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 HappeningFallen O’erBlowin’ UpLet’s Go Up HereLady 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 Carnivalethe 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 ArmiesForever and EverMeetingSentinalBlack Project 2 & 3NYX,Keep EverythingDriftRGBBlazeblue Oneline and I Like This. Paula has also designed costumes for choreographers Gideon Obarzanek (Two Faced BastardMortal EngineGLOWSingularityI Want to Dance Better at Parties), Lucy Guerin (Human Interest StoryCorridorStructure & SadnessAether), Stephanie Lake (Skeleton TreeReplica) 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 SocietyEnter 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, SplitThe Dark ChorusMacbeth (UK)), Gideon Obarzanek & Dancenorth (One Infinity), Dancenorth (FugueMassBlack CrowAllegories), 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).