People

Our Staff

Agnès Michelet, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Migrating from France to Australia in 2000, Agnès has carved out a career as a highly respected individual in the national dance sector. Previous roles include Program Manager and Acting Executive Producer of FORM Dance Projects, General Manager of Darwin’s Tracks Dance Company, and Director of STRUT Dance in Perth. Prior to her career in Australia, Agnès worked with a broad range of performing arts organisations in France, including the European Centre for Contemporary Mimodrama, street theatre company Friches Theatre Urbain, and multimedia dance artist Jean-Marc Matos. Agnès has served as a Peer Assessor and Dance Board Advisor at the Australia Council for the Arts; is an Asialink Residency alumnus; holds a Masters in Cross-Disciplinary Art and Design from UNSW; and also a classically trained pianist!

LIZZIE THOMSON, PRODUCER

Lizzie Thomson has over 25 years of experience working in dance as a performer, choreographer, educator and writer. She has collaborated and performed in Australia and Europe with internationally acclaimed artists including Rosalind Crisp, Mette Edvardsen, Marina Abramovic, Angela Goh, Janet Laurence, Jane McKernan and Agatha Gothe-Snape. Lizzie has presented her own performance work in theatres and galleries in Australia, Iceland, Hong Kong and Germany. Her work has been supported by arts organisations including the Art Gallery of NSW, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Carriageworks, Critical Path, Performance Space, Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA), ReadyMade Works, SÍM Reykjavîk Iceland, Agder Kunstsenter Norway and ABC Arts Online. She has been working as a sessional lecturer at the School of Arts & Media at UNSW since 2013. In 2023, Lizzie was engaged as a research consultant for the Powerhouse Museum. Her writing on dance and performance has been published in books, academic journals and artist catalogues. 

Jasmin Sheppard, FIRST NATIONS ARTIST CURATOR

Jasmin is a Tagalaka, Settler, Hungarian Chinese Contemporary dance artist and choreographer. Jasmin spent 12 years with Bangarra Dance Theatre, performing lead roles such as ‘Patyegarang’. She choreographed ‘MACQ’ for the company in 2013. She has worked independently as a choreographer since 2018: ‘Choice Cut’ for Yirramboi festival and Toronto’s ‘Fall For Dance North’ Festival, ‘The Complication of Lyrebirds’ Sydney Festival (developed and presented by Campbelltown AC and Native Earth Theatre Company), ‘Value For Money’ Araluen Arts Centre and Darwin Festival, ‘Given Unto Thee’ Sydney Dance Company, ‘宿 (stay)’ by S. Shakthidharan (performer, movement director, associate writer). Her work is passionate, political and has been described as “surreal and highly evocative” (The Australian).

Matt Cornell, DIGITAL ARTIST-CURATOR

Matt Cornell is an award-winning choreographer and composer based in the Asia Pacific, working to ask better questions. His career interrogates how we embody systems – social, cultural, political, or technological – and in turn how these systems embody us by forming communities and informing identities. His work takes multiple forms including dancing, performance, sound composition, writing, podcasting, and curation, in varying contexts including in theatres, galleries, public spaces, and online. Across these radically different contexts is the core effort of creating spaces, events, and experiences through which we can gather, to share something which might give rise to new ways to know ourselves and each other and the stories we tell ourselves. That we may get better at living together.

Our Committee

ADRIAN BURNETT, chair

JILL BROWN, SECRETARY

Jill Brown is a publishing executive and a writer who specialises in dance. She has an MPhil in Creative Writing (UQ). For her thesis she wrote a relational biography of Margot Fonteyn, Sylvie Guillem and Misty Copeland. She has served in leadership positions in trade and educational publishing and digital media. As well as serving on the board of Critical Path, she is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Dance and Somatic Practice.

Alexio Chibika, Treasurer

Alexio is a Chartered Accountant with extensive audit experience in an international audit firm across five countries. He is currently a Senior Audit Manager and is responsible for the audits of large listed and multinational organisations. He has experience in Audit, Financial Management, Corporate Governance, Internal controls and Financial Reporting. He has also volunteered as Treasurer for various Not-for-profit entities.

Azzam Mohamed, ARTIST REPRESENTATIVE

Azzam, also known as Shazam, is a dancer, performer, and educator from Sudan. Azzam’s dance practice encompasses a range of styles, from traditional cultural dance through to hip hop styles, he is able to bring these forms together to create a breathtaking original dance fusion that echoes his history and at the same time showcases his incredible ability as a dancer. Azzam’s dance practice involves teaching at studios and festivals, performing and touring in stage shows, competing in dance competitions and judging, organizing events, facilitating workshops, and mentoring and coaching young and emerging Australian dancers.

lee-anne Litton, ARTIST REPRESENTATIVE

Lee-Anne Litton is a NSW based performance maker, physical performer and collaborator originally from Mandurah, Western Australia who has created and performed in works within the realms of dance, circus and physical theatre. Lee-Anne’s curiosity in the line between aerial performance and dance theatre, is also influenced by her strong investigation and passion for Contact Improvisation. Lee-Anne is passionate about the framework of interdisciplinary thinking and creativity in regards to the challenge of climate and social change.

TAMMI GISSELL

Tammi Gissell is the Collections Access Coordinator, First Nations at The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, NSW. She is a Muruwarri-Wiradjuri woman born in North-West NSW. Tammi is also a performer, poet, performance theorist, choreographer, researcher and writer; having performed, lectured and consulted regionally, nationally and internationally across the spectrum of contemporary & contemporary-Indigenous performance since 1996. Prior to her current role, Tammi led the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Assessment Team for the Collection, Relocation and Digitisation Project for the new Powerhouse Parramatta. She holds a Bachelor of Performance: Theory and Practice (Honours) from the University of Western Sydney (UWS); was inducted into the Golden Key International Honour Society for achievements in performance theory in 2004 and later graduated Deans’ Medallist and Reconciliation Scholar in 2005. From 2007-2011 Tammi was Course Coordinator at NAISDA Dance College while also presenting her body of solo works and appearing with leading Australian dance-theatre makers including Mirramu Dance Co., The Physical TV Company, Branch Nebula, Kinetic Energy Theatre Co., Lina Limosani, Jason Pitt, Darren Green, Bernadette Walong and Liz lea & Co. Since 2014 Tammi has been an independent assessor for EttingshausensPro full time dance program, Sydney.

VICTORIA HOUSTON

Victoria Houston is a lawyer and a Business Affairs Lead at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation where she negotiates television and audio production deals. Previously Victoria was the National Industrial Officer for Actors Equity (MEAA) for many years where she worked closely with dancers from Sydney Dance Company, The Australian Ballet and Opera Australia negotiating their collective bargaining agreements and recording and broadcasting deals. She has also worked at the Arts Law Centre of Australia advising artists and for 21 years has had a side hustle ushering at the Sydney Opera House. Victoria is passionate about the Arts, especially dance in all its forms.

SERENA CHALKER

Serena Chalker is an experienced arts leader, choreographer and live-performance producer with expertise in live music, dance and interdisciplinary performance. She is the Executive Producer, Creative Activations and creative programming lead for Inner West Council’s major festivals, including transforming Marrickville Music Festival into a destination event for live music and developing new funding and strategic partnerships to increase the quality and scope of artistic programming for the community. She has a 15-year career as an award-winning and critically acclaimed independent artist and co-director of Anything Is Valid Dance Theatre, producing and presenting work across Australia and internationally including Korea, Finland, Germany, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Canada. As Interim Artistic Director/Creative Producer at STRUT Dance she pioneered the inaugural mid-career artist development program, introduced Practice Sharing for the independent sector and secured RISE funding for the presentation of SITU-8: City at Liberty Theatre. She also co-curated site-specific season SITU-8 from 2019-2021 with theatre-maker Geordie Crawley.

GEORGIA SHEPHERD