Jury

Jury 2022

  • Daniel Riley, a Wiradjuri man from New South Wales, has an extensive and critically acclaimed career as a dancer (Leigh Warren & Dancers, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre, New Movement Collective, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Chunky Move) and choreographer (QL2 Dance, QUT, Third Row Dance Company, Louisville Ballet, VCA, Sydney Dance Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Dancenorth). He has held the positions of Associate Producer (2019-2020) and Creative Associate (2020- 2021) at ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, as well as Lecturer in Contemporary Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he conceived and launched Kummarge, a self-determined First Nations mentorship and pathways program for First Nations dance students. Daniel has worked for Moogahlin Performing Arts, and was commissioned by RISING to create the film mulunma-Inside Within, as part of Moving Objects 2021. Daniel sits on the Board of Chunky Move, and is the incoming Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), beginning in 2022.

  • Eko Supriyanto, born in Astambul South Kalimantan, is one of the leading choreographers of his generation. Eko received his bachelor degree at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI Surakarta) then continued his Master’s degree at the Department of World Arts and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), California in 1998-2001, while before he was one of the ICR Program at the American Dance Festival (1997) and APPEX program at UCLA. Eko is a founder of Solo Dance Studio, recently merging in EkosDance Company 2011. Eko worked and collaborated with Peter Sellars on his Opera Production (1999-2014), while he was also choreographer, actor and dancer of Opera Jawa’s Garin Nugroho Film (2006). In 2001 he was one of Madonna’s dancers on Drown World Tour and as a Javanese dance consultant on Julie Taymor Lion King Broadway in Los Angeles and National Tour. Eko is one of the choreographers for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 ASIAN GAMES Jakarta. Eko completed his Doctoral degree in Performance Studies at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta in 2015, and his second Doctoral degree on Creation Program at ISI Surakarta 2018. Since 2011 until now, Eko’s concern for the environment and “empowering the local” has been manifested in cultural design activities for community empowerment in various regions, especially Eastern part of Indonesia; Jailolo, Tidore, Sula and Morotai (North Maluku). Belu, East Nusa Tenggara. Taliwang, West Sumbawa, and Papua. The mission of silent tourism was also appointed by Eko with Arco Renz as his dramaturge for the Trilogy Dancing Jailolo (Cry Jailolo, BALABALA and SALT), which have also been performed in European countries, USA, Australia and Asia since 2013-2019. His latest work of IBUIBU BELU: Bodies of Borders, was performed and Co-produced by TPAM (Japan), AsiaTopa (Australia) and Desingel and Pumpenhauz (Europe). Eko is now a full-time faculty member at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, for undergraduate and graduate students. And he is one of the curators of the Kharisma Event Nusantara at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy Republic Indonesia.

  • Laurie Uprichard was named Executive Artistic Director of Firkin Crane in Cork, Ireland in September 2021 and was previously Director & Curator of Performing Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. She has also worked with Stephen Petronio Company, Tere O’Connor Dance, and Quaternaire, a production and tour management agency based in Paris, France. She founded and curated the Travelogues Series at Abrons Arts Center in 2015-16, and worked with The Joyce Theater. Laurie served as Director of the Dublin Dance Festival from 2007-2011, overseeing its transition to an annual event and expanding its international visibility, audience outreach, and support of the local dance community. From 1992-2007, she was Executive Director of Danspace Project in New York City, a period of significant growth for this venue based in the historic St. Mark’s Church. She worked with Urban Bush Women from 1991-96 and, from 1984-1991, was associated with Dance Theater Workshop. Laurie Uprichard was a member of the Board of Directors of Danspace Project from 2007-2016; has twice served on the Board of Dance/USA, chairing its Presenters Council from 2002-2004; and has served as a board member of Movement Research. She is a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in the French Ministry of Culture, and has received a New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Angel Award (2019) and a 2008 Bessie for her service to the field. She has also been honored by Movement Research, Danspace Project, and La MaMa E.T.C. Laurie holds an M.B.A. from The American University.

  • Lemi Ponifasio is acclaimed internationally for his radical approach to theatre, activism, and collaboration with communities. While firmly established within the international avant-garde, Ponifasio grounds his work within communities and diverse Maori and Oceanic cultures, exploring complex forms of knowledge such as oratory, navigation, architecture, dance, performance, music, ceremony, philosophies, and genealogies as a driving force in emphasising local-oriented arts, indigenous cultural recovery, language and knowledge, thought and narratives that have been silenced or excluded. After travelling and performing around the world for over a decade he returned to New Zealand and established MAU in 1995, as the philosophical foundation and direction of his work, the name of his work, and the people and communities he works with. MAU is the Samoan word that means the declaration to the truth of a matter as an effort to transform. In 2013 Ponifasio created MAU Wahine to focus on the Maori woman’s worldview through art, including the relationship with whānau, community, nature, and the potency of female existence. In 2013 Ponifasio founded MAU Mapuche in Chile to share and create work with indigenous Mapuche artists and communities. In 2017, 20 years after he first began making projects with Kanaky artists, he founded Theatre Du Kanaky with young people of New Caledonia. His works are created in many different contexts and in different forms as solo performances with and without audiences or as opera, theatre, or dance productions, ceremonies, exhibitions, installations, conferences, lectures, festivals, workshops, research and community residencies, and community forums. Major productions have been staged in factories, remote villages, opera houses, schools, marae, castles, galleries, and stadiums in more than 60 countries. The work with MAU has also been presented at festivals and exhibitions, such as Biennale di Venezia, Lincoln Center New York, BAM New York, Ruhrtriennale, Edinburgh International Festival, Salzburger Festspiele, Festival de Marseille, Theatre de la Ville Paris, Onassis Cultural Centre Athens, Holland Festival, Vienna Festival, Santiago a Mil Chile, and others across Europe and the world. Lemi Ponifasio is a matai (High Chief) of Samoa. He holds the title Sala.

  • Dr. Nanako Nakajima(中島那奈子)is a dance scholar and a pioneer of dance dramaturg, and a certified traditional Japanese dance master, Kannae Fujima. Her dramaturgy includes luciana achugar’s “Exhausting Love at Danspace Project” (2006-07 New York Dance and Performance Awards, ‘The Bessies’), koosil-ja’s “mech[a]OUTPUT” in NY, Osamu Jareo’s “Theater Thikwa plus Junkan Project” in Kyoto, Ong Ken Sen’s “OPEN WITH THE PUNK SPIRIT! Dance Archive Box” in Singapore, and Mengfan Wang’s “WHEN MY CUE COMES, CALL ME, AND I WILL ANSWER” in Wuzhen. Her recent research and -dramaturgy projects include “Yvonne Rainer Performative Exhibition” at Kyoto Art Theater Shunju-za, 2017, “Dance Archive Box Berlin” at Akademie der Künste Berlin, 2020, and the lecture-performance “Noh to Trio A” at Nagoya Noh Theater, 2021. She received the Special Commendation of the Elliott Hayes Award in 2017 for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy from the Literary Manager and Dramaturgs of the Americas. She was a Valeska Gert Visiting Professor 2019/20, at Freie Universität Berlin. She has been working with the international festivals and theatres including Tanz im August, YPAM (Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting), tanzhaus NRW, and Tanzquartier Wien. Her publications include The Aging Body in Dance: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (co-edited with G. Brandstetter Routledge, 2017), Performance Research, Vol. 24, No. 2: ‘On Ageing (& Beyond)’ (2019) co-edited with R. Gough, and Oi to Odori (Aging plus Dancing, co-edited with K. Toyama, Keisoshobo, 2019). In 2021, she launched a bilingual website on dance dramaturgy.

Jury 2020

  • Claudia La Rocco Claudia La Rocco’s work explores hybridity and improvisation, moving between criticism, poetry, fiction, and performance. Her books include the selected writings The Best Most Useless Dress (Badlands Unlimited) and the sf novel petit cadeau (The Chocolate Factory theater). She was a critic and reporter for The New York Times from 2005-2015 and is Editorial Director of SFMOMA’s interdisciplinary commissioning platform Open Space.

  • Mette Edvardsen’s work is situated within the performing arts as a choreographer and performer. Although some of her works explore other media or other formats, such as video, books and writing, her interest is always in their relationship to the performing arts as a practice and a situation. With a base in Brussels since 1996 she has worked for several years as a dancer and performer for a number of companies and projects and has developed her own work since 2002. She presents her works internationally and continues to develop projects with other artists, both as a collaborator and as a performer. A retrospective of her work was presented at Black Box theatre in Oslo, 2015.  Mette Edvardsen is structurally supported by Norsk Kulturråd 2017 -2020, BUDA Arts Centre Kortrijk 2017 – 2020 and apap-Performing Europe, 2020 – a project co-funded by Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. She is currently a research fellow at Oslo National Academy of the Arts and associated artist at Black Box teater in Oslo. She is associated artist at centre chorégraphique national de Caen in Normandie France for the period 2019-2021.

  • Serge Laurent studied Art History before beginning his career at the Artier Foundation as deputy curator. After four years of curating their exhibitions program, he was appointed curator of the performing arts program and initiated the famous Nomadic Evenings, which quickly became a staple in the experimental multi-disciplinary arts ecology in Paris, which still continue today. From 1997- 2002, he was the inaugural director of the Dijon Art Dance Festival, Nouvelles Scenes and in 1998, he curated the first performing arts program at the Printemps de Cahors Festival – a video and photographic art festival. He later became the Director of Performing Arts at the Centre Pompidou, Paris until April 2019, when he was appointed Director of Dance and Arts Programs at the Maison Van Cleef et Arpels, Paris.

  • Takao Kawaguchi (b. 1962) was a member of the famous Japanese multimedia performance company Dumb Type from 1996 to 2008, during which time he also worked independently with sound and visual artists to produce video works such as: DiQueNoVes (Say You Don’t See), 2003, D.D.D.- How Many Times Will My Heart Beat Before It Stops?2004, Good Luck   2008 and TABLEMIND  2011.  From 2008, he began the solo performance series a perfect life which still continues. His piece About Kazuo Ohno ― Reliving the Butoh Diva’s Masterpieces 2013 has been performed 70 times at over 30 cities around the world including Berlin, Melbourne, Los Angeles and Paris .Latest works include: TOUCH OF THE OTHER , Los Angeles 2015; Tokyo 2016, which was based on the archive materials of sociological studies of male-to male impersonal sex in public places from ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in LA; and solo BLACKOUT 2018, Tokyo.

Jury 2018

  • Anna CY Chan is the Head of Dance, Performing Arts of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority/Hong Kong. She is responsible for shaping the district’s artistic direction and strategies for dance. Under her leadership, a series of New Works Forum programmes have been launched and co- presented, including Dance Dialogue with Wayne McGregor, Screendance and Writing Choreographic Process. These programmes explore innovative forms of creating and performing, and new ways of discussing and thinking about topics related to contemporary performances. In 2007, Anna became the Vice-President (East Asia) of the World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific. Prior to this, she was the Head of the Performing Arts Education Centre at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. During her tenure, the Centre created several successful community engagement projects, including smARTS Journey and Performing Arts Marathon. She was also the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Dance Alliance from 2006 to 2011.

  • Lucy Guerin was born in Adelaide Australia where she trained in ballet and contemporary dance. She moved to New York in 1989 for seven years and was involved in and influenced by the downtown dance scene. She returned to Australia and established Lucy Guerin Inc in 2002 in Melbourne as a way to support her creative process. The Company is also committed to offering development opportunities for local choreographers and dancers. Guerin has toured her work extensively in Europe, Asia and North America and has been invited to create works for Lyon Opera Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Rambert and Chunky Move among many others. Her awards include the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, two New York Dance and Performance Awards (‘Bessies’) and the 2016 Australia Council Award for Outstanding Contribution to Dance.

  • Eszter Salamon is a choreographer, dancer and performer. She is the author of solos "What A Body You Have, Honey" (2001) and “Giszelle” (2001) in collaboration with Xavier Le Roy, "Reproduction" (2004), a piece for eight dancers, "Magyar Tàncok" (2005) with Hungarian folk dancers and musicians, “Nvsbl” (2006), a film-choreography in collaboration with Bojana Cvejic "AND THEN" (2007) and together with Arantxa Martinez, the concert-performance "Without You I Am Nothing" (2007) starring Lukas Minkus and Ramon Pozo, "Dance#1/Driftworks" (2008), in collaboration with Christine De Smedt, "Voice Over" (2009), a piece commissioned and interpreted by Cristina Rizzo, "Dance for Nothing" (2010) and with Peter Böhm, Bojana Cvejic and Cédric Dambrain "TALES OF THE BODILESS" (2011). Her work has been widely presented in Europe and Asia. As a dancer, she collaborated with Sidonie Rochon, Mathilde Monnier and François Verret.

  • Christophe Slagmuylder was born in Brussels. He studied history of art (contemporary art) at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), and has taught at the École nationale supérieure d’audiovisuel (ENSAV) in La Cambre, Brussels, among other positions. Since 1994, he has been involved in producing and promoting various dance companies, including P.A.R.T.S. He was also artistic direction assistant at Théâtre Les Tanneurs in Brussels. In 2002, he joined the programming team at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. Christophe Slagmuylder has been artistic director of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts since 2007.

  • Meg Stuart is an American choreographer and dancer, working and living in Berlin and Brussels. She founded her own company, Damaged Goods, in Brussels through which she has realized over 30 productions, ranging from solos to large-scale choreographies, site-specific creations and improvisation projects. Stuart strives to develop a new language for every piece in collaboration with artists from different creative disciplines and navigates the tension between dance and theatre. Her work revolves around the idea of an uncertain body, one that is vulnerable and self-reflexive. It is analogous to a constantly shifting identity and constantly redefines itself while searching for new presentation contexts and territories for dance. Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods has an on-going collaboration with Kaaitheater (Brussels) and HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin).

  • Choreographer and improvisor Ishmael Houston-Jones, whose dance and text work has been performed throughout the world, is also an author, curator, and teacher whose practices have had significant impact on dance makers of multiple generations. Drawn to collaborations as a way to move beyond boundaries and the known, Houston-Jones celebrates the political aspect of cooperation. Almost never setting his choreography, he sees the dichotomy between improvisation and choreography as a false binary. An activist artist who makes provocative work that has examined and memorialized the impact of AIDS on numerous communities, he also supports - through curation and teaching - the production of challenging art created by queer artists and/or artists of color. 

Jury 2016

  • Bojana Cvejić is a performance theorist and performance maker based in Brussels. She studied musicology and holds a PhD in philosophy. Her latest books are Choreographing Problems: Expressive Concepts in Contemporary Dance and Performance (Palrgrave Macmillan, 2015), A Choreographer's Score: Drumming and Rain with A.T. De Keersmaeker (Mercator, 2014), and Public Sphere by Performance, co-authored with A. Vujanović, (Bbooks, 2012). Cvejić teaches at various dance and performance schools and is co-founding member of TkH editorial collective. She has been the jury member of European Cultural Foundation Princess Margriet Award and Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart.

  • Pierre Bal-Blanc is an independent curator and art critic based in Athens and Paris. He is currently curator for the Documenta14. He was director of CAC Brétigny (Contemporary Art Centre of Brétigny, greater Paris in France). There from 2003 to 2014, echoing the societal thought of Charles Fourier, he has run the "Phalanstère Project," a series of site-specific proposals aiming at critical rethinking of the logic behind accumulation of art works. His exhibition sequences La monnaie vivante/Living Currency adapted from Pierre Klossowski essay (CAC Brétigny/Micadanses, 2005–06; Stuk Leuven, 2007; Tate Modern London, 2008; MoMA Warsaw and Berlin Biennale, 2010) and Draft Score for an Exhibition(Le Plateau Paris, Artissima Torino, Secession Vienna, 2011; Index Stockholm, 2012; catalog Draft Score for an Exhibition, NERO Publisher Rome, 2014) negotiate the current and historical analysis of the body and the strategies related to performance in visual arts.

  • Choreographer Sarah Michelson's work has been presented by The Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, BAM, PS 122, The Kitchen, The Walker Art Center, Chapter Arts (Cardiff, UK), On the Boards, Venice Biennale, SommerSzene Salzburg, Tanz im August (Berlin) and Zurich Theater Spektakel Festival. She has received three Bessies, 2012 Bucksbaum Award, 2012 Doris Duke Artist Award, 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2008 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, 2006 Alpert Award in Dance and Der Foerder prize. Sarah Michelson has created several evening-length works and modular works including her most recent works tournamento (2015) for the Walker Arts Center, for The Whitney Museum of American Art (2014); Devotion Study #3 (work in progress), MoMA for the Some sweet day series curated by Ralph Lemon (2012); Devotion Study #1, The American Dancer, The Whitney Museum of American Art (2012) and  Devotion, which premiered at The Kitchen, New York (2011).

  • Wendy Martin's career embraces television production, theatre and dance programming and production, event production and a contribution to the arts through board membership. She has a track record as a commissioner of innovative theatre and dance projects, and of developing major programming initiatives at a number of the world's leading performing arts centres. Previously, Wendy was Head of Performance and Dance at Southbank Centre, London, where her achievements include creating the acclaimed disability arts festival Unlimited. A celebration of disability arts and culture on an unprecedented scale, Unlimited had its inaugural outing during the Paralympic Games and was a highlight of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. In 2001 Wendy joined Sydney Opera House as a producer and in 2006, was appointed Head of Theatre and Dance. Her programming and commissioning initiatives made an important contribution to Sydney Opera House's reputation for programming excellence and as a producer of new Australian work.

  • Atlanta Eke is a dancer and choreographer working internationally. Atlanta was a DanceWEB Europe scholarship recipient 2010 in Vienna, and received Next Wave Kickstart 2011, Dancehouse Housemate residency 2012 in Melbourne, and ArtStart Grant recipient. She performed for Sidney Leoni in Undertones at Tamz in August Berlin and Marten Spangberg's Page 74, ImPulsTanz Festival Vienna. Atlanta performed in Jan Ritsema's Oedipus My Foot throughout Europe as well as in Allianz-The Agora Project (Performing Arts Forum). Her solo MONSTER BODY has been presented at the 2012 Next Wave Festival, SEXES Festival Performance Space Sydney, 2013 Dance Massive Festival at Dancehouse, MONA FOMA Festival Hobart, MDT Stockholm, BACKFLIP Feminism and Humour in Contemporary Art, Margaret Lawrence Gallery and the Fierce Festival in Birmingham. Atlanta presented her work Untitled at the NVG for the Melbourne Now exhibition; she performed the work of Marina Abramovic and Joan Jonas at the Kaldor Public Art Project #27: 13 Rooms in Sydney and was part of Maria Hassabi's work Intermission for the Melbourne Festival. Atlanta premiered her works Fountain at Chunky Move, and Organ, made in collaboration with composer Daniel Jenatsch, at Liquid Architecture Festival. She is an Arts House Culture Lab resident for her work I CON and is the recipient of the 2014 inaugural Keir Choreographic Award for her latest work Body Of Work which has since toured to Dance Massiv/Dancehouse Melbourne, Adelaide Festival, 
Dark Mofo Festival MONA Hobart and Les Plateaux de la Briqueterie Paris. More recently, Atlanta premiered her work MISS UNIVERSAL at Gertrude Contemporary and Chunky Move Next Move program. 

  • Phillip Keir worked in theatre and performance in New York, London and Cologne before returning to Australia to join Sydney Theatre Company as Associate Director. In 1987 he developed NextMedia, a consumer magazine company, which went on to become the 4th largest consumer magazine company in Australia, publishing popular culture titles including Australian Rolling Stone Magazine. In 2005 he established the Keir Foundation to provide grant support in the arts and human rights. The Foundation has been active in the areas of Visual Arts and Dance, particularly with projects that have involved the commissioning of new work with an international dimension. Recent international co-commissioning or presentation partners have included the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) LIFT, Chisenhale Gallery, Nottingham Contemporary, Performa, The Showroom, Holland Festival, Momentum (Berlin), La Briqueterie (Paris) and Faits D'hiver (Paris and Avignon). Phillip has served on the board of the London International Festival of Theatre, Aerowaves and the Power Institute of Sydney University. He is a collector of international contemporary art. He speaks regularly on contemporary collecting; most recently at Art Basel HK. Phillip has had a particular interest in contemporary dance since studying at the Merce Cunningham studios in the late 1970s.

Jury 2014

  • Mårten Spångberg is a Swedish choreographer working and living in Berlin. With an interest in the structural specificities of choreography, his work is interdisciplinary spanning from dance and writing to visual media, in particular painting. Thematically his work addresses ecology in an expanded sense confronting Western aesthetics’s correlation with extractivist capitalism and simultaneously arguing against the ongoing culturalization of art. He is a diligent cultural critic and has published several books, theory as well as fiction.

  • Matthew Lyons is Curator at The Kitchen where he has organized numerous exhibitions, performances, and other programs since 2005. He has been a Contributing Editor at Movement Research Performance Journal since 2009. Recent work includes projects with Xaviera Simmons, Sarah Michelson, Aki Sasamoto, Constance DeJong, Kembra Pfahler, Mika Tajima, and Katherine Hubbard. His upcoming projects include working with Chitra Ganesh, Trajal Harrell, nora chipaumire, and Moriah Evans.

  • Josephine Ridge is the creative director of Melbourne Festival. Since 1986, she has been involved in the performing arts across a variety of sectors including theatre, dance and music, working for Playbox Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Opera Australia, Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Ballet. In 2003, she was appointed general manager (later, executive director) of Sydney Festival, where she worked for nearly ten years. Josephine is a fellow of the Williamson Community Leadership Program and has held board positions with the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Critical Path and the TarraWarra Museum of Art.

  • Becky Hilton  is an Australian artist living in Stockholm. Her practices include performing, choreographing, teaching, conversing and writing. Over three and a half decades in dance, she has worked with a range of artists including Russell Dumas, Stephen Petronio, Mathew Barney, Michael Clark, Tere O’Connor, Jennifer Monson, John Jasperse, Lucy Guerin, Ben Speth, Tino Sehgal, Xavier Le Roy, Scarlet Yu, Chrysa Parkinson, among others. Rebecca applies embodied practices and choreographic systems to explore concepts and manifestations of GROUPNESS. Her research environments include, but are not limited to - dance companies, universities, arts festivals, community contexts, friendship circles and family groups. Rebecca is a Professor (Choreography) in the research area SITE EVENT ENCOUNTER at the Stockholm University of the Arts.

  • Phillip Keir worked in theatre and performance in New York, London and Cologne before returning to Australia to join Sydney Theatre Company as Associate Director. In 1987 he developed NextMedia, a consumer magazine company, which went on to become the 4th largest consumer magazine company in Australia, publishing popular culture titles including Australian Rolling Stone Magazine. In 2005 he established the Keir Foundation to provide grant support in the arts and human rights. The Foundation has been active in the areas of Visual Arts and Dance, particularly with projects that have involved the commissioning of new work with an international dimension. Recent international co-commissioning or presentation partners have included the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) LIFT, Chisenhale Gallery, Nottingham Contemporary, Performa, The Showroom, Holland Festival, Momentum (Berlin), La Briqueterie (Paris) and Faits D'hiver (Paris and Avignon). Phillip has served on the board of the London International Festival of Theatre, Aerowaves and the Power Institute of Sydney University. He is a collector of international contemporary art. He speaks regularly on contemporary collecting; most recently at Art Basel HK. Phillip has had a particular interest in contemporary dance since studying at the Merce Cunningham studios in the late 1970s.