WELCOMING WORDS

DANIEL KOK (SINGAPORE)

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

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

Exploring critical spectatorship and audienceship through specific figures of performance, Daniel has worked with pole dance, cheerleading and rope bondage. As a pole dancer, he won the SG Pole Challenge (2012), represented Singapore at the International Pole Championships (Finalist, 2013) and created “ALPHA” (2015) in collaboration with Arco Renz (Belgum) and Eisa Jocson (Philippines). For cheerleading, he created “Cheerleader of Europe” (2013) and “PIIGS” (2015) supported by Maxim Gorki Theater (Berlin), workspacebrussels and the Nationales Performance Netz (Germany). As a practitioner of rope bondage, he created “Bunny” (2016) in collaboration with Luke George (Melbourne), and a series of art installations. He now refers to aspects of Indian classical dance, Ikebana and Taichi.

Presently working with visual artist, Miho Shimizu (Japan), “xhe” is a durational performance-installation work that will premiere at the Esplanade (Singapore, 2018). Daniel is also the artistic director of Dance Nucleus, a space for creative development for independent dance in Singapore.

JACOB BOEHME (AUStralia)

Jacob Boehme is a Melbourne born and based artist of Aboriginal heritage, from the Narangga (Yorke Peninsula) and Kaurna (Adelaide Plains) nations of South Australia.

Jacob is currently Creative Director of YIRRAMBOI First Nations Arts Festival. 

With a 20 year history working in Cultural Maintenance, Research & Revival of traditional dance with Elders and youth from urban to remote Indigenous communities across Australia, Jacob combines dance (Diploma in Dance, NAISDA 2000), puppetry (Masters in Puppetry, Victorian College of the Arts 2007), and playwriting (Masters in Writing for Performance, Victorian College of the Arts, 2014) to create multi-disciplinary theatre, dance and ceremony for stage, screen, large-scale public events and festivals

Jacob's latest work Blood on the Dance Floor  premiered at Arts House North Melbourne, produced in partnership with ILBIJERRI Theatre Company. 

An original member of Assitej International’s ‘Next Generation of Youth Theatre Leaders’, Jacob is also a recipient of the Asialink Residency, working with Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust in Delhi, India, in 2010 and Alumni of the 2014 British Council's ACCELERATE Indigenous Leaders Program.

Other International Residencies include teaching traditional and contemporary Aboriginal dance at Teatteri ILMI O in Helsinki, Finlandand the Schaxpir Festival Linz, Austria.

XIAO KE AND ZI HAN (CHINA)

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. 

EMMA VALENTE (australia)

Emma is the Co Artistic director and Co CEO of feminist theatre company THE RABBLE. She is also a director, lighting designer, dramaturg, video designer and occasional trouble maker. 

THE RABBLE (Kate Davis and Emma Valente) was formed in 2006 from a desire to make work that wasn’t being produced in Australia: visually ambitious, political, feminist and formally experimental. THE RABBLE exists as a reaction to a conservatism that dominates our stages. THE RABBLE aims to radically re-imagine theatrical experiences and to repopulate familiar stories with female voices and aesthetics.

Emma has directed works for THE RABBLE that have been performed for Wuzhen Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Dark MOFO, Brisbane Festival, Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir, MTC, The Substation, Theatre Works, CarriageWorks and La Mama. THE RABBLE are currently  in residence at The Substation and are recipients of the Creators Fund from Creative Victoria. They are currently collaborating with The Substation, Maeve Stone, Dublin Fringe, Arts House, St Martins and Vitalstatistix on several new works. 

As a lighting designer Emma has worked for Malthouse Theatre, Fraught Outfit, Sisters Grimm, STC, MTC, Belvoir, QTC, Griffin, La Mama and many more. She is currently an advocating for gender parity for lighting and sound designers across the sector.

Emma teaches Dramaturgy and Performance Making at Monash University, is currently mentoring for VCA and Melbourne University and is the artist in residence for MTC Education. Emma is mentoring for the Pinnacle Foundation and Midsumma Futures.