Choreographers

ANTON

Anton is a professional artist and arts producer with 25 years of national and international experience as a performer, choreographer, producer, project director, dance filmmaker, movement director, rehearsal director and dance teacher.

As a performer, he has worked with Dance North, Australian Dance Theatre, Tasdance, Legs on the Wall, Sydney Theatre Company, Australian Opera, Shaun Parker Company and independents Meryl Tankard, Tanja Liedtke and Martin del Amo. Commissions and choreographies include NARCIFIXION (Form Dance Projects 2021), Found (Sydney Arts Quartet, 2019) Supermodern - Dance of Distraction (Form Dance Projects, 2012), IOU (Spring Dance 2012, Sydney Opera House), Durak (Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2012), Beautiful Noise (Brisbane Arts Festival, 2011), Compact Homo Sapien (TanzFestival Ingolstadt, Germany, 2010), Capacity (WAPPA, 2010), The Blur (Tasdance, 2009) and Freedom to Launch (Sydney Opera House Education Unit, 2007).

Anton Project Produced and Directed the 2014 Australian Dance Awards and Directed the Opening Bloc Party for Parramasala 2013. Anton’s dance films have been screened nationally and internationally, receiving awards Kosice Film Festival (2020) and International Music Video Underground (2020) and nominations at the Australian Dance Awards (2006) and REEL DANCE (2004). As a Rehearsal Director, Anton worked with Bangarra Dance Theatre (2015 – 2018) and recently worked with FLING Physical Theatre as Dance Development Officer.

ashley wright

Ashley started dance classes at age 4 at Wendy Gibbs School of Ballet in Sydney. She began a professional career in 2006, joining Royal Ballet of Flanders at the age of 18 following graduation from the Australian Ballet School. In 2010 Ashley was promoted to demi-soloist with the company. She has danced works by choreographers such as William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Trisha Brown and Mats Ek and has been involved in numerous creations by choreographers including David Dawson, Jacopo Godaniand Lucy Guerin.

In 2009 she created her first piece Better Left Unsaid for the choreographic workshop of the Royal Ballet of Flanders. The piece won 2nd prize and the Audience Choice Award at the Copenhagen International Choreographic Competition later that year.

Ashley's second work Ominous Parallels (2010) featured in the Lebbeke International Dance Festival, Belgium. In 2011 she collaborated with freelance dancer Jim de Block to create Knee Deep Sleep, which was reworked in 2012 to become a finalist at the International Choreographic Competition in Hannover.

Cass Mortimer Eipper

Cass Mortimer Eipper trained at The Australian Ballet School and has performed with West Australian Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, and was co-director of the Australian dance/media company, Ludwig.

In 2015, he won the prestigious Helpmann Award for Best Male Dancer in William Forsythe’s Quintett. His other awards include ‘Most Outstanding Performance’ at the Rome International Choreography Competition for Solo 1.5, which was also presented at the renowned ImPulsTanz Festival, Vienna. He also won the prize for Most Outstanding Choreography at the West Australian Dance Awards for Fleck & Flecker.

As a dancer, he won 3rd prize at the Stuttgart International Dance Festival, where he performed Emma Sandall’s Body Song.

Eipper has created work for Sydney Dance Company, Milwaukee Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Queensland Ballet, Link Dance Company, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Ludwig and “So You Think You Can Dance Australia”, and has collaborated on music clips with Katie Noonan, Ben Folds and James Michael Thompson.

Eipper’s films have been presented internationally, including his dance film, “Brute,” which will be presented at the TLC Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in March 2019.

Emma Saunders

Emma Saunders has been described as a “formidable” (Realtime, 2010) Australian dance artist who works as a dancer, choreographer, director, educator and curator. She graduated with a BA in Dance and Grad Dip Ed (Dance/Drama) from the University of Western Sydney (1996). She is interested in the simplicity of dance and the complexity of choreography. Utilising a visceral, instinctive attack, her work is immediate, often working with humour, everyday movement, text, repetition, deconstruction, duration and abstraction. 

Emma is a co-founding member of the award-winning Sydney based trio, The Fondue Set, alongside Jane McKernan and Elizabeth Ryan, who have created 10 full length works including Green Room Award-winning No Success Like Failure presented at the Sydney Opera House (2008) and Dance Massive, Arts House (2009). The Fondue Set have also performed in the Melbourne International Arts Festival (The Bar, 2008) and Sydney Festival First Night (The Hoofer, 2010). 

Emma was the inaugural Dance Curator at Campbelltown Arts Centre (2008 – 2012), where she curated over 40 new dance projects that examine community, location, exchange, culture, age and the interdisciplinary nature of making dance work. In 2015, Emma created two new large scale outdoor site specific dance projects, The Bankstown Dancing Project, commissioned by Urban Theatre Projects for Sydney Festival 2015, and The Austinmer Dancing Project 1.1.18, which has had over 15,000 hits on youtube. For 2018/19 Emma was an Associate Artist for NORPA, Lismore. Emma continues to develop her new work, Dancing With Myself, examining where her solo and group dance practices can intersect. Recently, Emma has been commissioned by FORM Dance Projects to develop a new outdoor dance work, Encounter, which will have its world premiere January 10-12 as part of SYDNEY FESTIVAL 2020. Encounter has a cast of 16 young dancers from Western Sydney and FLING Physical Theatre and is performed with a 50 piece live orchestra (WSYO)!!!

iratxe ansa

Iratxe Ansa is originally from San Sebastian, Spain where she attended the Conservatorio Superior de Musica before graduating from the John Cranko Schule Stuttgart, Germany. She danced with Basel Ballet and Ballet Gulbelkian before acting as muse to Nacho Duato in the Compañia Nacional de Danza Madrid, Spain, having many roles and pieces originally set on her. Iratxe danced with Lyon Opera Ballet before becoming a member of Nederlands Dance Theatre under Director Anders Hellstrom. She has worked with choreographers such as Nacho Duato, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Jacopo Godani, Johan Inger, Medhi Walerski, Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Wayne McGregor, Alexander Ekman, to name a few.

Iratxe’s flare for choreography started while dancing with Nacho Duato and the CND, winning prizes and mentions in choreographic competitions such as the International Solo Tanz Theater Festival, Certamen Coreografico de Madrid and was awarded for her artistic trajectory by the Association of Dance Professionals (Spain) in 2007. She has created and set original choreography on companies, such as Lyon Opera Ballet and as a freelance artist has choreographed, danced and given workshops in different projects and countries around the globe.

She has taught workshops in high demand across the world in such locations as Cave (New York), Jove Ballet de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain), Dantzaz and Nudans (San Sebastian, Spain), Arts Umbrella (Vancouver, Canada), ODC (San Francisco, California), Northern California Dance Conservatory (California), Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet training program (San Francisco, California) and Sydney Dance Youth Company (Sydney, Australia).

After 2014, together with Igor Bacovich, she developed her own contemporary dance method, the “Metamorphosis Method”, and created an international residency with the same name. A documentary film was made about this project in 2016.

KATE ARBER

Kate grew up in a small country town in Western Australia where her devotion and passion for dance started. In 2013 Kate graduated from The Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, leading her to complete a year at the Sydney Dance Company PPY (2014). In 2016 she graduated from Transit Dance with a Diploma in Elite Performance Dance before joining Austinmer Dance Theatre (now AUSTI.) from 2017-2018. The connection through AUSTI. led her to ongoing work with international dancers/choreographers Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bachovich known as Metamorphosis Dance Company located in Spain (2019-present). Kate is always continuing to dive deeper into all methods of movement regardless the style, she believes that all movement styles have a place to be explored and shared.

Martin Chaix 

Martin Chaix was born in Albi (France), where he began his classical ballet training in 1986.

 In 1993, he was accepted at the École de Danse de l'Opéra National de Paris where he studied until 1999 and directly joined the Paris Opera Ballet (dir. Brigitte Lefèvre). In 2006, he was offered a soloist position at the Leipzig Ballet (dir. Paul Chalmer) experiencing a whole new repertoire and taking part in new creations. 

Finally, in 2009 he became a member ofthe Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf Duisburg (dir. Martin Schläpfer) where he danced as a soloist until 2015.

As a dancer, he worked with various choreographers and on many productions of different dance styles, in particular ballets from Roland Petit, Carolyn Carlson, Rudolf Noureev, John Neumeier, George Balanchine, Pina Bausch, Edouard Lock, Uwe Scholz, John Cranko, Marco Goecke, Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Hans van Manenand Martin Schläpfer among others.

Since 2015, he has been working as a freelance choreographer.

Martin Chaix made his choreographic debut in 2006 at the Paris Opera Ballet and later with the ballet companies he was working for in “Young Choreographers” evenings, notably the renowned “Noverre Young Choreographers Evening”, organised by the Stuttgart based Noverre Society, and independent projects, such as Eine Winterreise  for the Brotfabrik Bühne in Bonn.

As a choreographer he received commissions from companies such as the Leipzig Ballet (2007 and 2015), the Ballett am RheinDüsseldorf Duisburg (2013 - 2019), the Saarland National Theater Ballet in Saarbrücken (2015), the Mecklenburg National Theater Ballet (2016), the Croatian National Ballet in Split (2017) and the Ballet du Rhin (2018) among others.

Along with his different choreographic projects Martin Chaix is also doing some short films and photographies. One of his work has been selected for the One Minute Film Festival in Amsterdam in 2013.

maurice causey - patron

Maurice Causey is an American born European based artist. He began studying Ballet at the age of 15 in his hometown of Florence, Alabama. His training includes School of American Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre School, and the Joffrey Ballet in New York City.

Maurice was eight years a Principal Dancer with William Forsythe's Frankfurt Ballet. He also danced with the Cleveland Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, and as Principal Dancer with the Gottenburg Ballet in Sweden.

Maurice has also been Ballet Master for both the Royal Sweden Ballet (2002-2003) and The Netherlands Dance Theatre I (2004-2010). He has choreographed original works for Major Companies such as; Netherlands Dance Theatre I, Northwestern Professional Dance Proect, Hubbard Street 2, Milwaukee Ballet, Company C, Stockholm 59 North, Augsburg Ballet, O Dance and Dance Company iMEE. Maurice has been a guest teacher for companies such as Cullberg Ballet, NDT I & II, Royal Swedish Ballet, Norweigan Institute of the Arts, HJS in Amsterdam and Wayne McGregors Random Dance-London.

sagi gross

As a choreographer Sagi Gross received a large international exposure and his choreographies have been presented in South Korea, USA, Australia, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria and Israel.  In 2015 - 2016 Gross's DanceFilm 'Silent Force' was presented at the prestigious Louvre Museum in Paris in combination with a live performance,  and during Cinedans Festival in EYE Film institute in Amsterdam. The creation Blind Sight which he created together with director Jeroen Fransen, was supported by The Dutch National Ballet. As well, Patricia Barker, artistic director of Grand Rapids Ballet in Michigan commissioned and presented two of his creations. In 2014, his piece 'One Charming Night' was commissioned with great success by Pori Dance Company in Finland.

In 2012, he has been selected to choreograph for English National Ballet dancers at the 'LAB' project in collaboration with DanceEast Jerwood in The UK. At the same year GrossDanceCompany was co-produced by Carolyn Carlson CCN Roubaix France.  In 2008 Gross was chosen to take part in ‘Siwic project’ in Dance House Zurich. He participated in The Hannover International Choreography Competition and at The British Sadler’s Wells theater's international competition 2010. 

Gross collaborated with international companies and academies (to name a few): Sydney Dance Company-PPY, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Grand Rapids Ballet Michigan, Architanz in Tokyo, Royal Ballet School of Antwerpen, The National Conservatory of Lisbon Portugal, Dansateliers in Rotterdam, The Royal Ballet Conservatory in The Hague, Marameo-Tanzprobebühne in Berlin, Harmonic studio in Paris, Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam, Danza - L'AED in Livorno Italy, Busan Dance Academy in South Korea, Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, Korzo Theater, Arte&Balleto Italy and many others.

He was educated at The Dutch National Ballet Academy in Amsterdam, Bat-Dor Dance Academy and Tellma Yellin High School for the Arts in Tel-Aviv. During his studies he won five scholarships for both choreography and dancing from the American-Israel Sharet Foundation. As a dancer he has worked with: Bat-Dor Dance Company, The Israeli Opera House, Dede Dance Company, The Netherlands Opera House in Amsterdam, De Dutch Don't Dance Division The Hague and Resextansa Company in Bari, Italy.

SPENCER GAVIN HERING

Spencer Gavin Hering born in Munich, Germany, is the son of two professional ballet dancers. With a life immersed in the arts, Spencer eventually, at the age of 16, began training with his mother Cecilia Hering in Redlands, California. After two years at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, he joined Ballet Pacifica in Irvine, California and has since danced as a principal artist with Maximum Dance Company/Ballet Gamonet, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Miami Contemporary Dance Company, State Street Ballet as a Principal, Hope Stone Dance Company as a company member and Island Moving Co. as a principal artist.

Mr. Hering currently dances as an principal artist and is a Co-Founding Director of iMEE Dance Company. His repertory includes principal roles by acclaimed choreographers that are both current and iconic: David Allan, George Balanchine, Maurice Causey, Anne Marie DeAngelo, Jimmy Gamonet, Choo-San Goh, Paola Georgudis, Jamie Hampton, Emily Johnson, Molly Lynch, Stephanie Martinez, Rick McCullough, Lindsey McGill, Michele Merola, Stephen Mills, Miki Ohlsen, Jerry Opdenaker, David Palmer, Yanis Pikieris, Peter Pucci, Andrea Dawn Shelley, William Soleau, Ray Sullivan, Robert Sund, Paul Vasterling, Raymond Van Mason, Dominic Walsh and Jane Weiner.

As a choreographer Mr. Hering has created original works for professional dance companies and festivals such as: State Street Ballet, E.magine Dance Ensemble, O Dance, Houston Met Dance, FestOval of Dance, Triple Focus, palcoscenico danza, Island Moving Co., the black box INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL THEATRE & DANCE, Festival Ballet Providence and iMEE in Santa Barbara, CA, Irvine, CA, Houston, TX, New York, NY, Newport, RI, Turin, Italy and Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He has participated in Residencies and created original works for the dance programs at Sam Houston State University and Salve Regina University (SRU.) His work Schone was presented by SRU at the American College Dance Association in Providence, RI and received much praise from a distinguished panel of adjudicators.

Mr. Hering has received many accolades for his dancing and choreography; including winning the "Outstanding Choreographer Award" for his work, Dichotomy at the Youth America Grand Prix Ballet Competition in Los Angeles, CA, awarded as a “Finalist” in the 17th Annual Choreography Festival in Palm Desert, CA for his works Elliptical Capture & Fibonacci and winning “Second Place”in the 17th Annual Choreography Festival for his work, Fibonacci. Mr. Hering was a Co-Founding member of the five week, summer dance festival, the Houston Dance Festival: HERE & NOW alongside iMEE Co-Director, Andrea Dawn Shelley, Light Designer, Jeremy Choate, Hope Stone Dance and NobleMotion Dance companies.

Mr. Hering's most recent honor came in the form of his appointment to serve as Island Moving Company's (IMC) Associate Artistic Director, Resident Choreographer and Ballet Master for their 2013-2014, 2014-2015 seasons in Newport, Rhode Island. During his time with IMC, Hering created eight original works including Brom Bones a evening length, site specific work based on Washington Irving’s classic tale “The legend of a sleepy Hollow” featuring an original score created in collaboration with Lewis Patzner & Sascha Jacobsen.

Spencer draws inspiration from limitless possibilities, as well as, boundaries. To bring curiosity, to cause wonderment and to provoke different thought – is his arts’ purpose. To share his love, his voice and his interpretation of the world, is ultimately what he wishes to reveal. Through his life experiences as a dancer, Spencer has found infinite inspiration from time shared with other dancers, choreographers and directors.

"We dance to actively engage, and inspire the audience's mental perspective, to grow and evolve. The art of dance is primal, universal and can be voiced through an unlimited amount of movement... Infinite Movement Ever Evolving," -S.G.Hering

thomas bradley

Thomas originally comes from Cootamundra, where he received his early dance training in Jazz and Ballet. In 2008 Thomas moved to Melbourne to study at the VCA Secondary School. During this time he performed in CATS with Altona City Theatre and Project Four with Melbourne Ballet Company.

From 2009-2011 Thomas attended the New Zealand School of Dance attaining a Diploma of Dance Performance. In 2010 Thomas took his solo Manipulated Living to Tempo, New Zealand Festival of Dance where he was nominated for ‘Best Choreography by an Emerging Artist’, ‘Most Inspiring Performance’ and won ‘Best Performance by an Emerging Male Artist’. Thomas also featured as a soloist in the 2010 NZSD Graduation Season performing an excerpt of Michael Parmenter’s Rhapsody solo. Thomas returned to Tempo in 2011 with a new solo Seam, and an excerpt of his piece Shepherd, from the NZSD Choreographic Season.

In his final year at the NZSD, Thomas spent a short period with Australian Dance Theatre performing excerpts of Be Your Self.

Thomas joined Sydney Dance Company in 2012 as the recipient of the Sydney Dance Company Foxtel Scholarship. During his time with SDC, Thomas performed in Rafael Bonachela’s 2 One Another (2012-2014), The Land of Yes and the Land of No (2012), Project Rameau (2012), Emergence (2013), Les Illuminations (2013), 2 in D minor (2014) and Scattered Rhymes (2014).

Thomas was also a part of the collaboration with Kaldor Public Art Projects for the contemporary art exhibition 13 Rooms where Sydney Dance Company featured in Allora and Calzadilla’s Revolving Door (2013).

He has also performed in Larissa McGowan’s Fanatic (2012-2013) and Lisa Wilson’s Desire (2012) as part of Contemporary Women in the Spring Dance Festival 2012; Alexander Ekman’s Cacti (2013); Gabrielle Nankivell’s Wildebeest (2014) and Cass Mortimer Eipper’s Dogs and Baristas (2014) as part of SDC’s New Breed (2014); Jacopo Godani’s Raw Models (2014) and Adonis Foniadakis’s Parenthesis (2014).

Thomas is an independent performer and choreographer currently based in Sydney.

timothy farrar

Timothy Farrar began his choreographic career by creating a short film , Ballet Boys, with dancers from the Queensland Ballet in 2000. While performing with The Australian Ballet from 2001 he initiated choreographic workshops which helped launch the company’s choreographic season BODYTORQUE with his work Quick/Time/Trick.

This work was further developed with Singapore Dance Theatre through the Ballet Under The Stars initiative. Then also performed again by the Australian Ballet at Telstra Ballet in the Park, Brisbane Riverstage, in 2004.

Timothy’s works A Little Disconnect, Resolution and This Tense were all performed by The Australian Ballet as part of the Body Torque seasons held at The Sydney Theatre from 2005 to 2007.Two of these works included new commissioned scores by composer Cyrus Meurant ,performed live by classical ensembles.

In 2010 Timothy was awarded Best New Choreography at the Short and Sweet dance Festival in Sydney for his duet Few Things Of The Same Kind . In April 2011 he created No Place Nowhere for Expressions Dance Company Launch Pad season, Brisbane.

At the same time his work Pint Size premiered for the 3rd year BFA ( Dance Performance ) students at QUT , Brisbane.

In 2012 he completed a Graduate Certificate in Screen Culture at AFTRS Sydney culminating in the creation of his dance documentary The House Project.

From 2015-2016 he created two new works: A Fine Line and REgenerate for ACPE Dance Company , Sydney.

In October 2016 he was invited back to restage his work Pint Size for the 2nd year BFA (Dance Performance) students, end of year season.