People

Token Armies

Creature Technology Co.
Founded in Melbourne in 2006, Creature Technology Co. are the world leaders in large-scale animatronics for the global entertainment industry. Led by Creative Director and CEO, Sonny Tilders, this exceptionally talented team of designers, engineers, technicians and artisans sets a new benchmark for animatronics with every new project they undertake. Combining state-of-the-art technology with artistic mastery, Creature Technology Co.’s expertise ensures live experiences inspire wonder and awe in audiences worldwide. Previous creations include the jaw-dropping beasts for Walking with Dinosaurs –The Arena Spectacular, the three remarkable mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies in Sochi, and the Tony Award winning King Kong puppet that wowed Broadway. Creature Technology Co. is a unique organisation that is part manufacturer, part software designer, puppet-maker, engineering company, artist’s studio and entertainment creator all rolled into one, making the world’s best, large-scale animatronic creatures in the heart of Melbourne.

Alice Dixon
Alice is a Melbourne based contemporary dancer, choreographer and performer. She has worked with artists and companies including: Natalie Cursio, Monica Bill Barnes & Company (NYC), Chunky Move (under Antony Hamilton), Opera Australia, Victoria Chiu, Reckless Sleepers (BEL/UK), Phillip Adams, Walter Dunderville (NYC), Euginia Lim, Nebahat Erpolat, Deanne Butterworth, Victoria Chiu and One Step at a Time Like This amongst others. With her collaborators Caroline Meaden and William McBride, she has made and presented six full length works: This is What’s Happening, Fallen O’er, Blowin’ Up, Let’s Go Up Here, Lady Example and Doors Shut. These works have received awards and nominations including Australian Dance, Green Room and Melbourne Fringe development and category awards. She was recently awarded a Green Room for Best Dance Ensemble for Doors Shut. Most recently, Alice travelled to New York on an Australia Council Career Development and on her return performed in Victoria Chui’s The is what happened in Shanghai for ASIA TOPA. Her work has been supported by The City of Melbourne, Lucy Guerin Inc., CHUNKY MOVE, The Substation, Darebin Arts Speakeasy, Arts House, Tasdance, Vitalstatistix, The Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, Creative Partnerships Australia, Vitalstatistix, City of Maribyrnong, Mosaico Danza (Turin, Italy) and Besen Family Foundation.

Aviva Endean
Aviva is a sound artist, clarinetist, improviser, curator, and collaborator on interdisciplinary projects. Her practice is dedicated to fostering a deep engagement with (and care for) sound and music, with the hope that attentive listening can connect people with each other and their environment. As a performance maker, Aviva curates new experiences with sound by creating unusual, spatially engaged, and participatory contexts for listening. Her work has been shown at Dark MOFO, MONA FOMA, Darwin Festival, BIFEM, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair and Liquid Architecture. Recent works include creating the sound score for Token Armies by Chunky Move (winner of a Greenroom award for best sound for dance 2020), releasing her debut solo album cinder : ember : ashes (which became a finalist for the Melbourne Prize for music 2019), creating Sonic Labyrinth an interactive sonic journey at Castlemaine State festival and Melbourne Fringe (nominated for a Greenroom award for best experimental sound work) and working as Associate Artist with The Australian Art Orchestra as the inaugural recipient of the Pathfinders Music Leadership position. Aviva is the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Freedman Fellowship, The APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund, and the Peggy Glaville Hicks composers residency.

Johsua Faleatua
Joshua is an Auckland-based freelance dancer and filmmaker. Since graduating from the University of Auckland, he has worked with Footnote New Zealand Dance, Chunky Move and Movement of the Human. Joshua has also collaborated with notable choreographers, such as Antony Hamilton, Ross McCormack, Sarah Foster-Sproull, James O’Hara and Clair O’Neil. He has helped develop, and performed in, dance shows that have toured across New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Germany and China. Among these was a particularly noteworthy show Hemispheres that was co-produced by Footnote New Zealand Dance and Guangdong Modern Dance Company. Alongside being a performer and choreographer, Joshua works at the University of Melbourne as a dance tutor. In recent years, Joshua has developed a keen interest in filmmaking. As a videographer, he has created online content for small businesses such as tattoo studios, clothing brands, barber shops, music and dance companies. Joshua approaches film with the same exploration techniques and mindset found within the creative process of developing a dance show. Through this dance-oriented framework, Joshua has pushed the boundaries of film creativity and developed a unique style of shooting and editing that, in turn, have yielded innovative dance films.

Madeleine Flynn
Madeleine is a leading Australian audio conceptual artist who creates unexpected situations for listening. She has a long term collaborative practice with Tim Humphrey. Their work is driven by a curiosity and questioning about listening in human culture, and seeks to evolve and engage with new processes and audiences through public and participative interventions. Their highly awarded practice intertwines local, national, and international relationships. They are in high demand as creative collaborators across artforms and industries. In 2020, they presented their new work with Korean artist Jihyun Kim When it Rains at AsiaTopa, (back in gathering times), were part of the APAM curatorial panel, Maddie curated the ADAM Online Lab in Taiwan with River Lin and the Transient Collective, facilitated the Proximity/DADAA artists lab, and together they created an online work how much time do we have? for ACCA Open and presented the PGH National Address on music as a chatbot, while being active in mutual aid and support projects across communities. They continue to stay connected to their art kin. Their work is documented at http://madeleineandtim.net

Christina Guieb
Christina is a New Zealand contemporary dancer born and raised in Pōneke/Wellington. She joined Chunky Move in 2019 to perform in Antony Hamilton’s Token Armies at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. After graduating from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2017, Christina performed in House of Sand’s, Fear of Eggs at the 2018 NZ Fringe Festival. Later that year she worked with the New Zealand Dance Company on projects such as Orpheus- A Dance Opera by Michael Parmenter, If Never Was Now by Stephanie Lake and Matter by Ross McCormack. In 2019, Christina performed in Muscle Mouth’s, As It Stands, by Ross McCormack as part of the Auckland Arts Festival. She then featured as a dancer in Thom Yorke’s music short film, Anima, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and choreographed by Damien Jalet. In 2020, Guieb performed in Fallen Man by Damien Jalet, for the UNDERCOVER 2020-2021 Autumn/Winter Collection show in Paris. She then went on to perform in Damien Jalet’s Volk and Venus In Furs in the work, DuEls by Nagelhus Schia Productions. Over the years, Christina has also collaborated with artists such as Java Dance Theatre, Daniel Belton, and Lucy Marinkovich.

Antony Hamilton
Antony was appointed Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move in early 2019, and his connection to the company goes back more than 17 years. His acclaimed works involve a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design, and are contextually underpinned by an examination of a body that is at once primitive, contemporary and future bound. Antony has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2 and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has won numerous Green Room Awards and also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING. In 2019 he created Token Armies, his first major work for Chunky Move as Artistic Director. Antony’s independent works include Blazeblue Oneline (2008), Drift (2010), Black Project 1 (2012), Black Project 2 (2013), MEETING (2015), NYX (2015) and Number of the Machine (2017). Major commissions include Forever & Ever(Sydney Dance Company, 2018), Natural Orders (Dancemakers Toronto, 2017), Crazy Times (Sydney Dance Company, 2017), Sentinel (Skånes Dansteater, 2016), Keep Everything (Chunky Move 2012), RGB (ADT 2010), Black Project 3 (Lyon Opera Ballet, 2010) and I Like This (co-directed by Byron Perry for Chunky Move 2008).

Mitchell Harvey
Mitch graduated from WAAPA in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance. Upon graduating Mitch joined Leigh Warren and Dancers to perform with the State Opera of South Australia. In 2015 Mitch became a founding member of Co3 working with choreographers and companies such as Antony Hamilton, Garry Stewart, Larissa McGowan, Gavin Webber, Chrissie Parrot, Unkempt Dance, Sydney Dance Company and the Western Australian Ballet. Under the artistic direction of Raewyn Hill he has performed her works Carnivale, the cry, and THE ZONE. In 2019 He joined Chunky Move to perform in Antony Hamilton’s first work as Artistic Director, Token Armies. Most recently he performed in STRUT Dance Hofesh in the Yard for the Perth International Arts Festival.

Melanie Lane
Melanie is a choreographer and performer who has worked with various companies and artists such as Kobalt Works, Arco Renz (B), Tino Seghal (G), Antony Hamilton (AUS) and Lucy Guerin (AUS), performing world wide. In 2015, Melanie was appointed resident director at Lucy Guerin Inc. She has created new works for Chunky Move, DanceNorth, Australasian Dance Collective, Schauspiel Leipzig, Nagelhus Schia Productions, Sydney Dance Company and choreographed for English National Opera’s ‘Salome’ directed by Adena Jacobs. Melanie’s independent choreographic works have been presented at festivals and venues such as Sydney Opera House, Tanz im August, Uzes Danse Festival, Indonesian Dance Festival, Arts House Melbourne, O Espaco do Tempo, Festival Antigel, Dance Massive and HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin. Melanie choreographed the 2015 and 2017 live shows for UK electronic musician Clark, performing at over 30 international venues and festivals including Moma PS1 New York, Villette Sonique Paris, Funkhaus Berlin and Sonar Festivals in Barcelona/Istanbul. Melanie has received both Helpmann and Green Room Award nominations and received the Leipziger Bewegungskunstpreis 2018 and the Keir Choreographic Award 2018 for her choreographic work.

Cody Lavery
Cody studied at Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year in 2016 & 2017, under the guidance of Linda Gamblin and Shane Carroll. In 2018, Cody worked on a restaging of Merce Cunningham’s Travelogueat the New York City Centre. She also began developing Sara Black’s Double Beat as part of Dirty Feet’s Out of the Studio and Antony Hamilton’s Universal Estate, which premiered at Dance Massive in 2019. Cody then began collaborating with Tasdance on an interactive dance work Trolls, directed by Adam Wheeler. Later throughout 2019, she worked with Chunky Move in collaboration with Restless Dance Theatre and Candoco Dance Company to develop a new work for Coventry City of Culture 2021. In June, Cody restaged Antony Hamilton’s Universal Estate as part of Dark Mofo 2019. Later throughout 2019, she worked with Chunky Move on Token Armies in association with Creature Technology Co. as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. At the end of the year, Cody worked on a development with Cass Mortimer Eipper and Charmene Yap. In February 2020, she worked with Byström Källblad on City Horses as part of Supercell: Festival of Contemporary Dance.

Paula Levis
Paula is a Melbourne based costume designer. She has previously designed costumes for Antony Hamilton on his works Token Armies, Forever and Ever, Meeting, Sentinal, Black Project 2 & 3, NYX,Keep Everything, Drift, RGB, Blazeblue Oneline and I Like This. Paula has also designed costumes for choreographers Gideon Obarzanek (Two Faced Bastard, Mortal Engine, GLOW, Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties), Lucy Guerin (Human Interest Story, Corridor, Structure & Sadness, Aether), Stephanie Lake (Skeleton Tree, Replica) and Melanie Lane (Re-make and Personal Effigies). She has worked with companies Lyon Opera Ballet, Melbourne Theatre Company, Skånes Dansteater, Sydney Dance Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Victorian Opera, KAGE, Danceworks, Dancehouse, TasDance, DanceNorth, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre and La Mama.

Gregory Lorenzutti
Gregory is a Brazilian-Australian artist and food grower working between the spaces of photography, dance and organic agriculture. His artistic practice spans across a vast range of fields, from ballet companies, contemporary dance, butoh cabaret, visual arts, TV & film and Rio de Janeiro Carnival Parade working as a photographer, dancer and rehearsal manager in Brazil, Latin-America, USA, Europe and Australia. As a documentary photographer, he finds and shares stories with an eye for subtlety, human emotion and beauty. His works have been extensively published and exhibited around the globe. As a choreographer and dancer his interest resides in popular culture, queerness, body representation and in the synergy promoted by a holistic experience between performers and audience. He is passionate about the land — practising urban farming and organic agriculture in order to give back to nature. As a migrant Gregory believes that working with the land and growing food reflects directly in questions about belonging and identity. It also speaks about the transience in performance and image and re-inform his long-term practices as a photographer and dancer. He holds a degree in Theatre at UniRio (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) 2004 and Digital / Analog Photography at SENAC – Rio de Janeiro 2011 and Atelie da Imagem (RJ), and specialised in contemporary narratives in photography at the International Centre of Photography in New York 2015. He is currently a Permaculture Gardener employed by the Eco Justice Hub, working in urban productive gardens as part of the food relief program in Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tiana Lung
In 2017, Tiana worked with Taki Rua Productions alongside renowned New Zealand musicians Tiki Taane and Sam Trevethick on their National Tour of Tiki Taane Mahuta. She then joined Okareka Dance Company as part of the cast of Mana Wahine, which toured internationally. During 2018, Tiana joined Discotheque Dance Company for their work Missing Lids, and worked with Kristina Chan on the first development of her new work BRIGHTNESS. She then joined the cast as a dancer for the 30th anniversary of the World of Wearable Art Awards Showin Wellington. This year, Tiana worked with Ross McCormack’s company Muscle Mouth on their new work As It Stands, which premiered in the Auckland Arts Festival. Tiana studied at The New Zealand School of Dance where she graduated in 2016 with a Diploma in Dance Performance.

Talitha Maslin
Talitha grew up in a small town in the southern forest region of Western Australia and began dance training at age 4. During her youth she trained in RAD Ballet and contemporary dance. At 17 she was accepted to The Western Australian Academy of Performing arts, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts (Dance). In 2010, Talitha made her professional debut with Lucy Guerin Inc. and has since performed and collaborated  Australian dance companies and independent artists including Chunky Move, The Farm, Co3 Australia, Gavin Webber, Annette Carmichael Projects, Antony Hamilton projects, Brooke Leader, Symantha Parr and Neza Jamnikar. Alongside her performance career, Talitha’s choreographic work has been presented at Situ8 by STRUT Dance, MoveMe Festival Perth, The Hong Kong International Choreographic Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Short Cuts by Strut Dance, Short and Sweet Festival Melbourne and Perth Fringe. Talitha has always been passionate about sharing her love of dance with the community. In 2013 Talitha was appointed dance teacher in residence at Attakkalarri Centre for Movement Arts in Bangalore, India. She currently teaches classical ballet, contemporary dance and contact improvisation for The University of Melbourne, The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Transit Dance, Melbourne and is actively engaged in delivering dance programs for young people and community with Co3 Youth Dance Company and STRUT Dance. She created a specialised program for teaching dance in regional communities during a teaching residency with The Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council 2018/19.

Amber McCartney
Amber is a Melbourne-based dancer. She has performed for companies Chunky Move (Token Armies, Accumulation, Red Shift, and It Sounds Silly), Lucy Guerin (Metal), Antony Hamilton Projects (Number of the Machine), Tasdance (Reactor), DanceNorth (OneInfinity), as well as choreographers Prue Lang (Accumulation, Project F, Yoni & Stellar Project), James Batchelor (Red Shift, Island, Deepspace, Multiplication, Violence, and Metasystems), Adam Wheeler, and Gideon Obarzanek. She has created two works for Transit Dance, Yellow Wheel, and Lucy Guerin Inc (Pieces For Small Spaces). In 2020 Amber was a recipient of Solitude1, Chunky Move’s home-based residency program. Amber graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2012

Damian Meredith
Damian is a passionate dancer and teacher, with an aptitude for music and sound design, and has trained in a variety of modalities including ballet, contemporary, hip hop, and circus. In 2008, He was accepted into VCASS to train dance from year 7, and went to NICA to train circus in year 10. During high school, Damian performed professionally in Graeme Murphy’s version of The Nut Cracker with the Australian Ballet Company as a child ensemble, and as a dancer/tumbler in Baz Lurman’s A Mid Summer Nights Dream with Opera Australia. In 2016, Transit Dance took Damian as a second year contemporary student. The same year, he performed in the remount of Transit Dance Company’s Yours Truly and founded Movement Décor, his choreographic project which puts on performance-works throughout the music festival scene as well as for Melbourne Fringe Festival. Since then he has been working as a freelance dance artist and teacher, performing in Matthew Bourne’s Lord Of The Flies (2017) at the Melbourne Arts Centre, and with Shaun Parker & Company on their international tour of productions Happy As Larry and King (2018/19). In 2019 Damian performed with Chunky Move working with Artistic Director Antony Hamilton on Token Armies and in 2020 worked with Tasdance on Reactor. Alongside dancing, Damian works creatively throughout the music festival scene, curating the performance program for Strawberry Fields, and choreographing the opening ceremony for Esoteric Festival.

Callum Mooney
Callum is an Australian artist working in dance, theatre, and film. He has worked with The Dream Dance Company (The Secret Society, Enter the Vortex), Chunky Move (Accumulation, Token Armies), Legs on the Wall (The Raft), Punchdrunk (SUNSET), and Dancenorth (Noise). Callum also completed a Diploma of Film and Interactive Media focusing on video editing and artistic direction through cinematography. He incorporates this knowledge through his work with video art and projection work for live dance. He has created works, Train of Thought (2017), The Artist’s Mind (2018) which was presented at KABA Festival in Sumatra, The Flying Nun, and Sydney Fringe.

Josh Mu
Josh is an Australian-based independent contemporary dancer and yoga practitioner who has performed and taught internationally for over 10 years. His movement roots begin in breakdance and hip hop culture, and have expanded to include contemporary, ballet, circus, gymnastics, physical theatre and yoga. An award recipient for Outstanding Performance, Mu has performed with many of Australia’s leading major dance companies. Some of which are Chunky Move, Dancenorth, Stephanie Lake Company, Force Majeure, Shaun Parker & Company, and Marrugeku. Mu has choreographed works for Tracks Dance Theatre, Foxtel, Style Impressions Breakdance Krew, Ev & Bow, and his latest work ZERO for Sydney Dance Company. Mu is continually exploring potential for new physical expression, investigating the overlap of Arts and Technology, and providing non dancers tools and techniques to encourage movement curiosity for improved health and freedom.

Jessie Oshodi
Jessie has performed in works by Chunky Move (Token Armies), Lucy Guerin Inc (Make Your Own World, Split, The Dark Chorus, Macbeth (UK)), Gideon Obarzanek & Dancenorth (One Infinity), Dancenorth (Fugue, Mass, Black Crow, Allegories), Antony Hamilton (Black Project II), Shaun Parker (Am I), and worked with choreographers Prue Lang, Garry Stewart, Stephanie Lake, Daniel Jaber, Alison Currie, Raewyn Hill and Cameron McMillan. Jessie has a Bachelor of Dance Performance from Adelaide College of the Arts.

Ren
Ren is a proud First Nations dancer and choreographer born and raised in Kaurna land (Adelaide, South Australia), before moving to Naarm in 2017. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. He has already had many successes as a professional artist, including winning the Dance Architect Award which resulted in the presentation of his work Echoes of Purity. He has worked as a dancer in Token Armies by Chunky Move, Colossus by  Stephanie Lake Company and MONUMENTAL by Amrita Hepi. Ren is passionate about sharing in the essence of being through his own artistic practice, continuously expanding states that can be experienced individually and within collective energetic exchange.

Jack Riley
Jack has worked with Tasdance, Australian Opera, Australian Dance Party, and Chunky Move on Token Armies (2019) and REDSHIFT (2017). He has presented two major works since graduating, Contact where he was nominated for best dance award as part of Melbourne Fringe, and Alone. He was the recipient of The Ralph Wilson Residency where he performed his duet work with a musician in Canberra. Jack began dancing with QL2 Youth Dance Ensemble in Canberra, where he also worked as a choreographer in 2017. Jack graduated from Victorian College of the Arts in 2016.

Harrison Ritchie-Jones
Harrison graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) in 2014. In 2013, he was awarded a Victorian College of the Arts Undergraduate Most Outstanding Creative Scholarship. In 2018 he was nominated for a Green Room Award for Best Male Performer for Stephanie Lakes Pile of Bones. He was also selected for Next Wave’s kickstart program and premiered his work Shimmer Of The Numinous in the 2018 Next Wave Festival. He has worked with, and performed in creations by Stephanie Lake, Graeme Murphy, Ohad Naharin, Jo Lloyd, Anthony Hamilton, Alistaire Macindoe, Shelly Lasica, Rebecca Hilton, Lucy Guerin, Prue Lang, Natalie Cursio and Rebecca Jensen, as well as commissions by Chunky Move, Tasdance, Lucy Guerin Inc. and The Australian Conservatoire of Ballet. He has also performed in the frame of Ludwigshafen Pfalzbau (Germany), Pieces For Small Spaces at Lucy Guerin Inc. (Melbourne), Murray White Room Gallery (Melbourne) and Dance Massive.

Kyall Shanks
Kyall received his BFA from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in 2015, as well as a creative scholarship and the Orloff Family Trust Award for Most Outstanding Dancer. Since graduation he has worked for Arts Centre Melbourne, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Liquidskin Dance Company, Opera Australia, and has performed in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Sweden. Kyall works as Associate Director to the pre-professional youth dance company Yellow Wheel and teaches for various schools and organisations around Melbourne, also having taught interstate and internationally. In 2019 he worked with Antony Hamilton and Chunky Move for Universal Estate (Dance Massive & Dark Mofo) and Token Armies (Melbourne Festival). Kyall was also part of the artistic team that delivered SIMULCAST for Dance Massive 2019. He is currently Artistic Director at Yellow Wheel.

Michaela Tancheff
Michaela is a Melbourne based dance artist, originally from Phillip Island. Michaela commenced a Diploma of Dance training under the mentorship of Adam Wheeler then went on to complete her Diploma followed by a graduate program, both at Transit Dance. She has performed in works created by Chunky Move (Token Armies), Stephanie Lake Company (Colossus), Movement Decor (Human Patterning), Kayla Douglas for Melbourne Fringe Festival (A Study Of Being). Michaela is part of the duo Hot Glue Buns who have supported music acts such as CC:DISCO! (Strawberry Fields Festival) and Gordon Koang (Meredith Music Festival).

Universal Estate

Matthew Adey (Beizj Studio)
Matthew is an artist and designer working across installation and live performance including dance, theatre and opera, festivals and events. Adey has worked several projects with artists supported by Chunky Move including Universal Estate (2019), Redshift (2017), MerMerMer (2016), Re-Make (2016) and Miss Universal (2015). Adey practices as an artist under the moniker House of Vnholy creating bold, experimental and large-scale installation works that have been presented across festivals such as Next Wave Festival, Underbelly Festival, Soft Centre Festival and annually with Dark Mofo Festival in Hobart. Beizj Studio is the primary design studio Adey formed with Andre Vanderwert in 2019 focusing on collaboration and experimentation in design with new media and technology for performance, events and activations collaborating with artists such as Antony Hamilton, Maxine Doyle, Phillip Adams Balletlab, Atlanta Eke, James Batchelor, Luke George and Melanie Lane.

Antony Hamilton
Antony was appointed Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move in early 2019, and his connection to the company goes back more than 17 years. His acclaimed works involve a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design, and are contextually underpinned by an examination of a body that is at once primitive, contemporary and future bound. Antony has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2 and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has won numerous Green Room Awards and also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING. In 2019 he created Token Armies, his first major work for Chunky Move as Artistic Director. Antony’s independent works include Blazeblue Oneline (2008), Drift (2010), Black Project 1 (2012), Black Project 2 (2013), MEETING (2015), NYX (2015) and Number of the Machine (2017). Major commissions include Forever & Ever(Sydney Dance Company, 2018), Natural Orders (Dancemakers Toronto, 2017), Crazy Times (Sydney Dance Company, 2017), Sentinel (Skånes Dansteater, 2016), Keep Everything (Chunky Move 2012), RGB (ADT 2010), Black Project 3 (Lyon Opera Ballet, 2010) and I Like This (co-directed by Byron Perry for Chunky Move 2008).

Cody Lavery
Cody studied at Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year in 2016 & 2017, under the guidance of Linda Gamblin and Shane Carroll. In 2018, Cody worked on a restaging of Merce Cunningham’s Travelogueat the New York City Centre. She also began developing Sara Black’s Double Beat as part of Dirty Feet’s Out of the Studio and Antony Hamilton’s Universal Estate, which premiered at Dance Massive in 2019. Cody then began collaborating with Tasdance on an interactive dance work Trolls, directed by Adam Wheeler. Later throughout 2019, she worked with Chunky Move in collaboration with Restless Dance Theatre and Candoco Dance Company to develop a new work for Coventry City of Culture 2021. In June, Cody restaged Antony Hamilton’s Universal Estate as part of Dark Mofo 2019. Later throughout 2019, she worked with Chunky Move on Token Armies in association with Creature Technology Co. as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. At the end of the year, Cody worked on a development with Cass Mortimer Eipper and Charmene Yap. In February 2020, she worked with Byström Källblad on City Horses as part of Supercell: Festival of Contemporary Dance.

Paula Levis
Paula is a Melbourne based costume designer. She has previously designed costumes for Antony Hamilton on his works Token Armies, Forever and Ever, Meeting, Sentinal, Black Project 2 & 3, NYX,Keep Everything, Drift, RGB, Blazeblue Oneline and I Like This. Paula has also designed costumes for choreographers Gideon Obarzanek (Two Faced Bastard, Mortal Engine, GLOW, Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties), Lucy Guerin (Human Interest Story, Corridor, Structure & Sadness, Aether), Stephanie Lake (Skeleton Tree, Replica) and Melanie Lane (Re-make and Personal Effigies). She has worked with companies Lyon Opera Ballet, Melbourne Theatre Company, Skånes Dansteater, Sydney Dance Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Victorian Opera, KAGE, Danceworks, Dancehouse, TasDance, DanceNorth, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre and La Mama.

Alisdair Macindoe
Alisdair is an Australian dancer, sound designer and choreographer. His experience in these fields has taken his work to many countries world-wide, earning critical acclaim in the media and receiving local and international awards including five Greenroom awards, a Helpmann, and a New York Bessie. Alisdair has performed in several Chunky Move productions including Black Marrow, Connected, Assembly, Two Faced Bastard, Aorta, Keep Everything, and I Like This. He has also collaborated as a sound and technology designer for chunky move works It Sounds Silly, Princess, Nether, and Universal Estate. Other notable collaborations include his work as a dancer for Lucy Guerin, Antony Hamilton Projects, Stephanie Lake and DanceNorth, and his work as a sound designer for Antony Hamilton Projects, STOMPIN and DanceNorth. His choreographic work includes commissions for DanceNorth, Lucy Guerin, Next Wave, Performance Space, and STOMPIN.

Kyall Shanks
Kyall received his BFA from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in 2015, as well as a creative scholarship and the Orloff Family Trust Award for Most Outstanding Dancer. Since graduation he has worked for Arts Centre Melbourne, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Liquidskin Dance Company, Opera Australia, and has performed in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Sweden. Kyall works as Associate Director to the pre-professional youth dance company Yellow Wheel and teaches for various schools and organisations around Melbourne, also having taught interstate and internationally. In 2019 he worked with Antony Hamilton and Chunky Move for Universal Estate (Dance Massive & Dark Mofo) and Token Armies (Melbourne Festival). Kyall was also part of the artistic team that delivered SIMULCAST for Dance Massive 2019. He is currently Artistic Director at Yellow Wheel.

Bosco Shaw
Bosco works primarily as a Lighting and Set Designer.  His interest is in work that involves bodies and movement, how light feeds and influences the performing space and collaborations that propose alternate light sources and means. In 2016 he co-founded ADDITIVE, a collaborative lighting design company.   He is also the recipient of 3 Green Room awards for visual design. Projects include; Antony Hamilton – Meeting. Tim Darbyshire – Stampede the Stampede. Dance North – Attractor. Chunky Move – It Cannot Be Stopped, Token Armies. Matthew Sleeth – A Drone Opera. Stephanie Lake – Double Blind, Replica, Colossus. Luke George – Erotic Dance. Chamber Made Opera – Permission to Speak, Between 8 and 9,  Asia TOPA – XO State, Nick Power – Between Tiny Cities, Mel Lane – Nightdance, Mona Foma – Faux Mo 2018/2019/2020, Dark Mofo – Night Mass 2018, Alex Harrison/Paea Leach – The Difficult Comedown.

Yung Lung

Madeleine Bowman
Madeleine trained at QL2 Dance in Canberra before commencing at the Victorian College of the Arts where she graduated in 2020. Throughout her studies she was the recipient of the New Colombo Plan grant which allowed her to develop a solo work in Beijing, China, and also the Choreographic Award in her final year. In 2020 she completed an internship with Chunky Move on the development of a new work, and in 2021 performed with QL2 at the National Portrait Gallery.

Rachel Coulson
Rachel is a Melbourne-based performer. Rachel began her dance career in 2011, performing in Stephanie Lake and Robin Fox’s A Giant Theremin. She has gone on to perform in works by Antony Hamilton (Blood & Bone, Melbourne International Arts Festival 2012; Nyx, Melbourne International Arts Festival 2015), Keith Deverell and Shelley Lasica (Grace Note #5, Sugar Mountain Festival 2013), Rebecca Jensen and Sarah Aiken (Overworld, Next Wave Festival 2014; Dance Massive 2015), and Melanie Lane (XO Space’s DARK program, Asia TOPA 2017).  Rachel trained at Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and The Victorian College of the Arts. 

Marni Green
Marni was born in Wollongong, NSW where she began her dance training at a young age. Having initially trained as a ballet dancer, in 2016 Marni studied at Queensland Ballet’s Senior Program before attending Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year Course under the direction of Linda Gamblin in 2017, followed by Tr.IPP (Transit International Professional Pathway) in 2018 under the direction of Israel Aloni. Marni has worked with artists including Stephanie Lake, Israel Aloni and Lee Brummer, and Chunky Move. Marni is currently based in Melbourne as a freelance dancer. 

Antony Hamilton
Antony was appointed Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move in early 2019, and his connection to the company goes back more than 17 years. His acclaimed works involve a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design, and are contextually underpinned by an examination of a body that is at once primitive, contemporary and future bound. Antony has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2 and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has won numerous Green Room Awards and also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING. In 2019 he created Token Armies, his first major work for Chunky Move as Artistic Director. Antony’s independent works include Blazeblue Oneline (2008), Drift (2010), Black Project 1 (2012), Black Project 2 (2013), MEETING (2015), NYX (2015) and Number of the Machine (2017). Major commissions include Forever & Ever(Sydney Dance Company, 2018), Natural Orders (Dancemakers Toronto, 2017), Crazy Times (Sydney Dance Company, 2017), Sentinel (Skånes Dansteater, 2016), Keep Everything (Chunky Move 2012), RGB (ADT 2010), Black Project 3 (Lyon Opera Ballet, 2010) and I Like This (co-directed by Byron Perry for Chunky Move 2008).

Samuel Harnett-Welk
After first competing as an international ranking gymnast, Samuel began training in Ballet and over the course of his training has studied with The Royal Ballet, The Australian Ballet, Rambert Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Australian Dance Theatre and many more. Samuel has worked with a range of Australian and international artists/companies including Daniel Jaber and Dancers, Phillip Adams BalletLab, Melanie Lane, Prue Lang, STRUT DANCE and many others. Most recently, Samuel has created a series of solo works that value Neurodiversity within artistic practise, including GIRLKING and new work in development, AAA.

Summer Penney
Summer is an emerging dance artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. Summer graduated from VCA, University of Melbourne in 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree (Dance), completing her degree with an internship with Chunky Move. In 2019 Summer performed in Die Angle’s Dark Points for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, later presented as a short film by Hiball Productions at NZ Tempo Dance Festival. Summer represented the University of Melbourne at the International Dance Festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, participated in workshops at Centre National de la Danse, Montpellier Dance Festival and Coline (France). Summer was awarded the Norma De Gruchy Award (2019) and the AG McMillen Arts Trust Scholarship (2018).

Chiara Kickdrum
Born and raised in Torino, Italy, Chiara is a Melbourne-based composer, DJ and musician. Classically trained in piano in Italy and later exposed to electronic music after moving to Melbourne in 2004, Chiara has since moved into a well-respected position in the Melbourne Techno movement through her dedication to a refined DJing technique and production of electronic music. Chiara’s work ranges across composing and producing music and sound design for film and commercials, creating electronic music for live performance, composing soundscapes for immersive environments and art installations, and the experimental use of field recordings with analogue and digital synthesis.

Cody Lavery
Cody studied at Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year in 2016 & 2017, under the guidance of Linda Gamblin and Shane Carroll. In 2018, Cody worked on a restaging of Merce Cunningham’s Travelogueat the New York City Centre. She also began developing Sara Black’s Double Beat as part of Dirty Feet’s Out of the Studio and Antony Hamilton’s Universal Estate, which premiered at Dance Massive in 2019. Cody then began collaborating with Tasdance on an interactive dance work Trolls, directed by Adam Wheeler. Later throughout 2019, she worked with Chunky Move in collaboration with Restless Dance Theatre and Candoco Dance Company to develop a new work for Coventry City of Culture 2021. In June, Cody restaged Antony Hamilton’s Universal Estate as part of Dark Mofo 2019. Later throughout 2019, she worked with Chunky Move on Token Armies in association with Creature Technology Co. as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. At the end of the year, Cody worked on a development with Cass Mortimer Eipper and Charmene Yap. In February 2020, she worked with Byström Källblad on City Horses as part of Supercell: Festival of Contemporary Dance.

Perks and Mini
Started in 2000 by  Shauna Toohey and Misha Hollenbach, P.A.M. is an evolving collaboration between the two, their friends and creative contemporaries. It started as an attempt to create a world they wanted to live in. P.A.M. has grown into an international brand focused on creativity across disciplines: fashion, art, music and beyond…

Damian Meredith
Damian is contemporary dance performer, artist, and teacher, based in so-called-Melbourne (traditionally owned by the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation). As well as exploring the body’s potential physicality, Damian’s creative interests involve intertwining sound design with dance, performance at music events, and curation. Damian trained at Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, the National Institute of Circus Arts, and Transit Dance. He has since toured locally and internationally, and worked professionally with several companies and independent artists including Matthew Bourne, Shaun Parker, Antony Hamilton, Adam Wheeler, Stephanie Lake, and Melanie Lane. Damian is also continuing dance and sound collaborator with Transit Dance Company. Damian co-founded Movement Décor in 2016 (an independent performance platform & choreographic project), which has seen works come to life throughout “Melbourne’s” rich nightlife scene, several multi-day music & arts festivals, and Melbourne Fringe. Damian has been in the role of performance curator/manager at Strawberry Fields Festival (2017, ’18, ’19), and is the choreographer for the opening and closing ceremony performances at Esoteric Festival.

Callum Morton
Callum’s art practice has consistently addressed the ‘architecture of experience’ – the moment of encounter between viewer and object, or viewer and built environment. From exclusive modernist homes, to the architecture of the theme park and the abandoned shopping strip, Morton recasts these forms in strange and often uncomfortable ways in entirely new contexts. Morton’s work is held in important Australian and international public collections including Art Gallery of New South Wales; National Gallery of Victoria; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia; Museum of Old and New; National Gallery of Australia; Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand; and Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples. Callum is Professor of Fine Art in the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture at Monash University.

Kris Moyes
Kris is an Australian-born director and producer and founder of KMOYES PICTURES. He is perhaps best known for his innovative music videos. He has created music videos for Architecture in Helsinki, Birds of Tokyo, Franz Ferdinand, Grizzly Bear, Hercules and Love Affair, Sia, Tokio Hotel, and The Presets, amongst many others.

Ren
Ren is a proud First Nations dancer and choreographer born and raised in Kaurna land (Adelaide, South Australia), before moving to Naarm in 2017. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. He has already had many successes as a professional artist, including winning the Dance Architect Award which resulted in the presentation of his work Echoes of Purity. He has worked as a dancer in Token Armies by Chunky Move, Colossus by  Stephanie Lake Company and MONUMENTAL by Amrita Hepi. Ren is passionate about sharing in the essence of being through his own artistic practice, continuously expanding states that can be experienced individually and within collective energetic exchange.

Bosco Shaw
Bosco works primarily as a Lighting and Set Designer.  His interest is in work that involves bodies and movement, how light feeds and influences the performing space and collaborations that propose alternate light sources and means. In 2016 he co-founded ADDITIVE, a collaborative lighting design company.   He is also the recipient of 3 Green Room awards for visual design. Projects include; Antony Hamilton – Meeting. Tim Darbyshire – Stampede the Stampede. Dance North – Attractor. Chunky Move – It Cannot Be Stopped, Token Armies. Matthew Sleeth – A Drone Opera. Stephanie Lake – Double Blind, Replica, Colossus. Luke George – Erotic Dance. Chamber Made Opera – Permission to Speak, Between 8 and 9,  Asia TOPA – XO State, Nick Power – Between Tiny Cities, Mel Lane – Nightdance, Mona Foma – Faux Mo 2018/2019/2020, Dark Mofo – Night Mass 2018, Alex Harrison/Paea Leach – The Difficult Comedown.

AB_TA_ Response

Creature Technology Co.
Founded in Melbourne in 2006, Creature Technology Co. are the world leaders in large-scale animatronics for the global entertainment industry.
Led by Creative Director and CEO, Sonny Tilders, this exceptionally talented team of designers, engineers, technicians and artisans sets a new benchmark for animatronics with every new project they undertake. Combining state-of-the-art technology with artistic mastery, Creature Technology Co.’s expertise ensures live experiences inspire wonder and awe in audiences worldwide.
Previous creations include the jaw-dropping beasts for Walking with Dinosaurs –The Arena Spectacular, the three remarkable mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies in Sochi, and the Tony Award winning King Kong puppet that wowed Broadway.
Creature Technology Co. is a unique organisation that is part manufacturer, part software designer, puppet-maker, engineering company, artist’s studio and entertainment creator all rolled into one, making the world’s best, large-scale animatronic creatures in the heart of Melbourne

Tra Mi Dinh
Tra Mi is a dance artist based across Sydney and Melbourne. Studying at Victorian College of the Arts, she graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) and the Orloff Family Charitable Trust Scholarship for Most Outstanding Dancer. Since graduating, Tra Mi has worked with incredible artists including Lucy Guerin, Victoria Chiu, Lee Serle, Michelle Heaven, Isabelle Beauvard and Monica Bill Barnes & Company in works presented at Dance Massive, AsiaTopa, MEL&NYC, Melbourne Fringe Festival, MPavillion, and Melbourne International Arts Festival. Her performance in Make Your Own World (2019) by Lucy Guerin Inc was nominated for a Green Room Award.

Her choreographic practice has been supported through residencies undertaken through Tasdance’s On the Island program, Sydney Fringe Festival’s Art in Isolation, Critical Path, and Readymade Studios Constant Relay. HOLDING, Tra Mi’s debut solo work premiered at March Dance Sydney Festival 2021 to a sold-out season. Tra Mi is sharing a short work ‘not the piece’ at ReadyMade Works’ upcoming program Happy Hour #12 and in September, her new work (UP)HOLDING will be presented at Sydney Fringe Festival

Robin Fox
Robin Fox is an internationally recognised Melbourne based composer and audio-visual artist working across live performance, exhibitions, public art and composition for contemporary dance. His laser works, which synchronise sound & visual electricity in hyper-amplified 3D space have been performed in over 60 cities worldwide. His critically acclaimed work Single Origin premiered at Unsound Krakow late 2017 and has toured extensively in 2018-19 with highlights including headline shows at Berlin Atonal, Semibreve (Braga), Mutek (Montreal and Mexico), Sonica (Kings Place London) among many others. QUADRA, an installation commissioned by HOTA on the Gold Coast recently proved a popular hit at the GLOW festival 2018 and at Arts House Melbourne 2019.

His ground- breaking work with Chunky Move contributed to the work Mortal Engine receiving a Helpmann award for best visual production and an honourable mention at the the illustrious Prix Ars Electronica 2009. Since 2008 he has composed music for over 25 contemporary dance works (many nominated for Greenroom and Helpmann awards) working with Australian choreographic luminaries Gideon Obarzanek, Lucy Guerin, Stephanie Lake and Antony Hamilton. These soundtracks are being released through bandcamp. Other soundworks have been released on Editions Mego, Room40, Quecksilber, Kranky, Synaesthesia Records and Bocian.

Antony Hamilton
Antony Hamilton was appointed Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move in early 2019, and his connection to the company goes back more than 17 years. His acclaimed works involve a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design, and are contextually underpinned by an examination of a body that is at once primitive, contemporary and future bound.

Antony has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2 and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has won numerous Green Room Awards and also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING. In 2019 he created Token Armies, his first major work for Chunky Move as Artistic Director.

Antony’s independent works include Blazeblue Oneline (2008), Drift (2010), Black Project 1 (2012), Black Project 2 (2013), MEETING (2015), NYX (2015) and Number of the Machine (2017). Major commissions include Forever & Ever(Sydney Dance Company, 2018), Natural Orders (Dancemakers Toronto, 2017), Crazy Times (Sydney Dance Company, 2017), Sentinel (Skånes Dansteater, 2016), Keep Everything (Chunky Move 2012), RGB (ADT 2010), Black Project 3 (Lyon Opera Ballet, 2010) and I Like This (co-directed by Byron Perry for Chunky Move 2008).

Paula Levis
Paula Levis is a Melbourne based costume designer. She has previously designed costumes for Antony Hamilton on his works Token Armies, Forever and Ever, Meeting, Sentinal, Black Project 2 & 3, NYX,Keep Everything, Drift, RGB, Blazeblue Oneline and I Like This. Paula has also designed costumes for choreographers Gideon Obarzanek (Two Faced Bastard, Mortal Engine, GLOW, Singularity, I Want to Dance Better at Parties), Lucy Guerin (Human Interest Story, Corridor, Structure & Sadness, Aether), Stephanie Lake (Skeleton Tree, Replica) and Melanie Lane (Re-make and Personal Effigies).

She has worked with companies Lyon Opera Ballet, Melbourne Theatre Company, Skånes Dansteater, Sydney Dance Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Victorian Opera, KAGE, Danceworks, Dancehouse, TasDance, DanceNorth, Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre and La Mama.

Amber McCartney
Amber is a Melbourne-based dancer. She has performed for companies Chunky Move (Token Armies, Accumulation, Red Shift, and It Sounds Silly), Lucy Guerin Inc (Metal and Pendulum), Antony Hamilton Projects (Number of the Machine), Tasdance (Reactor and Collision), DanceNorth (OneInfinity), as well as choreographers Prue Lang (Accumulation, Project F, Yoni & Stellar Project), James Batchelor (Red Shift, Island, Deepspace, Multiplication, Violence, and Metasystems), Adam Wheeler, Jo Lloyd and Gideon Obarzanek. She has created two works for Transit Dance, Yellow Wheel, and Lucy Guerin Inc (Pieces For Small Spaces). In 2020 Amber was a recipient of Solitude1, Chunky Move’s home-based residency program. Amber graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2012.

Kyall Shanks
Kyall is a Naarm/Melbourne based contemporary dance artist. His career so far has focused on finding a balance of performance, choreography and teaching work. By finding how these three areas can compliment and feed into each other, Kyall is passionate about increasing the accessibility of dance through youth and community work.

He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts 2015 and since then has danced for Tasdance, Antony Hamilton Projects, Chunky Move, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Opera Australia, The Delta Project and Liquidskin Dance Company. In 2017-2018 Kyall undertook an 8 month international residency program with DanceBox in Kobe, Japan, and then spent 3 months in Sweden as a member of ilYoung 2018. Kyall has engaged with community youth groups and schools as a teacher and choreographer, examples of this being the Arts Centre Melbourne/Matthew Bourne ‘Lord Of The Flies’ project, the 2019 Dance Massive work ‘Simulcast’, and Stephanie Lake Company’s 2020 Melbourne Fringe work ‘Multiply’. Through his work he has represented/taught for The Victorian College of the Arts, Chunky Move, Ausdance Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne, DRILL, Transit Dance and The Space Dance and Arts Centre. In 2020 he designed Chunky Move’s new set of education offerings “Experiences for Young People”, based off of current chunky move repertoire. He currently works as one of the Tasdance Ensemble members, as Co-Artistic Director of the 2021 Australian Youth Dance Festival, and as Artistic Director to the preprofessional youth dance company Yellow Wheel.

Nikki Tarling
Nikki began her dance studies at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. During her time at WAAPA, Nikki was selected to spend 6 months on exchange at Codarts in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Upon graduation in 2016 with her Bachelor in Performing Arts, Nikki began her long term engagement as a freelance contemporary dance artist. Moving to Launceston to begin her first contract, Nikki began working with Tasdance rehearsing ‘Fragile Matter’ with Paul Blackman and Christine Gouzelis (Jukstapoz), and was nominated as ‘Dancer to watch’ in the Dance Australia magazine in 2017. Following Tasdance, Nikki moved to Melbourne and continued working with many independent choreographers and artists, and has performed in an array of contemporary dance festivals across Australia. This includes the Perth & Melbourne Fringe Festival, and the Perth & Melbourne International Arts Festival, as well as a significant number of independent works in Australia. A few of these works include ‘Colossus’ & ‘Multiply’ by Stephanie Lake Company, and ‘Duplex’ by Jack Riley. ‘Duplex’ was presented at the Academia di Belle Art in Florence as part Melbourne University’s ‘First Commissions’ campaign. In 2020 Nikki returned to Perth to perform in a double-bill ‘Hofesh in the Yard’ presented by STRUT’s dance season in association with the Hofesh Shechter Company for the Perth International Arts Festival. In 2020 Nikki’s teaching practice sparked after completing her Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training. With dance knowledge that spans over 20 years, her focus is on awakening and rekindling the fluidity of the body. 

Rewards for the Tribe

Aviva Endean
Aviva Endean is a sound artist, clarinetist, improviser, curator, and collaborator on interdisciplinary projects. Her practice is dedicated to fostering a deep engagement with (and care for) sound and music, with the hope that attentive listening can connect people with each other and their environment. As a performance maker, Aviva curates new experiences with sound by creating unusual, spatially engaged, and participatory contexts for listening. Her work has been shown at Dark MOFO, MONA FOMA, Darwin Festival, BIFEM, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair and Liquid Architecture. Recent works include creating the sound score for Token Armies by Chunky Move (winner of a Greenroom award for best sound for dance 2020), releasing her debut solo album cinder : ember : ashes (which became a finalist for the Melbourne Prize for music 2019), creating Sonic Labyrinth an interactive sonic journey at Castlemaine State festival and Melbourne Fringe (nominated for a Greenroom award for best experimental sound work) and working as Associate Artist with The Australian Art Orchestra as the inaugural recipient of the Pathfinders Music Leadership position. Aviva is the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Freedman Fellowship, The APRA/AMCOS Art Music Fund, and the Peggy Glaville Hicks composers residency. 

Jianna Georgiou
Jianna joined the Restless Youth Ensemble in 2006 and has since performed in Rebel Rebel, Debut, The Heart of Another is a Dark Forest, Bedroom Dancing, Next of Kin, Take Me There and Howling Like A Wolf. She collaborated with Sophie Hyde (Closer Productions) and Kat Worth on the multi award winning film, Sixteen for Necessary Games. In 2010 she performed in Beauty and also joined the Restless Education Team. Jianna directed two works as part of the Debut seasons including Dancing Dragons and Superhero Island and Spirited Gardens. Spirited Gardens toured to the Australian Youth Dance Festival in Renmark in April 2014. In 2012 she performed in Philip Channells’ inPerspective #1 and choreographed The Gardens with AC Arts 2nd year dancers. In 2013 Jianna was artist is residence at the Bundanon Trust’s Boyd Education Centre. During this period she worked with Philip Channells on the No Time Like Now project and developed a solo work Sound Effects in Nature. Jianna is an Associate Artist and member the Education Team of Dance Integrated Australia and has worked in Perth and Brisbane. Jianna was a workshop assistant with Down Syndrome SA on the Dance Down Program. Jianna was a recipient of the 2013 JUMP Mentoring Program through the Australia Council, mentored by Lisa Heaven and was an inaugural South Australian recipient of the Creative Young Stars Program. Jianna has won numerous medals and trophies when competing at the Special Olympics in both gymnastics and swimming. In January 2014 Jianna performed in the critically acclaimed Restless productions Salt directed by Rob Tannion and In the Balance directed by Michelle Ryan. Jianna was a Finalist in the 2015 Channel 9 Young Achievers Awards. In 2015 Jianna performed in Touched (part of the Naturally double bill) directed by Michelle Ryan and performed an excerpt of the work at the International Day Of People With Disability at the Australia Council for the Arts. Jianna performed in the Restless Dance Season of In the Balance for the 2016 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Jianna also directed and performed in A Mysterious Lake and performed in Free and Fearless in Debut 5: the dancers direct. Later that year Jianna was mentored by Dan Daw through the 2016 Catalyst Program. In 2017 Jianna performed in Intimate Space at the Hilton Adelaide as part of the 2017 Adelaide Festival. Jianna toured with Restless Dance Theatre in 2018 to perform Intimate Space at the Hilton Surfers Paradise as part of Bleach* at Festival 2018 Arts and Culture program, Commonwealth Games, Jianna also performed in the opening sequence of the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony with Archie Roach and Amy Shark.
Later that year Jianna performed in Creating the Spectacle for the Adelaide Film Festival. In 2019 Jianna performed in Zizanie, directed by acclaimed choreographer Meryl Tankard for the 2019 Adelaide Festival. In May that year Jianna travelled to the UK for a creative development of Rewards for the Tribe directed by Antony Hamilton, a collaboration with Chunky Move (Melb), Candoco (UK) and Restless. Most recently Jianna toured with Restless to perform Intimate Space for the 2019 Seoul Street Arts Festival.

Antony Hamilton
Antony Hamilton was appointed Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move in early 2019, and his connection to the company goes back more than 17 years. His acclaimed works involve a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design, and are contextually underpinned by an examination of a body that is at once primitive, contemporary and future bound. Antony has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2 and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has won numerous Green Room Awards and also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING. In 2019 he created Token Armies, his first major work for Chunky Move as Artistic Director. Antony’s independent works include Blazeblue Oneline (2008), Drift (2010), Black Project 1 (2012), Black Project 2 (2013), MEETING (2015), NYX (2015) and Number of the Machine (2017). Major commissions include Forever & Ever(Sydney Dance Company, 2018), Natural Orders (Dancemakers Toronto, 2017), Crazy Times (Sydney Dance Company, 2017), Sentinel (Skånes Dansteater, 2016), Keep Everything (Chunky Move 2012), RGB (ADT 2010), Black Project 3 (Lyon Opera Ballet, 2010) and I Like This (co-directed by Byron Perry for Chunky Move 2008).

Benjamin Hancock
Benjamin Hancock is a dancer, choreographer, and performance artist, who is currently based in Melbourne, unceded Wurundjeri country. He has featured in works by Australia’s leading choreographers including Lucy Guerin, Prue Lang, Melanie Lane, Antony Hamilton, Lee Serle, Sue Healey, Martin del Amo, Narelle Benjamin, and Gideon Obarzanek. As a solo artist, Benjamin often inhabits fantastical dispositions that invite audiences to embrace parallel masculinities and femininities. He has presented solo performances at Chunky Move (Next Move), Lucy Guerin Inc (Pieces for Small Spaces), Performance Space (Day For Night), National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne Now), Mona Museum & New Orleans Biennial (Prospect 3 USA). Benjamin has also collaborated with contemporary artists, such as Dylan Martorell, Belle Bassin, Lichen Kelp, and Fayen d’Evie, to develop and perform works presented at leading Australian galleries including the Art Gallery of NSW, the Ian Potter Museum of Art, and Heide Museum of Art. He received an Australian Dance Award (2017), Helpmann Award Nomination (2017), and Green Room Award (2016) for his outstanding performance in Lucy Guerin Inc’s ‘The Dark Chorus’. His performance in ‘Princess’, his solo work choreographed for Chunky Move (Next Move) received a Green Room Award Nomination (2015). ‘Princess’ also won two Green Room Awards (2015) for outstanding sound design and visual design. Acclaimed as a performance artist in drag cabaret and club venues, including BARBA and Honcho Disko, Benjamin often plays with the spectacle of camouflage and masks, within egalitarian choreographies of drag. These performance entities have resonated beyond the club scene, leading to commissions at Aesop, Tourism Australia, NGV, Art Bank, Mona Foma and Dark Mofo, ACCA, ACMI. Collaborations continue with performance artists James Andrews, The Huxleys and Discordia. Since 2015, Benjamin has been a core member of the drag cabaret ensemble YUMMY, which has performed at Underbelly Festival (London), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Brisbane Festival, Auckland Live, and fringe festivals in Melbourne, Adelaide, and Perth. ‘Yummy’ won two Green Room Awards (2018) for best production and cabaret ensemble. Benjamin graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2008 with a Bachelor of Dance, and was the recipient of the inaugural VCA choreographic award in his final year.

Jenny Hector
Since graduating from The Victorian College Of the Arts in 1992, Jenny has developed a strong design aesthetic driven by her collaborations and the spaces they find themselves in. Her work as a lighting and set designer has been experienced nationally and internationally, most recently with Kamila Andini’s The Seen and The Unseen for Asia TOPA (Jakarta, Singapore and Melbourne), Sydney Chamber Opera’s The Howling Girls for Tokyo Festival World Competition 2019 and X-Risk, Kuopio Finland, collaborating with Madeleine Flynn, Tim Humphrey, Pekka Mäkinen, and Johanna Tuukkanen. She has designed lights for Paul Kelly and Paul Grabowsky- Meet Me In The Middle of the Air, Arts Centre-For Those About to Rock, Dark Mofo-Night Mass 2018 and Funeral Party 2016, Back to Back Theatre and The Theatre of Speed, Finucane and Smith-The Rapture, and Shanghai MiMI, Circus Oz-Aurora and From The Ground Up, Rimini Protokol- 100% Melbourne and 100% Darwin and Federation Square- Light In Winter. In Fragment 31’s Irony is not Enough, Parker’s Small Details and Shian Law’s Personal Mythologies, Jenny performed as part of the design. She developed a residential lighting installation, How Are You? that used light and colour to express the emotions of her collaborating neighbours, and through four of Hannah Bertram’s 24 Hr Drawing Projects, explored duration and colour through painting and counting. Her work for Fraught Outfit-Exodus II, Prue Lang -Stellar and Sandra Parker’s Out of Light were nominated for the Green Room best lighting. Jo Lloyd’s Overture, Jacob Boehme’s Blood on the Dance Floor and Jodee Mundy’s Imagined Touch received Green Room Awards for Best Production, for which Jenny realised both the lighting and set designs. Jenny is the recipient of two Green Room awards, for Balletlabs Miracle and Jenny Kemps Madeleine and received the 2016 Award for Technical Achievement.

Michael Hodyl
Michael has loved to dance and sing from a very young age. He joined Restless Central at the age of 21 and in 2013 he was invited in to the Youth Ensemble. Michael performed in Lorcan Hopper’s Debut 4 production of The Elements. He has also made his professional debut in a film clip for the band, The Audreys which was released in 2014. In 2014 he performed in In the Balance directed by Michelle Ryan. In 2015 he was involved in To Look Away, a short film by Sophie Hyde in collaboration with Restless Dance Theatre and Touched by Michelle Ryan. In 2016 Michael performed in the Restless season of In the Balance for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, directed by Michelle Ryan. He also performed in A Mysterious Lakedirected by Jianna Georgiou for Debut 5: the dancers direct. In 2017 Michael joined the Restless tutor team. In the same year Michael performed in Intimate Space directed by Michelle Ryan at the Hilton Adelaide as part of the 2017 Adelaide Festival. In 2018 Michael toured with Restless Dance Theatre and performed Intimate Space at the Hilton Surfers Paradise as part of Bleach* at Festival 2018 within the arts and culture program of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. Michael also performed in the opening segment of the Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony. Later that year Michael performed in Creating the Spectacle a collaboration with leading UK artist Sue Austin for the Adelaide Film Festival. In 2019 Michael performed in Zizanie, directed by acclaimed choreographer Meryl Tankard. That year Michael travelled to the UK with Restless for the first development of Rewards for the Tribe, directed by Antony Hamilton. The work is a collaboration with Restless, Chunky Move (Melb) and Candoco (UK). Most recently Michael toured with Restless to perform in Intimate Space for the 2019 Seoul Street Arts Festival. Michael is proud of his Polish, Chinese and Russian heritage. He is also an avid photographer and has a passion for sailing.

Cody Lavery
Cody Lavery studied at Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year in 2016 & 2017, under the guidance of Linda Gamblin and Shane Carroll. In 2018, Cody worked on a restaging of Merce Cunningham’s Travelogueat the New York City Centre. She also began developing Sara Black’s Double Beat as part of Dirty Feet’s Out of the Studio and Antony Hamilton’s Universal Estate, which premiered at Dance Massive in 2019. Cody then began collaborating with Tasdance on an interactive dance work Trolls, directed by Adam Wheeler. Later throughout 2019, she worked with Chunky Move in collaboration with Restless Dance Theatre and Candoco Dance Company to develop a new work for Coventry City of Culture 2021. In June, Cody restaged Antony Hamilton’s Universal Estate as part of Dark Mofo 2019. Later throughout 2019, she worked with Chunky Move on Token Armies in association with Creature Technology Co. as part of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. At the end of the year, Cody worked on a development with Cass Mortimer Eipper and Charmene Yap. In February 2020, she worked with Byström Källblad on City Horses as part of Supercell: Festival of Contemporary Dance.

Jonathon Oxlade
Jonathon is a multi award winning Australian Film and Theatre Designer. He studied Illustration and Sculpture at the Queensland College of Art. He has designed sets, costumes and spaces for Queensland Theatre, Guesswork TV, LaBoite Theatre, Is This Yours?, Aphids, Arena Theatre Company, The Real TV Project, Polytoxic, Men of Steel, Lemony S Puppet Theatre, Terrapin Puppet Theatre, Vitalstatistix, Barking Gecko, Bell Shakespeare, Red Moon Theatre Co, The Border Project, The Last Great Hunt, Stan TV, State Theatre of South Australia, Sydney Theatre Company, The Escapists, Sandpit, Sydney Opera House, Asia TOPA, Adelaide Festival, The Brisbane Festival, The Malthouse, Performance Space, Queensland Art Gallery, Melbourne Theatre Company, Belvoir Street and Windmill Theatre Co, where he is currently Resident Designer.

Charlie Wilkins

Charlie joined Restless Dance in 2017 and performed in Creating the Spectacle for the 2018 Adelaide Film Festival. Prior to this Charlie participated in the Dance program at St Johns Grammar School for 11 years and continues his dance experience with Essential Talent performance academy. He has also had the opportunity to perform at Can Dance spectaculars and various charity events. In his spare time Charlie takes part in Circus skills classes and swims with Special Olympics.

Antony Hamilton

Artistic Director and co-CEO

Antony Hamilton is the Artistic Director of Chunky Move. He works with collaborators to experiment with materials and spaces, and uses choreography to occupy vivid imaginary worlds. Antony is preoccupied by the notion of an elemental, primordial body, situated in a construct of intersecting contemporary narratives, while being confronted by the dilemma of an unknowable destiny. Over the course of his career, he has been the recipient of prestigious fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at the National Gallery of Victoria for Melbourne NOW. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2 and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has received numerous Green Room Awards and a New York Performing Arts ‘Bessie’ Award for Outstanding Production for MEETING. In 2019 he created Token Armies, his first work as AD of Chunky Move, and in 2020 he was guest mentor for Dancehouse Helsinki’s SPARKS project.

Melanie Lane

Choreographer in Residence

Melanie is a choreographer and performer who has worked with various companies and artists such as Kobalt Works, Arco Renz (B), Tino Seghal (G), Antony Hamilton (AUS) and Lucy Guerin (AUS), performing world wide.

In 2015, Melanie was appointed resident director at Lucy Guerin Inc. She has created new works for Chunky Move, DanceNorth, Australasian Dance Collective, Schauspiel Leipzig, Nagelhus Schia Productions, Sydney Dance Company and choreographed for English National Opera’s ‘Salome’ directed by Adena Jacobs .

Melanie’s independent choreographic works have been presented at festivals and venues such as Sydney Opera House, Tanz im August, Uzes Danse Festival, Indonesian Dance Festival, Arts House Melbourne, O Espaco do Tempo, Festival Antigel, Dance Massive and HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin.

Melanie choreographed the 2015 and 2017 live shows for UK electronic musician Clark, performing at over 30 international venues and festivals including Moma PS1 New York, Villette Sonique Paris, Funkhaus Berlin and Sonar Festivals in Barcelona/Istanbul.

Melanie has received both Helpmann and Green Room Award nominations and received the Leipziger Bewegungskunstpreis 2018 and the Keir Choreographic Award 2018 for her choreographic work.

Sally Calder

Chair

Sally Calder leads KPMG’s People and Change team in Melbourne and leads KPMG’s National Culture Service. She specialises in culture, leadership and change management. She works with senior leaders to support collaborative leadership, build constructive and successful cultures and inform communications, stakeholder engagement, and strategy. She specialises in cultural transformation and has a particular interest in diversity and inclusion, and the value that can be drawn from cognitive technology and AI to both understand, and support changes in behaviour.

Prior to joining KPMG she worked at all three levels of Government across two States, and held senior executive roles, in complex, service based public sector organisations, including organisations involved in cultural activity. Creating healthier, more connected and vibrant communities, where opportunity, cultural expression, and inclusion are equally shared has been a focus of her career.

Sally has a long history of active involvement in the arts from both an academic, professional and personal perspective. She holds a Masters Degree in Australian Literature, and is an avid follower and collector of Australian fashion and art, a Ballet subscriber for many years, and a regular attendee at Opera, theatre, film, music and dance events.

Sally is passionate about how food, wine, books, music, art, clothing and place bring people together to experience and create a sense of cultural vitality, connection, collaboration and opportunity.

Lauren Donazzan

Director

Lauren’s career has led her to live and work in some of the world’s most vibrant and culturally alive cities, including New York, Hong Kong and, of course, Melbourne. Her 10 years’ experience as a lawyer has included positions at notable law firms Minter Ellison and Sullivan & Cromwell, where she specialised in mergers and acquisitions. More recently, her role as in-house Legal Counsel at Coles has seen her work broadly across banking and finance, M&A, corporate governance, strategic projects, compliance, regulation, and risk management.

Passionate about organisations with purpose and a focus on sustainability, Lauren is currently a Senior Finance Manager at Coles, where she leads the Treasury and Banking team as Deputy Treasurer and is responsible for managing Coles’ debt portfolio, liquidity and financial risks.

Lauren has long been a devotee of the Melbourne art scene and is an ardent lover of all great things the city has to offer – wine, food, art, theatre, literature and of course dance. This passion has developed into a commitment to supporting the arts through her position on the Chunky Move board, where she aims to aid in the work of this important contributor to Melbourne’s cultural voice.

Brad Macdonald

Director

Brad is a fundraiser, event producer and stakeholder engagement specialist. He has more than 25-years’ experience in the cultural industries in the UK and Australia. 

After starting his arts career in Melbourne, Brad moved to London in 2002. For six years he was External Relations Manager at Tate, overseeing all private events at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. From 2009 to 2017 he was Head of Development (Events and Operations) at the British Film Institute. 

Brad was previously Special Projects Director for Premier PR – Europe’s largest communications agency for film and culture. He has been a freelance consultant, with clients including The City of London Corporation, the Guildhall Art Gallery, FIRG and the Creative Industries Federation. 

He is currently Head of Philanthropy and Festival Development for the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), responsible for establishing all aspects of private giving for Australia’s longest-running film event. 

Brad has a BA (Public Relations) from RMIT. He is a life-long film-buff, music fan and avid traveller. He has been inspired by the genre defying work of Chunky Move since its earliest days. 

Wendy Martin

Director

Wendy Martin was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Community Arts Network in October 2021. For the past twenty years Wendy has created groundbreaking, multi-form festivals, commissions, events and public engagement programs. In March 2019 she completed a four-year tenure as Artistic Director of Perth Festival where she delivered programs praised for their ‘passionate sense of social and moral purpose, high quality and deep connections.’

Between 2000 and 2015 Wendy was Head of Performance and Dance at the Southbank Centre, London and the Sydney Opera House creating distinctive international programs and festivals including Unlimited: a Festival of work by deaf and disabled artists, a highlight of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. At Sydney Opera House she founded Spring Dance (2009) and Message Sticks Indigenous Arts Festival (2001). For the decade prior to 1998, she was as arts producer for ABC and SBS Television

Wendy is a Board member of Chunky Move Contemporary Dance Company, Melbourne, Fuel Theatre, UK and is also a member of the Artistic Reference Panel for Black Swan State Theatre Company of Western Australia.

Tam Nguyen

Director

Tam Nguyen has established a distinctive multidisciplinary practice over twenty years, working across the performing arts, film and large-scale festivals in the UK, USA and Australia.

She is Co-Director of Turning World, a boutique cultural agency connecting contemporary cultures in Australia and the Asia Pacific.  

Tam is Creative Associate of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts (Asia TOPA). 

She has worked for large festivals across artforms including MONA FOMA; Doc/Fest (UK); Australia Week Festival (USA); International Society for the Performing Arts World Congress, Adelaide Festival and the Australian International Documentary Conference. 

She sits on the Creative Advisory Panel for Museums Victoria.  

Lili Pechey

Treasurer

Lili joined the National Australia Bank in 2022 to lead its work on Natural Capital, building on a 20 year career providing strategic research and advice to deliver a more sustainable and climate resilient society.

She has postgraduate training in economics and draws on this to provide evidence-based research, analytical and advisory services. She has led  numerous large-scale projects involving the preparation of business cases, regulatory impact statements, cost benefit analyses, and program / project reviews.

As a people-focussed and values-driven leader, she is sought after for her collaborative approach to achieving impacts. She has extensive experience leading multi-disciplinary and culturally diverse teams across Australia, Azerbaijan, Britain, Gabon, and Norway.

Lili has held previous consulting roles with large multinational firms (URS and AECOM) and most recently as General Manager of Natural Capital Economics.

Lili is a longstanding supporter of the Melbourne Arts scene and is looking forward to repaying many years of wonderful experiences through her role on the Chunky Move board.

Jasmin Sheppard

Director

Jasmin is a contemporary dancer, choreographer and director, a Tagalaka Aboriginal woman with Irish, Chinese and Hungarian ancestry.

Jasmin spent 12 years with Bangarra Dance Theatre, performing numerous lead roles such as ‘Patyegarang’, in which critics described her performance as “powerfully engaging, fluent dexterity” (Sydney Morning Herald). She choreographed one major work for the company, ‘MACQ’, on the 1816 Appin Massacres under Governor Macquarie which toured Australian capital cities, regional Australia and Germany. In 2012 Jasmin was nominated for an Australian Dance award for ‘Best Female Contemporary Dancer’, and her work ‘MACQ’ was nominated for a Helpmann Award for best dance work as a part of ‘OUR Land People Stories’ in 2017, and in 2018 received a Helpmann for best regional touring program.

Other works include: ‘No Remittance’ for Legs on the Wall and ‘Choice Cut’ for Yirramboi festival, which made its proscenium arch debut at Ryerson Theatre, CA, at Toronto’s ‘Fall For Dance North’ Festival, 2019.

Jasmin premiered her first full length work “The Complication of Lyrebirds” in 2021 at Sydney Festival; Campbelltown Arts Centre. This work was also supported by The Australia Council for the arts in conjunction with CAC and Native Earth Theatre Company.

In 2021 Jasmin co directed “Value For Money” alongside Sara Black for Guts Dance. This work received rave reviews and had seasons at Araluen Arts Centre and Darwin Festival.

Jasmin created ‘Given Unto Thee’ for Sydney Dance Company’s New Breed program, and most recently was performer, movement director and associate writer for the major theatre work by S Shakthidharan: 宿 (stay)

Her work is passionate, political and has been described as “surreal and highly evocative” (The Australian).

Sophie Travers

Director

Sophie Travers is an experienced arts manager based in Melbourne. She has a passion for contemporary dance and was Wayne McGregor’s General Manager at Random Dance in London, after managing Retina Dance Company, Bi Ma Dance Company and working with Green Candle Dance Company. Sophie wrote extensively about dance in international publications, Dance Theatre Journal, Dance Now, Dance Australia, Dancing Times and Real Time. In her roles at The British Council and Australia Council for the Arts, she toured performing artists and set up reciprocal residencies, exchanges and large scale projects internationally.

Sophie is the CEO of Australian Tapestry Workshop, an organisation dedicated to hand-weaving contemporary tapestries. Previous roles include CEO at Collingwood Yard, work at City of Melbourne and in venues such as The Roundhouse in London. Sophie sits on the Board of TarraWarra Museum of Art and was previously a Director for Res Artis, the international artist residency network. She is a member of the Deakin University Arts and Cultural Management Advisory Board and was a Creative Victoria First People’s Mentor.

Sophie was born in Scotland and has lived and worked in many cities, including Berlin, Brussels, London, Edinburgh, Zaragoza, Sydney and Groningen. She speaks six languages and is learning Indonesian.