MEET THE MAKERS

Emily Sexton

Emily Sexton is a curator, creative producer and festival director. She is currently working on projects supported by the prestigious Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, and in 2018 will participate in the Australia Council's Arts Leaders Program.

From 2014 – 2017, Emily held the role of Head of Programming for the innovative Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, presenting a dynamic and varied programme of 200+ annual events for audiences of 60,000+. In this role she developed and curated the biennial Festival of Questions, held most recently at Melbourne Town Hall in 2017.

Previously, she was Artistic Director of Next Wave (2010–14), where her key achievements were a radical rethink of an arts festival model, and a series of landmark commissions, publications and talks featuring First Nations artists, co-curated with Tony Albert and Tahjee Moar and titled Blak Wave.

In 2013, she was Artistic Director of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust’s 20th Anniversary Celebrations at the Melbourne Recital Centre. She was also Creative Producer for Melbourne Fringe Festival for 2008–10.

Emily has been a proud Board Member for Arena Theatre Company, Snuff Puppets and Theatre Network Victoria, and is alumnus of the Australia Council’s Emerging Leaders Program (2011). She is a regular peer assessor for the Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Victoria, and other philanthropic trusts and foundations. Emily holds a Bachelor of Arts (Media and Communications, English) from the University of Sydney (2005). She is a regular host and facilitator for writers’ festivals and arts organisations around Australia.

TUESDAY 20 FEB

Hiroaki Umeda

Hiroaki Umeda is a choreographer and a multidisciplinary artist recognised as one of the leading figures of the Japanese avant-garde art scene. Since the launch of his company S20, his subtle yet violent dance pieces have toured around the world to audience and critical acclaim. His work is acknowledged for the highly holistic artistic methodology with strong digital background, which considers not only physical elements as dance, but also optical, sensorial and above all, spatiotemporal components as part of the choreography. Based on his profound interest in choreographing time and space, Umeda has spread his talent not only as a choreographer and dancer, but also as a composer, lighting designer, scenographer and visual artist.

Drawing further from his now signature style of mixing digital imagery, minimal soundscape and extremely potent corporeality, Umeda’s solo works such as Adapting for Distortion (2008), Haptic (2008), Holistic Strata (2011) and split flow (2013) have transfixed the audience in major festivals and theatres worldwide.

In 2009, Umeda commenced his ten-year choreographic project ’Superkinesis’ working with dancers of distinct physical backgrounds. He explores kinetic languages by tuning into the subtle voices of the surrounding environment that only could be perceived by an acute sensorial receptor called dancers. GötenborgsOperans Danskompani in Sweden commissioned Umeda’s choreography piece, Interfacial Scale (2013). His choreographic work Peripheral Stream (2014) was premiered at Théâtre Châtelet in 2014, commissioned by the LA Dance Project lead by Benjamin Millepied.

In order to extend his interest in providing an unknown sensorial experience to the audience, Umeda has been working on series of installations since 2010, which mainly focus on optical illusion and physical immersion. His string of works combining visual and physical sensation has earned him Prix Ars Electronica, Honorary Mention in 2010.

In 2014, he started ‘Somatic Field Project’, aiming at nurturing young dancers as well as his own movement method ‘Kinetic Force Method’.

Suzuko Tanoiri

Suzuko Tanoiri is an independent producer and production manager. Mainly working with Hiroaki Umeda and Somatic Field Project, she is in charge of their domestic and international tours, projects and performances.

XIAO KE AND ZI HAN

Xiao Ke has been pioneering the road for performance art, physical art and contemporary social theatre exploring the reality in today’s China in relation to artistic forms that are no longer limited to the boundaries of the theatre. As the member of Zuhe Niao, she won ZKB Award in Zurich Theater Spektakel in 2006.

Zi Han is also a member of Zuhe Niao, engaging in comprehensive visual art and live music for theatre performance. His works includes photography, video, contemporary art and sound.

The collaborative works between Xiao Ke and Zi Han involve photography, video, live art and installation that focus on personal body exploring extreme expression under the public and political context of China. By restoring the artists’ ideas back into life, their collaborative goal is to explore the process of the idea: what comes from life vanishes into life. Their works have been invited and shown in different art, dance festivals and theatres in Europe, Asia and Australia. They have toured nearly 20 countries in different cities, and built up communication network to introduce China’s independent and experimental theatre art to the world. 

Aida Redza

As a Malay woman choreographer and dancer living in Malaysia, Aida Redza has faced tremendous obstacles, both open and unspoken, to her practice of contemporary dance. Her works challenge female stereotyping and subservience in a patriarchal society. With compelling energy, emotion and a primal presence, she dances her frustration with a physicality and athleticism rarely seen among Malaysian women. Utilising her extensive knowledge of Asian philosophy and mythology, she creates work that is female-centric and favors encounters with the audience in democratic spaces and locations.

Through a commitment to tradition and reinvention, her ensemble works demonstrate tightly-bound tradition and deconstruction, intertwined with new dance motifs to create dynamic live performances. Her works are known for their site-specificity, drawing inspiration from direct contact with the natural environment, which leads her to work collaboratively with mixed-media artists and interdisciplinary performers. Moved By Padi was presented at Georgetown Festival 2016.

Thursday 22 Feb

Hee-Moon Lee

Director /Singer, Gyeonggi minyo [folk music]

• Studied under master singers KO Ju-rang, LEE Chun-hee, KIM Gwang-suk and KIM Ho-sung
• Trained in National Intangible Cultural Property no.57 Gyeonggi minyo
• 2010 The 16th National Minyo Competition – President’s Award
• 2014 KBS Korean Music Awards – Minyo Award
• 2015 Arts & Cultural Development Contributors Awards 'Today's Young Artist’ 

Jang Young Gyu

JANG Young-gyu is a music director who leaves addictive rhythm and tone color regardless of genre. His arrangement and performance of "Dont let me be misunderstood" in The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), which he collaborated on with DALPALAN, presented forceful beat and excitement to the movie. He started his film music career on The Foul King, and worked on The Coast Guard, A Bittersweet Life, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Hypnotized, Tazza: The High Rollers, and other movies. He plays in the indie bands 'UhUhBu Project' and 'SsingSsing' and has worked as the music director of a dance performance of the renowned dancer, PinaBaush. 

DANIEL KOK

Daniel Kok studied BA (Honours) Fine Art & Critical Theory at Goldsmiths College (London, 1997-2001), received an MA (Distinction) in Solo/Dance/Authorship (SODA) at the Inter-University Centre for Dance (HZT, Berlin, 2012) and completed the Advanced Performance and Scenography Studies (APASS, Brussels, 2014). Between 2005 and 2010, he was an Associate Artist at The Substation (Singapore). In 2008, he was the laureate of the Young Artist Award from National Arts Council (Singapore).

Q&A was commissioned by Singapore Arts Festival (2009). Planet Romeo (2011) was selected as Priority Company for the Aerowaves European Network. Cheerleader of Europe (2014) was supported by Nadine (Brussels), workspacebrussels and PACT Zollverein (Essen). PIIGS is a European Cheerleading Team Project that was supported by Nationales Performance Netz (Germany), Maxim Gorki Theater (Berlin), and workspacebrussels through the Live Long Burning cultural initiative of the European Commission. Bunny (2016) is a collaboration with Luke George (Australia), commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre (Sydney), co-produced by The Substation (Singapore), with support from Playking Foundation (Australia), Abrons Arts Center (New York City) and TanzFabrik (Berlin).

Daniel's works have been performed in various cities in Asia, Europe, Australia and North America, notably ImpulsTanz (Vienna) and Festival/Tokyo. In 2017, he was commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of the Arts (SIFA) to direct MARK, a massive drawing and choreographic work for 9 dancers in different public spaces in Singapore.

An avid pole dancer, he won the SG Pole Challenge 2012 and represented Singapore at the International Pole Championships 2013 (Finalist). In 2014, he collaborated with Arco Renz (Belgium) and Eisa Jocson (Philippines) to create pole duet ALPHA, co-produced by Esplanade (Singapore), KobaltWorks (Belgium) and the Goethe Institut.

Daniel is presently developing his artistic research on critical spectatorship and audienceship. He is now collaborating with visual artist, Miho Shimizu (Japan), exploring a notion of Trans-Individuality in xhe a durational dance and installation work that will premiere in 2018.

LUKE GEORGE

Raised in Tasmania and based in Melbourne, Luke George creates new performance work locally and internationally/culturally, through experimental creative processes with collaborating artists. George takes daring and at times unorthodox methods to explore new intimacies and connections between audience and performers. His works LIFESIZE (2008), NOW NOW NOW (2010), NOT ABOUT FACE (2013), EROTIC DANCE (2016) and BUNNY (2016, co-creator Daniel Kok) have been presented extensively throughout Australia, and internationally in France, Germany, Spain, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Japan, Singapore, and USA.

Since receiving his B.A. from the Victorian College of the Arts, George has collaborated and performed in the works of many acclaimed dance and theatre companies, music, visual art, live art, and socially engaged projects, and queer clubs, in Australia and internationally. George was recipient of Melbourne Fringe Awards (1999, 2013), Asialink Residency (2005), Russell Page Fellowship (2007), Greenroom Award for Best Male Dancer (2011), and commissions: Sydney Opera House (2006), Keir Foundation (2008), Lucy Guerin Inc (2010), Phantom Limbs (2013), Chocolate Factory Theater (2014), Phillip Adams Balletlab (2015), Campbelltown Arts Centre (2016) and Keir Choreographic Award (2018). George is a 2018 recipient of an Abbotsford Convent Foundation artist residency.