Photo of two people dancing in a small room with bookshelves and a door open.

Opportunities

RESEARCH ROOM RESIDENCIES JANUARY-JUNE 2026

LOUIE WISBY

Photo of a person dancing with an anatomical illustration of a human's internal organs attached to the person's clothed torso.

Louie Wisby, photo by Jeff Busby, image edited by Nasim Patel.

CONCERT

I will be using my time in the research room to develop a new work to be presented in the second half of this year. This work will be built on the refinement of improvisation practices, performance strategies and movement sequences that have come out of my research into Chinese medicine frameworks of the body and how they might function in performance. Specifically, I will be looking at holographic constructions of the body and octahedral theory, which posits that an innate structural symmetry is enfolded into our bodies. This system can be cued into in acupuncture to stimulate healing and I have a hunch that it can be cued into via choreography to move a body and make a dance. Still tbc on the outcome, but I’m working on it.

@louie_rachael_rachael_louie

LOUIE WISBY

Louie is a physical artist who was born in Naarm and lives on Gadigal land in Sydney. Louie graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2018. Since then she has pursued the creation of her own work and others. She has enjoyed working with Phillip Adams (Glory, Prelude), Jo Lloyd (Garden Dance, Bang Stop, FM:Air, Paris Was Yesterday), Geoffrey Watson (Rachael Wisby), Lee Serle (Time Portrait), Natalie Abbott (Re:Purpose the Mvmt), Nana Biluš Abaffy (A Bestiary of Unimaginable Animals) and Yuiko Masukawa (3).Her work has been presented by Temperance Hall (Please Do Not Move, Sybylla), Lucy Guerin Inc (Roses), The University of Melbourne (The Curtain Drops (The Jig is Up)) and Dance House (Judy and Me). As a doctor of Chinese Medicine, Louie’s her recent explorations have taken place at the intersection of two knowledge systems. Through residencies at Critical Path in 2025, Louie is investigating the way that the Chinese Medicine conception of the bodies’ anatomy can be brought into the dancing body and co-exist (or clash) with other somatic practices.

RHIANNON NEWTON

A performer is kneeling on floor, leaning back, with arms forward and fingers touching loosely. Photo is taken from behind the performer and face is not visible.

Rhiannon Newton, Long Sentences, Carriageworks, Commissioned by Performance Space for Liveworks 2025, Photo: Lucy Parakhina

THE PRESENCE TENSE

The Presence Tense is a phrase that came up when I was doing some writing in the studio after dancing recently. It captures my conceptual and choreographic concerns in this moment. How does dance help us to tune into and work with all the different more-than-human things that are active and enabling a given situation? While in the Research Room I am revisiting and working with a bunch of recent studio writing from this emerging practice and while in the Drill I’m continuing to work with some of the scores for collective solo and group action.

http://rhiannonnewton.com/

RHIANNON NEWTON

Rhiannon is an Australian dancer and choreographer who grew up on Dunghutti land and lives and works on Gadigal and Wangal land. Her practice experiments with the ways dance cultivates sensations of connection between people and environments. Her works have been presented by Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney Dance Company, Performance Space, Sydney Festival, Dance Massive, Dancehouse, Dance Nucleus (Singapore), Baltic Circle Festival (Finland), Nagib On Stage (Slovenia), and Movement Research (New York). Rhiannon works as a performer and collaborator with artists such as Mette Edvardsen (Belgium), Martin del Amo, Ivey Wawn, Amrita Hepi, Brooke Stamp and Angela Goh (among many others).

 

JOSHUA DI MATTINA-BEVEN

A person dressed in navy has their hand on an open booklet. An orange sits on top of a stack of paper. They are reading.

Joshua Di Mattina-Beven in the Research Room, 2025

BROKEN NOTES: NOTES ON BREAKTHROUGHS BY DEBORAH MAY

Broken Notes traces the production of dance film ‘Breakthroughs’ by Deborah May, reflecting on each dancer’s unique approach to practice. The 3-channel film included performances from Henrietta Baird, Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal, Martin del Amo, Rhiannon Newton and Rosalind Crisp. Less a descriptive account or instructive interpretation; the text compiles notes, marginalia and stray insights from the underside of artistic production.

https://joshuadimattinabeven.cargo.site/

JOSHUA DI MATTINA-BEVEN

Joshua Di Mattina-Beven is an artist and writer working on Gadigal and Bidjigal land. Their practice cruises both public space and personal memory, taking a relational approach to performance making with and for others. They work across choreography, moving image, sculpture and text to untangle the intersection of body, desire and artistic production.

Joshua graduated from UNSW Art and Design in 2024 with a double degree in Fine Arts/Arts (Sculpture/Performance Studies), winning the Ross Steele Fine Art Prize for best achievement in Fine Art and outstanding artwork in the Annual Graduating Show.

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Remy Rochester and Amy Flannery, performance inside the Research Room, EVERY WILD IDEA, 2025, photo by Anna Kučera Photography.

IMAGE ID: Photo of two people dancing in a small room with bookshelves and an open door.

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