Ausdance NSW - Professional level classes

Class costs: $10 Ausdance NSW members / $15 non members
When: Class held every Wednesday and Thursday morning, as per schedule below
Time: 10am - 11.30am (1.5hrs)
Venue: Peter Forsyth Auditorium, Frances Street Glebe
(behind Broadway Shopping Centre)
Level: Participants must be of advanced contemporary or ballet technique
Members class card: only $90 for 10 classes

For further information please contact administration@dance.net.au or 02 9256 4800

2009 SCHEDULE WILL BE ANNOUNCED EARLY JANUARY 2009

Wednesday	Teacher	Thursday	Teacher

Ausdance NSW gratefully acknowledges the support of City of Sydney for this project

About the guest teachers...

Dean Walsh
Dean Walsh has been a core member of the Australian dance & contemporary performance community since 1991, instigating professional & community projects & collaborating / performing with many reputable Australian companies & individuals including – Onextra Company, Australian Dance Theatre, Sidetrack Theatre, STALKER, The Opera Project, Opera Australia among others including many individual practitioners. Back From Front, Dean’s large-scale group work has been successfully funded by Australia Council for the Arts for its premiere at Performance Space, CarriageWorks, Sydney in April / May 2008.

Three other projects Dean is collaborating on have also recently been funded: MirrorMirror, a dynamic aerial / dance duet with STALKER director David Clarkson will premiere in October 2008, Pedigree: Mongrel a collaboration with ex- GravityFeed performer / director Jeff Stein for first stage development in January 2008 and as movement consultant on Blurred Lines with Sophia Woods will premiere at the Brisbane Powerhouse in August 2008.

In 2002 Dean was awarded the prestigious Robert Helpmann Scholarship & an accompanying Australia Council grant to research dance / physical theatre and choreographic practice in the UK and Europe. This lead to two contracts: Between 2003 and early 2005 he worked with DV8 Physical Theatre in London and toured with their work Just For Show to Prague & Korea. In 2003 he worked for five months with Dutch choreographer Paul Selwyn Norton & his company No Apology in Amsterdam touring extensively throughout the Netherlands on the acclaimed work Luxury Item.

Since 1991 Dean has created fifteen short solo works and two full-length works touring many of these nationally and internationally. His seminal 80 minute solo Flesh: Memo sold out its season at the International Gay Games Cultural Festival in 2002 and Grounded On Air, performed in 2005 was nominated for an Australian Dance Award for 'Most Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer' 2005. In 2006 he toured his latest solo unspeakABLE throughout Japan then performed it alongside other Australian and Japanese artists in Sydney at The Studio, Sydney Opera House, as part of the Australia / Japan Cultural Exchange.

In 2004 he co-choreographed STALKERS’ group production RED, which toured Europe, Korea and South America. In 2002 he choreographed Opera Australia’s premiere of Giordano’s Andrea Chenier directed by Elke Niedhardt. In 2002 he won the Australian Dance Award for 'Most Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer' for his role in Australian Dance Theatre's Age of Unbeauty.

Accompanying his choreographic practice Dean works as a respected teacher and workshop facilitator in dance, performance, choreographic composition & Yoga for many universities, and professional dance companies in Australia, UK & The Netherlands.

Dean's large-scale dance theatre work, Back From Front premiered in May at Carriageworks.

Fiona Malone
Fiona is a Sydney based choreographer/movement director/ performer/teacher who had a professional international/national career as a contemporary dancer, before becoming an independent artist. She has just completed a Postgraduate Diploma in `Movement Studies' at NIDA and is now returning to the independent dance scene with great enthusiasm.

Having worked professionally for years with a variety of choreographers, companies and artistic genres, her dance classes reflect her movement versatility and articulate knowledge of alignment, and function of movement. With a large emphasis placed on the use of momentum, centrifugal force, breath, floor work and alignment, she teaches an informative and enjoyable class encouraging the body to experience the pleasure of movement.

As a performer Fiona received nomination for 'Most Outstanding Female Performance' for her role in Garry Stewarts Age of Unbeauty by the `Australian Dance Awards’ and worked both nationally and internationally with companies and artists including Garry Stewarts’ The Australian Dance Theatre, Opera Australia, Charleroi Danses (Belgium), CH-Tanztheatre (Zurich), Meryl Tankard, Graeme Murphy, Dean Walsh, Akram Khan, John Utans, Kate DenBorough, amongst others.

Also known for her work utilizing real-time technology and movement, The Adelaide Critic’s Circle awarded Fiona The Innovation in Arts Award 2004 for her interactive dance/theatre/technology production The Obcell (which began as a fellowship at the Australian Choreographic Centre in 2003) and her Hybrid dance work D/vision which was a commissioned work for AIT Arts in Adelaide. Additionally she was nominated for `Most outstanding achievement in Independent Dance' for the The Obcell by The Australian Dance Awards.

Other productions and commissions include: La La Land -(currently in development), Loony Times 07(NIDA), Reticence 06 (One Extra Dance Co. Commission), The Living Sky 06, and The Roll of Honour 05 (both commissions for the Quantum Leap Youth Dance Company in Canberra. Porcelain, D/vision 04 (commissioned for AIT Arts, Adelaide), The Obcell 04, Bamboo Bathing 03 (For Contemporary Arts Centre of South Aus.), Boite 01( Ignition Season ADT), Vertical Bath 01, Ignus Fatuus 00 (Ignition Season ADT), Juxta Classic .

Sol Ulbrich
Sol is an Australian independent performer, choreographer, teacher and arts producer.
A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Sol’s performance career features engagements with Australian Dance Theatre and Ricochet Dance Productions (UK). He has worked with choreographers including Rosetta Cook, Bill Pengelly, Liam Steel, Garry Stewart, Meryl Tankard, Rob Tannion and Natalie Weir.

Sol’s choreographic career has been recognised by a Choreographic Fellowship from the Australian Choreographic Centre. The short film Restoration which he co-choreographed and performed with Narelle Benjamin won the National Dance Award 1999 for best dance on film.

Further credits include: the State Theatre SA production of Equus; Holding Pattern for AIT Arts; Australian Dance Theatre’s Ignition seasons in 1999 and 2000; Quantum Leap 2002-2004; and Glitch a dance video installation for METIS Science and Arts Festival in Canberra.

Having completed a Graduate Diploma in Management (Arts) from the University of South Australia, Sol held the position of dance and performance Event Co-ordinator for the Southbank Centre, London and Rehearsal Director for Australian Dance Theatre.

Sol was Artistic Associate in a long-term partnership with choreographer Tanja Liedtke, providing artistic collaboration and project management and is acting director for her repertoire.

Sol pursues an interest in multi-disciplinary practice and enjoys the opportunity to facilitate collaborative environments. He has been lecturer in movement for the Circus Space degree course (London) during 2004 and 2005. His extensive teaching and lecturing experience includes classes in Classical, Contemporary and Yoga techniques for Australian Dance Theatre, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Expressions Dance Company, Opera Australia, Sydney Dance Studios, Taipei National University of the Arts, Tasdance and DV8 Physical Theatre Company.

Shaun Parker
Shaun graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1992 and worked with the Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre for seven years, touring throughout Europe, Israel, Japan, Scandanavia, USA and Canada. His international theatre credits include the European tour of Vaguement Derriere with Compagnie ALIAS in Geneva, 17-25/4 with Sasha Waltz in Berlin, and the gala performance of Panda with Meredith Monk in New York, in which he worked as a vocalist and counter-tenor. Shaun also performed in Kate Champion’s Tenebrae Part 1 & 2, at the Sydney Town Hall (in collaboration with The Song Company), Same, Same but Different at the Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne Festivals, and the Chunky Move tour to Klapstuk, Leuven, and Moscow. Shaun has also worked as a counter-tenor with Adelaide Baroque, amongst others.

His acting credits whilst in Sydney include Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Cut Theatre Co.), Abducting Diana (New Theatre), both by Italian political writer Dario Fo, and Wind in the Willows (Australian Shakespeare Company/Glenn Elston). Shaun’s feature film performances include Edge of the World, Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, and his own short films NO and Blue Love, which have screened various international dance-film festivals, including Videodance, Athens, San Francisco, Krakow, Poland, London and IMZ Monte Carlo. Blue Love was later developed into a full-length theatre work for the Sophiensaele Theatre in Berlin in 2001, toured to Adelaide in 2002, and had a sell-out season in the Sydney Opera House in August, 2005. It was also selected to spotlight at the dance platform in New York and Adelaide.

Other choreographic credits include Worldes Bliss for Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre, at National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) with director Jim Sharman, and the solo works man… and SILO as part of DANCE BRIEFS at the Omeo Dance Space in Sydney. His music/dance-theatre work My Little Garden premiered for the Barossa International Music Festival in 1998, and won ‘Most Significant Production’, and ‘Most Promising Choreographer’.

More recently Shaun has worked on a new feature film entitled Book of Revelation, directed by Ana Kokkinos, and was commissioned to choreograph a new work for Tasdance, entitled Divine Harmonies, which was inspired by medieval composer and visionary Hildegard von Bingen.

In 2008 Shaun's latest work, This Show Is About People was featured at the Sydney Festival as part of Movers & Shakers series.

Tamarah Tossey
Tamarah’s career as a dancer and choreographer spans 12 years and is quite diverse working with both company and project based choreographers of different styles and approaches. Among them are Carolyn Carlson (Paris), Sonia Rocha (Zurich), Teresa Rotemberg (Zurich), Irina Pauls (Freiburg), Verena Weiss (Lucerne), Leine and Roebana (Amsterdam), Beppie Blankert (Amsterdam), Arthur Rosenfeld (Rotterdam).

Tamarah has performed solo roles in operas directed by Peter Greenaway and Pierre Audi including choreography by Min Tanaka (Butoh). She has also worked as a dancer for SiWiC since 2003 - an annual summer choreography workshop in Zurich which hires dancers for the choreographers to work with. The artistic directors for SiWiC have been Carolyn Carlson, Nigel Charnock, Susanne Linke and Jochen Heckmann. Tamarah’s choreography has been supported by Dansateliers Rotterdam, Dans Werkplaats Amsterdam and De Fonds voor de Podium Kunsten in The Hague and the Kulturampt Freiburg. Her pieces have been performed in The Netherlands at The Korzo Theater, The Pick Up Club, Paradiso, The Melkweg, and The Muiderpoort Theater. In Germany at Theater Freiburg and E-werk Theater in Freiburg among others. In Berlin Tamarah’s work was invited to the Dance Days Festival at the Sophiensalle in 2001. She has taught and made pieces for students in The Netherlands, Taiwan and Germany. Most recently she created two solos in which she also perform, 'The Cheerleader' (2006) and 'Self Storage' (2007).

Since arriving in Sydney in November 2007, Tamarah has started to practice solo and duet improvisation with Tony Osborne, been involved with different artist exchanges at Critical Path and has taught the Shaun Parker and Pulse 8 Dance Companies.

Class description - Tamarah’s class is structured in a simple ‘follow along’ style that flows and is in perpetual movement. There is a focus on floor work. Students learn a floor and a standing center phrase and will work peripherally and from the core, generally and in detail. We aim to develop an organic and dynamic quality of movement that is free from affectation. Tamarah’s exercises facilitate an openness of the joint articulations and the spine. The Feldenkrais Method has recently influenced her approach to movement, learning and teaching.

Kay Armstrong
Kay is a well-established Sydney dance artist / choreographer and the Artistic Director of youth dance company, Pulse8. She graduated from the WA Academy of Performing Arts in 1989 and since arriving in Sydney in 1990 she has worked professionally as a dancer and actor in theatre, film, television, theatre-in-education, corporate theatre and street theatre. From 1991- 1996 Kay formed her own dance theatre company, Halex Vargus. The company received project funding for several productions some of which toured nationally and overseas.

In 1997 Kay ran away to the circus, forming a new company in which she breathed fire, walked on stilts, wowed onlookers with trapeze skills and turned her hand to sleight of hand magic. She also pursued her love of the theatre and was seen in numerous T.V commercials, theatre productions and feature film. In 2002 Kay returned to dance and embarked into making solo works for herself. She received funding to create and perform three full-length solo works, parts of which toured nationally and overseas.

In 2004 Arts NSW and the Hon. Bob Carr awarded Kay the prestigious Robert Helpmann Scholarship which afforded her one-year of professional development. Kay is a prolific and committed member of the NSW independent dance community and intends to take her vast knowledge of the current dance scene into the role of Artistic Director of Pulse8. Kay currently teaches for many in the Sydney dance community and at tertiary institutions including ACPE.

Anton
During his career Anton has had engagements with DarcSwan, Dance North, Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), Sydney Theatre Company, The Australian Opera and independent artists Troy Mundy, Shaun Parker, Meryl Tankard and Tanja Liedtke. Graduating from Queensland University of Technology in 1996, Anton started making work at the age of 23. His choreographies and commissions include Dance North, ADT in-house season, AC Arts SA, Quantum Leap, Extensions, South Australian Children's Ballet, Dirty Feet, Pulse8, Queensland University of Technology, Dead Horse Productions, Assistant Choreographer for the Actors Company at Sydney Theatre Company, danceTANK 07 (Sydney Opera House) and the Adelaide
Feast Festival.

Anton has made two music videos for electronic artist Mr Jigga and choreographed two music clips one for Abby Dobson and on for UK music artists UNKLE. He has made 4 dance films with one nominated for REELDANCE Awards 2004 and one for an Australian Dance Award 2006.

Paul White
Paul begun dance at the age of three in Mackay, North Queensland. He worked in the commercial dance industry from 1997. In 2000 he joined the Professional Year Program with Queensland Ballet. In 2001 he undertook the roles of dancer and dance captain for the QLD season of Pirates of Penzance. Also in 2001, he joined Adelaide based Australian Dance Theatre. He choreographed two short works for the company’s annual Ignition Season.

In 2004 Paul joined London based company DV8 Physical Theatre for the development of Just For Show touring throughout the world in 2005. He also returned to Australia to participate in the initial development of Tanja Liedtke’s a sign of the times (now named Construct ), then performed as a guest for Australian Dance Theatre in the final national tour of Birdbrain. Early 2006 with Venezuelan dance company Danzahoy, he performed as a guest in Exodo at the Joyce Theatre, New York.

Paul returned to Australia to perform in Tanja Liedtke’s Twelfth Floor production, and to participate in the Honour Bound project (Sydney Opera House/ Malthouse Theatre). In 2007, Paul appeared as a guest with Australian Dance Theatre for the London season of HELD. Following that he collaborated with Tanja Liedtke for her new work Construct premiering at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre London. He has lectured at the University of New South Wales, and choreographed for the Australian College of Physical Education. In November he returned to London in Honour Bound. As part of the Sydney Festival 2008, he performed in Construct.

Carol Dilley
At this stage of a 20 year career as a choreographer, performer and teacher, Carol is currently Director of Dance at Bates College. Carol began her career in New York, then Barcelona, Seattle, Sydney and now Maine. She has worked with many companies and independent choreographers as well as her own companies, Radio Suec and Carol Dilley & Co. Carol has performed her work in the USA and Europe both as a solo artist and as director/choreographer of the companies.

Carol has dedicated a lot of energy into the creation of opportunities for the development and performance of dance works. She co-founded La Porta, a performance series dedicated to the creation and promotion of independent dance in Barcelona and Europe, and later founded Dance Briefs, a similar initiative in Sydney, Australia.

Carol was manager of Omeo Dance for most of the duration of her time in Sydney where she promoted both classes and the creation of new work. Carol received a MFA from the University of Washington and a Graduate Certificate in Arts Management from the UTS. Carol continues to perform, choreograph and teach internationally and regularly returns to Australia to work.

Sarah Jayne Howard
Sarah-Jayne Howard trained at the New Zealand School of Dance graduating in 1995.

She then went on to work with Company Blue Vault and Sean Curham. Sarah-Jayne then joined Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre where she worked for four years performing throughout Australia, America, Japan and Europe, with the company’s final performance at the Saddlers Wells Theatre in London.

In 1999, Sarah-Jayne worked with Gary Stewart’s company Thwack! including a performance on New Years Eve 2000 suspended from the main sail of the Sydney opera House.

In 2000, Sarah-Jayne joined Chunky Move where she performed both in Australia and Internationally, including performances at the Brooklyn Academy of music in New York in October 2001. Sarah-Jayne then returned to New Zealand to perform in Inland with the Douglas Wright Dance Company for the International Festival of the Arts.

In 2002, Sarah-Jayne was selected as one of three finalists chosen worldwide for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. She toured with Chunky Move to Budapest and France to perform Crumpled & Corrupted.

Martin de Amo
Martin del Amo is a Sydney based dance artist and movement trainer originally from Germany. As a performer, del Amo is widely recognised as a soloist but he has also collaborated with a number of artists of various genres and styles both in Europe and Australia.

One of Sydney’s leading independent choreographers and artists, del Amo has worked across a range of art forms - dance, contemporary performance, storytelling and new music. As a solo artist, del Amo’s work ranges from the personal to the universal. His stories are inspired by childhood fears, peculiar phenomenon or psychological states that take us to uncanny, yet strangely familiar places. Trained in contemporary dance and Butoh, solo work has been a major part of del Amo’s creativity since the mid ‘90s.

Roland Cox
Roland’s extensive dance career has seen him perform with all of Australia’s major dance companies including Sydney Dance Company, Australian Dance Theatre and The Australian Ballet for which he performed various Principal Roles. He has danced in works by celebrated choreographers such as Duato, Tetley and Tharp as well as having new choreography created on him by Tanja Liedtke. The last four years he has had several choreographers create work on him in France, Switzerland, Austria and the UK. Recently his choreography has been presented by Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London after his earlier work was nominated Most Promising Choreography in Dance Australia magazine. Roland was awarded the Khiterc’s Foundation scholarship by The Australian Ballet and has also been nominated Most Outstanding Dancer in Dance Australia.