Ashley Dyer is a producer, performance maker and workshop facilitator based in Melbourne, Australia. Although not a classically trained a dancer, singer, actor, visual artist or writer, over the past ten years he has developed his work extensively in these areas, borrowing from their traditions. He was an Associate Producer at Next Wave Festival 2012 and founded and program managed Erskineville’s Tiny Stadiums Festival in its first two years. He was awarded a Creative Australia Fellowship by the Australia Council for the Arts in 2013.

His most recent works include: J R Brennan’s The Chat, a theatre performance featuring ex-offenders about the parole process presented at both Arts House and La Boite Theatre; Tremor a dance performance/installation about vibration, Arts House; SK!N a dance collaboration with Malaysian based TerryandtheCuz about human trafficking presented at APW Kuala Lumpur and OzAsia festival; and with Amy Spiers and Catherine Ryan, No More Public Space, Only Public Order (Water Cannon), Salamanca Arts Centre. Ashley joined Dancehouse in 2017.

The post Ashley Dyer appeared first on Critical Path.

Lee Pemberton is a regional artist based in The Bega Valley since 1999, where she founded fLiNG Physical Theatre and remained as Artistic Director from 2001 until 2015.  In 2016 Lee was awarded an Arts NSW Regional Artists Fellowship. Her research and development is following a trail of inquiry to support the growth of her choreographic and movement practice. Lee identifies strongly with community practice and identity of place and collaborates with an eclectic group of people who have a strong relationship with the area in which she lives.

Photo Credits:
Paul Hopper

Links:
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014595284157
Instagram
lee.pem

The post Lee Pemberton appeared first on Critical Path.

Ash Bee has a diverse range of choreographic interests and experience spanning contemporary dance, musical theatre, jazz and performance art. Having completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance in 2008, Ash has gone on to choreograph for The Lunch Hour (Siren Theatre Company), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare on the Green) and 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Squeaky Floor Productions).

Ash is also the founder of Blonde Ambition, a contemporary dance trio with a feminist performance art agenda. For this her choreography explores a vocabulary of quotidian gesture, contemporary dance and grotesque theatricality. Referencing a range of symbols including Barbie, the Hitchcock blonde and Playboy bunny, her work with Blonde Ambition also employs gender signifiers to investigate the notion of a constructed beauty ideal.

Ash’s achievements with Blonde Ambition include a Responsive Residency with Critical Path (2011), Most Outstanding Choreography Award (Short, Sweet + Dance 2009), You Are Here Festival (2011) and the Sydney Fringe Festival (2010). Her original short work was selected for remount in the inaugural season of Shorter + Sweeter Dance (2011). Ash was the choreographer for Castor & Pollux (2012).

The post Ash Bee appeared first on Critical Path.

Elizabeth Ryan (BA Dance UWS Nepean) is a choreographer, performer, and founding member of The Fondue Set. Her solo works include I was Made for Loving You (2012) created with fashion designers Romance Was Born as part of the Oh! Wanna Dance with Somebody! Festival at The Campbelltown Arts Centre, and Aunt Hilda’s Brass Razoo (2009) also commissioned by The Campbelltown Arts Centre and further developed through a Performing Arts Residency at Fraser Studio’s. Selected works with The Fondue Set include a residency and showing of You are Gorgeous and I’m Coming created with New York artist Miguel Gutierrez at Carriageworks (2012), Retrospecatcle, Carriageworks (2011), and the Green Room Award Winning No Success Like Failure created in collaboration with UK director Wendy Houstoun premiering at The Studio, Sydney Opera House. Elizabeth has performed with Martin del Amo in Slow Dances for Fast Times, Force Majeure in Not in a Million Years, Dean Walsh in Back from Front, Version 1.0 in From a Distance, and with Restless Dance Theatre on the creative development of Second Nature, a new work choreographed in collaboration with Dean Walsh. Elizabeth has made works for the students of the University of New South Wales and the Australian College of Physical Education and also teaches creative dance to children.

The post Elizabeth Ryan appeared first on Critical Path.

Emma Saunders is an artist, who works as a dancer, curator, choreographer and educator. Utilising a visceral, instinctive attack, her work is immediate, often working with humour, everyday movements, repetition, duration and abstraction. She co-created The Fondue Set — a formidable Sydney based dance trio well known for their signature theatricality and comedic style and was the inaugural Dance Curator at Campbelltown Arts Centre.

The post Emma Saunders appeared first on Critical Path.

Eleanor Brickhill, an independent dance artist for over 35 years, has performed in Australia and the UK with companies including Sydney Dance Company, English National Opera and Dance Exchange. Recent research projects have been with Critical Path, Fit (2005) and Friction (2007). She has written for and about dance performance, conducted research on Auslan, and is currently passionate about Argentine Tango and language studies.

Image: Eleanor Brickhill and Merrilee Macourt (left) watched by choreographer Graeme Watson (right) during rehearsals of A Gathering of Vagrants.

The post Eleanor Brickhill appeared first on Critical Path.

Raghav Handa is an Australian choreographer and performer of Indian heritage with training in modern and Indigenous contemporary dance. As a choreographer, Raghav’s dance language explores the circular movement patterns of traditional Kathak accentuated by an overlay of speed and precision.

Raghav’s first full-length work, Tukre’, which explored the influence of lineage, premiered at Melbourne Next Wave 2014, and later travelled to Brisbane and Sydney receiving strong critical acclaim. In 2016, his second work, Mens Rea: The Shifter’s Intent, explored the concept of shape-shifting using 3D motion technology. Set against the Hindu epic Ramayana, it drew on stories shared by Aboriginal elders and had seasons in Cairns, Brisbane and London. Silent Trio Beats, Raghav’s first ensemble piece, is under development and will premier in 2018.

The post Raghav Handa appeared first on Critical Path.

Sarah-Jayne Howard was born 3 July 1976, in South Africa, growing up in, Stratford, Taranaki, from the age of five. She trained at the New Zealand School of Dance, graduating with Honours in 1995.

She joined Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre where she worked for four years performing throughout Australia, America, Japan and Europe. While at ADT she choreographed two solo works: Tonight and Veronique.

In 1999 Sarah-Jayne worked with Garry Stewart’s company Thwack! including a performance on New Years Eve suspended from the main sail of the Sydney Opera House. In 2000 she joined Gideon Obarzaneks Chunky Move Dance Company then returned to New Zealand to perform in Inland choreographed by Douglas Wright,White, by Raewyn Hill, and Weather, a duet with Michael Parmenter.

In 2002 she was selected as one of three finalists chosen worldwide for the inaugural Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. In 2003/2004 Sarah-Jayne was a guest dancer with Australian Dance Theatre, performing in Held, choreographed by Garry Stewart incollaboration with US Photographer Lois Greenfield. She also choreographed for Company B’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Benedict Andrews. In 2005/2006 she performed in Already Elsewhere, directed by Kate Champion for the Sydney Festival of the Arts, and Black Milk, created by Douglas Wright, which toured New Zealand and Sydney. In 2007 Sarah-Jayne performed in Kaidan, choreographed by Meryl Tankard for a sold out season at the Sydney Festival. In the same year, she was the recipient of an Arts Foundation of New Zealand, Laureate Award. In 2008 she returned from London where she was performing a new dance theatre work roadkill by Splinter group, in which she collaborated with Gavin Webber and Grayson Millwood.

In 2018, she was appointed Associate Artistic Director at Australian Dance Theatre.

Image: Pippa Samaya

The post Sarah Jayne Howard appeared first on Critical Path.

Russell Dumas left Australia in 1969 and worked in companies as diverse as the Royal Ballet (London), Nederlands Dans Theater (Netherlands), Ballet Rambert (England), Cullberg Ballet (Sweden), Strider (England) and the Ballet Gulbenkian (Portugal) and with the Twyla Tharp and Trisha Brown companies in New York.  In 1976, he established the Australian based company Dance Exchange.

The post Russell Dumas appeared first on Critical Path.

Kimberley McIntyre is an artist whose practice includes contemporary dance, improvisation, language and contact improvisation (CI). Ideas are set only to allow them to be played with, and performances that work are full of play and unknowing.

Kimberley has taught, trained and performed in Australia, Europe, and India with many brilliant artists. Her style of dance and performance has been shaped by many and influences of regard include; Janis Claxton (contemporary dance & Improvisation), Helen Clark Lapin (CI), Alice Cumins (BMC & Impro), Tony Osborne (performance & Impro), Al Wunder Theatre (Perfomance and Improvisation), David Zambrano (flying low technique), Wendll Beavers (developmental movement), Andrew d.L Harwood (CI), Nancy Stark Smith (CI), Russel Dumas (modern dance).

Kimberley resides in Northern NSW where she teaches workshops in Dance, Improvisation and CI. As part of the Sydney Fringe program, Kimberley created and performed a new solo work, ‘The Funeral Plan’ at the Annandale Arts Centre’s Platform Shorts 2013 season and again at the Sydney Fringe 2014. This new work is personal, funny and poignant piece of dance theatre that resulted from her interest and training in end of life care.

The post Kimberley McIntyre appeared first on Critical Path.