HARRISON COOK
Harrison Cook, MATA MATA, 2026, Boorloo (Perth), presented as part of the 2026 Annual Season at The Blue Room Theatre, supported by STRUT Dance through the Evolve Program, photo credit: Logan Ringshaw.
BLOODLINES (The Return)
BLOODLINES (The Return) is an ongoing archival work. Working primarily as a dance artist in Boorloo (Perth) I am on a constant journey of trying to place myself amongst different lands and waters and express the wairua (spirit) of my work through different expressive mediums that stretch out beyond the capacity of the physical body. BLOODLINES (The Return) currently takes the form of a zine, a hand held archive, that invites the witness to journey with me alongside the landscapes and waters that both continue to shape me as a person as well as my choreographic work. Diving into the cultural sacredness of the mountains and rivers from which my tīpuna (ancestors) moved alongside, and then uncovering how the energies of these mighty beings can present themselves to me even when I am not physically present with them. This work is for those who moved before me and will continue to move on after me.
@harrisoncookk
HARRISON COOK
HARRISON COOK (He/Him) is a takatāpui dancer, choreographer and writer of Māori (Kāi Tahu) and Pākehā descent, born and raised on Ngāti Hauā Whenua in the Waikato of Aotearoa. Currently, Harrison is based on the lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people in Boorloo (Perth). He is a recent graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, being awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) in 2023 and a Bachelor of Performing Arts First Class Honours degree (2024). During his honours degree he was fortunate enough to work closely alongside Jo Pollit, crafting a body of written work titled ‘Te Wakahuia: Coming to know lineage through dance improvisation and archival poetics.’ This unfurling act is currently manifesting through his developing research-based improvisational dance practice. Rooted in the concepts of connection to land and water, ancestral voices and wisdom, and the integration of lineal understandings into the present physical space, Harrison is on a trajectory of rediscovering himself within his artistic practice. Through support from STRUT Dance, The Blue Room Theatre, and Footnote New Zealand Dance, Harrison has been given the opportunity to present MATA MATA, his debut choreographic work, to audiences in Boorloo (Perth) and in Pōneke (Wellington). Harrison is grateful to continue developing this mahi continue the unfurling of this experience of coming to know lineage, tīpuna, and mana.
IRIS ELGAR
Iris Elgar, Spider Ant Sparrow, 2026, supported by Temperance Hall’s Front Studio Residency, photo credit: Iris Elgar.
Spider Ant Sparrow
‘Spider Ant Sparrow’ is a new work being created by Iris Elgar during their Front Studio Residency at Temperance Hall (VIC). The dance piece chronicles grief and object remnants, drawing upon lived experience with losing a parent. Iris’ father was a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist, and they hold many memories with him in his office browsing the myriad reference books on the shelves. Research is an integral part of Iris’ practice and is particularly important to ‘Spider Ant Sparrow’ as they draw upon and unravel their father’s field research from the early stages of his career. Spending time in the Research Room will be a fitting nod to the many hours their father spent as an ever-curious scientist researching the natural world.
This project has been supported by Temperance Hall’s Front Studio Residency.
@iriselgar
IRIS ELGAR
IRIS ELGAR is an independent dance artist living on Wurundjeri country. Their practice involves choreography, improvisation, performance installation, and costume-making. Informed by their training in ballet and contemporary dance, Iris moves through imagined worlds filled with dykes, fools, and primordial beings. In 2022, Iris completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, and they were awarded the Phillip Adams VCA Mentorship Award the same year. Iris has performed in spaces including Temperance Hall, Dancehouse, Abbotsford Convent, Regent Theatre, Testing Grounds, Miscellania, Seventh Gallery, and ACMI. They are particularly interested in working with themes of fantasy, queerness, nature, and failure. Iris values sustainability in their practice, with the aim to responsibly and consciously source their costuming and set elements. They are the current Front Studio Resident at Temperance Hall.
NIKKI HEYWOOD
Nikki Heywood, the wobbly project, Critical Path residency at UNSW, 2018, photo by Hellen Sky.
SURRENDER
I have some writing work that is heading toward a new performance piece ‘surrender‘ that I would like some concentrated time to consolidate. Musing on surrender – as a point or a position, a gesture or a genuflection, hands up or head bowed, backing away or standing still…? I find that the research room allows me time to tune out all other distractions and focus on crafting through reading, drafting and editing.
NIKKI HEYWOOD
NIKKI HEYWOOD has been working with dance, performance, writing, sound, live art and spontaneous composition across five decades. Heywood has informed a generation of performance makers: leading and participating in collective creation and collaboratively devised projects; running skills-based workshops for students and emerging practitioners and assisting the creative process of dancers, performers and visual artists as a mentor and dramaturg. She is passionate about the voice as a visceral energetic force, and over the past decade has evolved a practice of writing from the body, creating and performing new form libretti, using extended vocal techniques and developing expanded experimental scores for voice and instrument. She practices to maintain a ‘beginners mind’ and life-long learning. She was awarded a highly commended DCA in 2016 (thesis title: Undoing Discomfort: being real/becoming other in an embodied performance practice, from University of Wollongong).
AMBER LIBERTÉ
Amber Liberté, Notre Dame L’ossuaire 2023, Aotearoa, photo: Jocelyn Janon (IG: @jocelyn.janon).
EYES OF THE SPIDER REALM
Eyes of the Spider Realm is a work in development exploring how dance can be captured effectively on film to express emotions that are difficult to put into words, while also serving the human need for narrative. It looks into a world through the eyes of a spider: 8 perspectives, interwoven realms, and a variety of histories and narratives. Based on a series of true events, this work is a thriller based on documented footage and video journals during my time on a remote island, where I intended to study a style of dance that is rooted in post World War 2 hegemony and grief. The work curiously explores retraumatisation in cult dynamics, emotional abuse, domestic violence, scamming in modern society, and the complex dynamics of inter-relational trauma in dance and artistic environments.
Having been a child brought up in a cult, and a woman who has been through domestically violent relationships, the three weeks I spent – without reliable data, without phone signature, have become ingrained in my mind as a traumatic but creatively rich moment to document.
@amber_liberty
amber LIBERTÉ
AMBER LIBERTÉ is a multidisciplinary dance and film artist from Aotearoa, whose recent practice has been deeply shaped by immersive training in Japan, including a focused engagement with Butoh in 2025. Thematically, her work explores post-human futures while she is currently investigating how dance can be captured effectively in film narrative: particularly using dance as a vessel and/or site for exploring trauma, ecological collapse, collectivism, and our connection to earth. Recent works include: A Slow Fall To The Earth (Dengeki Festival, JP), The Mycelium Rebirth (Toyooka Theater Festival, JP), and Ikayaki Business (Time Out Market, JP), and Going Never Gone (dance-film, JP). Across these projects, Amber uses the body as a site for both disruption and reflection. Amber’s broader background spans dance-film, theatre, and large-scale film productions such as East of Eden (Netflix), Minecraft (Warner Brothers), Cowboy Bebop (Netflix) & Avatar: The Way of Water (20th Cent. Fox). Amber grounds her independent practice collaboratively, often with site specific frameworks. She uses the landscape as part of the creative context. She also explores how technology impacts the audience’s viewership: manipulating visuals and/or perspectives through live streaming, film, and projection.
LOUIE WISBY
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
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
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.
