ (PIECES 2019) and ‘Utterance’ (Dancehouse with Dance Massive Festival 2019 & Melbourne Fringe Festival 2017). Both ‘Utterance’ and ‘Rhythmic Fictions’ were nominated for Best Choreography in the Green Room Awards (2019 and 2023). Siobhan has recently been granted an independent artist fellowship from Chloe Munro supported by Lucy Guerin Inc.
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Walt Isaacson was born in Melbourne, Australia. He completed his professional training at Ballet Theatre Australia under Leanne Rutherford and Oleg Timursin. In 2016-2017 he toured with The Australian Ballet as part of their Storytime Ballet productions of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘The Nutcracker’. In September 2017, Walt joined Teater Vanemuine where he danced for the next 4 seasons performing works by Petr Zuska, Wang Yuan Yuan, Jevgeni Grib and Jack Traylen to name a few. Walt returned to Australia in 2021 and began studying a Bachelor of Exercise Science. He is currently a Biomechanics intern at the Victorian Institute of Sport. Walt has also experience as a choreographer most recently creating a work for Alchemy Consort which was performed at NGV Triennial EXTRA.