2008/09 PARTICIPANTS

Natalie Abbott (VIC)

mentor: Ros Warby (VIC)

Natalie studied a Bachelor of Dance at the VCA, Melbourne. Upon graduation in 2007, she was the recipient of the Orloff Family Trust Scholarship for Most Outstanding Talent. Throughout her time at VCA, Natalie has worked with choreographers including Rebecca Hilton, Lina Limosani, Kate Denborough, Wendy Woodson, Rochelle Carmichael, Stephanie Lake and Brett Daffy.

In 2007 Natalie co-choreographed Pastel Playground with Alex O'Neil-King for the 'Coming Out' season at Dancehouse. She also performed and collaborated with Natalie Cursio, Gerard Van Dyck and Stephanie Lake for Live Clips as part of Mud Fest (Melbourne University's arts festival).

During March 2008, Natalie was a collaborator and performer for 'Choice Cuts' as part of the 'Soft Landing' project at QL2 in Canberra. This project was directed by Solon Ulbrich.

James Brown (NSW)

mentor: Gail Priest (NSW)

James Brown is a Sydney-based multidisciplinary artist working with a variety of mediums. He began his practice whilst undertaking a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Sydney College of the Arts, working with animation and painting. Having recently completed a Masters Degree in Audio Design at Sydney University, he now works as a freelance composer, sound designer, Animator, Illustrator and Perfumer.

James is a founding members of the Synth orchestra performance group 'J.A.C.K', and has had his own animation work featured in Sydney Film Festival. As well as his own practice, he frequently collaborates with other artists. Recent collaborative projects include writing music for Jeff Stein and Dean Walsh's creative development A Loving Captive at Carriageworks, and composing an orchestral score for The Whale Chorus at PACT Theatre. He is currently working on Dean Walsh's Back From Front - working with composer Rosalind Page, and also developing an installation video work for the upcoming Nextwave Festival in Melbourne this year.

Sophie Chapman (QLD)

mentor: Judith McLean (QLD)

Visual artist and community arts worker, Sophie has an interest in hybrid practice and cross-cultural work. Sophie like to connect the dots, she blends and mixes different mediums of performance, paining, collage and installation to find the hidden possibilities and relationships in-between. In her work Sophie plays on the difference and dialogues between different elements. This is also reflected in her community work both here and abroad, which usually involves working with many different groups and communities together in a cultural event or program. Sophie's work involves narratives, small stories and how small stories fit together to frame a larger picture. Sophie's work also deals with themes of gender, philosophy and visual codes of composition and colour.

Tanya Dupagne (WA)

mentor: Jenny Simpson (WA)

Tanya Dupagne grew up in Kwinana, WA, being told by the community that she would never get anywhere because of where she was from. She was determined to prove them wrong. After completing a Bachelor of Communications at Edith Cowan University, she travelled to Europe. She then spent three summers at Copper Cannon Outdoor Education Center in the USA, a camp for underprivileged kids. She also worked in Canada, before travelling to South Africa. It was here she became involved with The Future Factory programs, and has now worked with over 110,000 children. Tanya runs the Dance 4 Africa programs in Australia, involving the children of the community and local schools in dance. Tanya was a recipient of the 2008 Rotary Youth Leadership Award, won the 2008 Premier's Australia Day Award, 2007 Town of Kwinana Citizen of the Year and 2007 Martin Waudby Memorial Award for Outstanding Community Leadership.

Janie Gibson (NSW)

mentor: Alicia Talbot (NSW)

Janie Gibson is a Sydney-based artist writing and performing original works of theatre. She has studied theatre at UNSW / COFA College of Fine Arts and has trained in performance with PACT Youth Theatre, Martin del Amo, Julie-Ann Long, Clare Grant and the De Quincey Company. In 2006 she collaborated with Sydney artists Spat&Loogie as part of the Next Wave Festival Kickstart program. In 2006 she received a grant from the Australia Council Dance Board to pursue a solo development and mentorship with solo performer Martin del Amo. She has shown her performance works at PACT Youth Theatre and The Performance Space. She is currently employed by Bankstown Youth Development Services as a performer and devisor for forum theatre programs for schools in Western Sydney. In Jan/Feb 2007 she had a 5 week directing residency and mentorship at PACT Youth Theatre. Working with performer Paul Capsis, she brought together an ensemble of 4 performers. Following the success of this short residency Janie has continued to lead the group, securing support from the Australia Council, NSW Ministry and PACT Theatre for this project. She intends to pursue her work as a director and performer making original works of theatre.

Mish Grigor (NSW)

mentor: Bruce Gladwin (VIC)

Mish is a performance maker, producer, and artist. Mish works primarily in the performance collaboration 'post', who make new theatre works. Mish believes in creating and supporting artistic community and has fostered this in Sydney by her work with 'Cabaret Sauvignon', 'Quarterbred', and 'The Imperial Panda Theatre Festival'. She was a founding member of all three of these initiatives, and still works with them.

Mish completed a Bachelor of Performance (Theory and Practice) from the University of Western Sydney in 2004 and completed Honours in Theatre and Performance at University of NSW in 2006. Mish performed with the Transe Express show The Lazy King for the Sydney Festival, and in TTS: Route 76 with pvi collective on the Sydney leg of their tour. Mish has worked for Awesome Arts Festival in Perth, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and the Live Bait Festival in Bondi.

Luke Hickmott (VIC)

mentor: Carlee Mellow (VIC)

Luke began his formal training in contemporary theatre and dance practices in 2004 at Melbourne's Deakin University. Whilst at Deakin he worked with choreographers Shaun McLeod, Kim Vincs, Sheridan Lang, Paul Romano and Sela Kiek.

In 2007 Luke was accepted into the Honours program at WAAPA as a part of LINK Dance Company directed by Michael Whaites. During this time he had the privilege of performing the choreography of Nanette Hassall, Michael Whaites, Claudia Alessi, Twyla Tharp and Stephan Brinkman from Pina Bausch's Company.

Luke has worked professionally with Sue Peacock and Alice Holland in 2007. And was employed by Deakin University to launch their Motion Capture Lab in 2006.

Luke's own work includes Serviced (2007) for Link Dance Company, Red and Blue Lights (2006) Dance Film screened at Dancehouse, Is His Hers? (2006) performed at the Victorian Arts Centre and Dancehouse, Just One More (2005) Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Ben Hjorth (VIC)

mentor: Brian Lipson (VIC)

Ben is a Melbourne performer and sometime ne'er-do-well who graduated from the VCA School of Drama in 2007, where he worked on many productions including Brian Lipson's of King Lear. He has since collaborated on several projects including a season of Wedekind's Spring Awakening with The Hayloft Project, at Belvoir St Theatre's B-Sharp program. Alongside his developing practice as an actor and director, he looks forward to exploring the possibilities of creating new performance work.

Laura Levitus (NSW)

mentor: Bec Reid (VIC)

Laura is a 2005 VCA dance graduate, where she worked with choreographers Anna Smith, Rebecca Hilton, Sandra Parker, Leigh Warren, Neil Adams and Paulina Quinteros. She has also seconded with Sue Healey and Carlee Mellow.

In 2006 Laura received a Skills and Development Grant for Young and Emerging Artists from the Australia Council for the Arts. Since then she has performed in Natalie Cursio's With a Bullet; The Album Project for the 2007 'Full Tilt' program at the Arts Centre in Melbourne. She is also working with independent artist Felecia Hick. Laura is currently performing with Tasdance in One For Sorrow, Tow for Joy, and will continue to work with Lucy Guerin Inc as understudy in late 2008.

Laura is also a member of Rogue, a dance collective of her fellow graduates, Rogue has toured to Malaysia to perform, and will also be performing at the 2008 Next Wave Festival.

Ahilan Ratnamohan (NSW)

mentor: Lee Wilson (NSW)

Ahilan Ratnamohan considers himself a metaphysical-footballer, attempting to make sense of the world through football and art. In 2005 Ahilan graduated from Media Arts and Production (UTS) and was a member of the Urban Theatre Projects Ensemble. He has travelled at length to pursue football, having now played in the Netherlands and in Germany as well as training with Malmo FF in Sweden. After performing in India@Oz.Sangam with UTP in 2003, Ahil developed pieces Widescream TV and The Death of a Punk for Short'n'Sharp 3 and 4. In 2006 and 2007 Ahilan performed in Constellations at the Performance Space and the Seymour Centre respectively. Most recently he performed a cameo un UTP's The Last Highway and is - caught between art and sport - currently training his football-theatre skills searching for a moment of clarity.

Georgie Read (NSW)

mentor: Leisa Shelton (VIC)

Georgie Read grew up in Newcastle. She is a theatre maker and performer dedicated to creating new devised performances. In 2007 she studies Animateuring at VCA. In 2006 she went to Europe and Britain to do research with a BBM Young Artists Scholarship. In 2005 she did honours in Performance Making at UNSW. She has performed and trained extensively with PACT Youth Theatre and Urban Theatre Projects Bankstown. This year she collaborated on The Whale Chorus, a new performance collaboration supported by Australia Council. She is currently training with dance Ros Crisp, and working on a new solo performance mentored by Lee Wilson, Regina Heilman and Nikki Heywood. As a maker her desire is to share simple open exchanges with spectators of her perceptions of the word she inhabits, smashed up and reconstituted in peculiar and delightful ways.