GUEST ARTISTS, CHOREOGRAPHERS AND CREATORS:

Splintergroup

Splintergroup is a way of working, involving a spirit of collaboration, between performers, designers and artists, resulting in a work that is made collectively and incorporates different visions into a single, unified production. Both lawn and roadkill were created with this method. Splintergroup members change from project to project and have included Gavin Webber, Grayson Millwood, Vincent Crowley, Sarah-Jayne Howard, Michelle Ryan, Mark Howett, Iain Grandage, Andrew Ross, Luke Smiles and Zoe Atkinson. Splintergroup is proudly supported by Dancenorth and Brisbane Powerhouse.

Vincent Crowley (lawn)

Vincent graduated from Theatre Nepean in 1989 and worked as a freelance actor in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra before joining Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre in 1993. He worked with Meryl for the next four years, touring Australia, Europe, the US and Canada. From 1998—2001 he worked with Joachim Schloemer in Basel, Switzerland as a member of TanzTheater Basel Ensemble. Since leaving Basel in 2001 he has continued to work with Joachim Schloemer in San Francisco, Cologne, Salzburg and Graz and with Florian Fiedler in Basel.

Sarah-Jayne Howard (Nightcafe, roadkill and Remember Me)

Sarah-Jayne trained at the New Zealand School of Dance before joining Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre where she worked for four years performing throughout Australia, America, Japan and Europe. Sarah-Jayne has also worked with Gary Stewart’s ADT, Chunky Move, Douglas Wright and Kate Champion. She was one of three finalists in 2002 chosen worldwide for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Most recently she performed in Kaidan, choreographed by Meryl Tankard for the 2007 Sydney Festival.

Grayson Millwood (lawn and roadkill)

Grayson joined Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre in 1993. In 1996 he left for Europe, working for many different choreographers including Joachim Schloemer, Benoit Lachambre, Christine de Smeldt of Les Ballet C de la B, Eszter Salamon, Thomas Stache, Jared Gradinger, Chemekilehner and Woo co. In 1999 he moved to Berlin to join Sasha Waltz and Guests.

Nathan Page (nightcafe)

Nathan graduated from The Centre of Performing Arts in Adelaide in 1996. He has worked in Kate Champion’s dance theatre company Force Majeure. Nathan has also worked in theatre productions with Company B Belvoir, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Sydney Theatre Company and Magpie Theatre. In 2000, Nathan performed in the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Nigel Jamieson’s Homelands segment. Nathan’s television and film credits include The Secret Life of Us, White Collar Blue, Strange Fits of Passion, Sample People, Carcass, and most recently Noise.

Matt Cornell (Remember Me)

Born and raised in Darwin, Matt Cornell was one of the founding members of Darwin based “Style Impressions Krew”. He has a strong Break Dance background adding to training gained as a graduate of the VCA in 2006. Matt has had numerous engagements with Australian industry professionals as a choreographer and dancer, from live contemporary dance theatre to film to rock concerts to video clips. Matt performed in This Show Is About People as part of the Sydney International Arts Festival and joined Dancenorth for the company’s new show in 2008, Remember Me.

Charmene Yap (Underground)

Charmene completed a Bachelor of Arts in Dance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2006, receiving a Golden Key Society membership. She received a scholarship for the Taipeidea Intensive in Taiwan and an Australia Council grant for her professional development in 2007. Charmene joined Dancenorth for Underground in 2007 and during the 2008 National Tour. She has also worked for Tasdance and Chunky Move in Mortal performed recently in the Sydney and Edinburgh Festivals.

GUEST DESIGNERS:

Sarah Jobling - Costume Designer (Remember Me and Underground)

Sarah Jobling, a UK costume designer joins the Dancenorth creative team for the highly-anticipated new work Remember Me. The newest production in Dancenorth’s repertoire opens on 8 July as part of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and is a work incorporating dance, theatre, film and live music. Since graduating from The London College of Fashion in 2005, Sarah has worked for the English National Opera, Royal Opera House, Young Vic Theatre, Haymarket Theatre and the BBC’s productions Aztecs and Napoleon. Significantly, she also was the Costumier and Studio Hand for Australian sculptor Ron Mueck with her work being shown at Foundation Cartier Paris, The National Gallery of Canada, The Brooklyn Museum, The National Galleries of Scotland and currently is showing at The National Gallery of Victoria.

Mark Howett - Lighting Designer (lawn & roadkill)

Mark has worked for many Australian and international theatre, film, dance and opera companies. He has worked with companies such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Company B Belvoir, The National Theatre UK, Royal Opera at Covent Garden, The Australian Ballet and Opera Australia to name a few.

Mark’s lighting design for Cloudstreet received the Helpmann Award in 2002 and recently Mark worked as vision and lighting designer on Kura Tunga with Australian Arts Orchestra which won the Helpmann Award for best presented concert.

More recently, Mark has designed lighting for Buried Child, Conversations with the Dead, Gulphilil and Page 8 (Company B Belvoir), Drawer Boy, The Island and X-Stacey (Black Swan Theatre Company), Electronic Big Top (Shanghai International Arts Festival), Norman and For the Love of Three Oranges (Opera Australia). Mark has also directed Strategy for Two Hams (Deckchair Theatre), and recently directed the Australian Broadcast Commission short film Gangu Mama.

Jo Currey - Lighting Designer (Underground - Original Design)

Jo has worked as a lighting designer for the Queensland Theatre Company, LaBoite Theatre, Vulcana Women’s Circus, Kooemba Jdarra, Sydney Opera House, Brisbane Festival, BITE: Barbican 05, Rotorua Arts Festival New Zealand, Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Out of the Box Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse and JLX Productions. Jo has also been Lighting Design Assistant to John Rayment for the Brisbane Festival (including the tour of winners to Pompdiou Centre, Paris) and the Opening Celebrations of the Cultural Precinct - Queensland Gallery of Modern Art and State Library.

Benjamin Cisterne, Bluebottle - Lighting Designer (Underground - Touring Design, Remember Me)

Benjamin Cisterne is part of the team at Bluebottle 3 Pty Ltd (t/a Bluebottle) based in Melbourne. Benjamin’s most recent performance work has been mainly in dance. He has built strong relationships with choreographers such as Phillip Adams, Luke George, Rebecca Reid and most recently Antony Hamilton, Melbourne’s Rouge Collective and Dancenorth. Benjamin and the Bluebottle team have developed a unique style of lighting design and received a Green Room Award in 2007 for ‘Best Lighting Design for Dance’ in BalletLab’s Brindabella.

Luke Smiles - Sound Designer (Underground, Remember Me and roadkill)

Luke started dance training at the Miranda Kalgovas Ballet School, later completing a Bachelor of Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts. Apart from being a founding member of Chunky Move, he also performed with Vis-a-Vis Dance Canberra, The One Extra Dance Company, Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre, Thwack and ADT.

Working under the name Motion Laboratories, Luke has composed music and sound design for Nederlands Dans Theatre, Chunky Move, Australian Dance Theatre, Western Australian Ballet, Dance Party Performance Group, Stompin, Ox, Tasdance and Dancenorth.

Andrew Ross - Dramaturgy (roadkill)

Andrew is the director of the Brisbane Powerhouse, Centre of the Arts since 2003. Previously, he was Artistic Director of LaBoite Theatre in Brisbane and Black Swan Theatre in Perth, Associate Adjunct Professor at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Director of the Melbourne University Theatre Department.

His productions have won the Melbourne Greenroom Award, Western Australian Equity Award and the Melbourne Festival Age Critics Award for Best Production. Andrew was a recipient of an Australian-Indonesia Merdeka Fellowship and has taught and directed at the Victorian College of Arts, Curtin University of Technology and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.