Dance

Panel Co-Chairs

Angela Conquet

Angela Conquet is an independent dance curator, researcher, writer and translator, working between Europe and Australia. She was Artistic Director of Dancehouse in Melbourne from 2011 to 2020 and of the Keir Choreographic Award and co-director of Dance Massive Festival. More recently, she was the Guest Curator of Dance in Vancouver Festival in 2021, a member of the Asia Network for Dance AND+, and a fellow of the Saison Foundation. Before relocating to Australia in 2011, she was leading the dance artist in residence programs at Mains d’oeuvres in Paris. She has just finalised her doctoral thesis at the University of Melbourne/ UGA Grenoble - with a focus on dance-specific curatorial practices - where she also lectures in Arts Management.

Victoria Chiu

Sydney born Victoria Chiu trained at the VCA, Melbourne, Bachelor of Dance. She has performed and toured extensively with European companies Cie Nomades, Cie Gilles Jobin, Micha Purucker, Jozsef Trefeli and Jane Turner. In Australia she has worked with Fiona Malone, Bernadette Walong and with Australian Dance Theatre for TV show Superstars of Dance filmed in LA. Her first full length work was a Sydney/Geneva collaboration with Cie József Trefeli called ‘StarStruck’. Victoria and Roland Cox successfully created and toured ‘The Ballad of Herbie Cox’. It toured with critical acclaim across Canada was invited to Los Angeles April 2013 and to Mildura Wentworth Arts Festival 2014. Victoria was Dancehouse Housemate XI in which the work ‘Floored’ was presented in August 2013. Victoria was in residence at Footscray Community Arts Centre 2013 -2016 while working on ‘Do You Speak Chinese?’, this work premiered with critical acclaim in March as part of the 2015 Malthouse season for Dance Massive, toured to Shanghai International Arts Festival RAW!Land October 2015 and Bendigo December 2015. Victoria has collaborated with Arts Fission, Singapore December 2016 with ‘Fire Monkey’ performed at Arts Centre Melbourne and she created ‘Grotto’ at the Immigration Museum for Asia TOPA February 2017. She appeared in film for Cate Consandine at CCP Melbourne, worked with Linda Sastradipradja on ‘The Dancer as Auteur’ and has begun a new collaboration with Candy Bowers in 2017, ‘Hyper Fragility’. Recently Victoria danced in virtual reality film VR-I for Cie Gilles Jobin which was selected in Venice Biennale and Sundance 2018. Her latest work ‘What Happened In Shanghai’ was performed in Shanghai International Arts Festival RAW!Land 2017.

Panellists

Ngioka Bunda-Heath

Ngioka Bunda-Heath is Wakka Wakka, Ngugi from Queensland; and Birrpai from New South Wales. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts, as the first Aboriginal woman in dance. She has worked for Bangarra Dance Theatre in “Rekindling” their youth education program; Circa Cairns as Community Lead and is currently Producer and First Peoples Project Lead at Chunky Move.

Ngioka received the Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship and Residency 2021, the Chloe Munro AO/Lucy Guerin Inc Independent Artist fellowship 2022, and the Brisbane Powerhouse Wandima Fellowship 2023. Ngioka has performed in works for companies DubaiKungkaMiyalk (DKM), Lucy Guerin Inc. and Joel Bray Dance as well as for Independent Artist Sarah Aiken and Rebecca Jensen among others.

Internationally, she’s participated in dance conferences, festivals, and residencies in New Caledonia, France, Canada, America, and Japan. Ngioka’s choreographic work includes Blood Quantum (2019), Birrpai (2021) awarded Dance Best Duo/Ensemble at the Greenroom Awards, Bridge (2022), Footprints (2022) and Estuary (2026).

Rheannan Port

Rheannan Port is a Lama Lama, Ayapathu and Kuku Yalanji woman with over 20 years of experience working within Indigenous arts and culture as a dancer, choreographer and educator. She is currently a Lecturer in Dance (Indigenous) at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development with a special interest in Indigenous dance pedagogy.

An alum of the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA) Rheannan participated on cultural residencies learning traditional songs and dances from Warmun (WA) and Ngukurr (NT) Aboriginal communities and Badu and Iama Torres Strait Island communities. Whilst at NAISDA Rheannan also learned traditional songs and dances from Mer Island (QLD) and Yirrkala community (NT). During her time at NAISDA she danced at the Sydney Olympic Games Opening (Awakening) and Closing Ceremony (Island Home, Christine Anu) and participated on two international residencies performing at JakArt International Arts Festival, and EKI Dance Company Jakarta Indonesia

A former professional dancer with Bangarra Dance Theatre from 2003-2006 (4 years) Rheannan toured with the company to regional and metropolitan destinations including collaborations with The Australian Ballet. International tours with the company included Nagoya JPN, Auckland NZ, London, Manchester and Aldeburgh UK, Washington D.C (The Kennedy Center), Honolulu, Kamuela, Maui, Raleigh, Hampton and New York (Brooklyn Academy of Music) USA.

Jonathan Homsey

Jonathan Homsey is a choreographer and curator working from the position of a Queer Person of Colour based in Wurundjeri country. Originally an award-winning dancer for crews during the naughties in Southern California, he is humbled to be a community leader in so-called Australia for the past decade galvanising people together to dance. From Footscray Community Arts Centre to Melbourne Museum, he specialises in platforming Street and Queer dance forms to cultivate empowerment for sexually and ethnically diverse young people. His choreographic practice has evolved from a theatrical context with works such as the award-winning Together As One (Arts House, Melbourne Fringe 2013) to an interdisciplinary practice in galleries and public spaces from Footscray Community Arts (Melbourne) to 107 Projects (Sydney) and Design Festa Gallery (Tokyo).

Hellen Sky

Hellen Sky is an Australian digital choreographer / performer / director / writer. Her inter-disciplinary work bridges dance, performance, theatre, and installation extended through new technologies. She collaborates with artists, scientists, performers, composers, academics, designers, writers, architects, interface designers and programmers to develop scores and technology systems that often use real time data generated by the body to effect the relationship between multiple media to form total choreographies for live performance and installations. Hellen studied at the Australian Ballet School and at the Victorian College of the Arts. She was a member of the Australian Performing Group (Pram Factory) and a founding member of Circus Oz. She was co-founder of internationally recognized new media performance company, Company In Space, 1992–2004 (with John Mc Cormick); Fellow of the Australia Council Dance Fund 2004–06; Nominee of the Leonardo MIT, Rockerfeller Ford Foundation Global Crossing Award 05; and co-founder and Artistic Director of Dancehouse, Centre for Moving Arts, Melbourne from 1991–2001.

Alice Dixon

Alice Dixon is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and performer based in Naarm/Melbourne who works across contemporary dance, theatre and experimental performance. She has worked as a dancer, performer and collaborator with leading Australian and international artists and companies including: Natalie Cursio, Lucy Guerin, Monica Bill Barnes & Company (NYC), Chunky Move (Antony Hamilton), Opera Australia, Aphids, Victoria Chiu, Andrew Byrne, Reckless Sleepers (UK), Phillip Adams BalletLab, Walter Dundervill (NYC), Euginia Lim, Rob McCreddie, Emma Riches, Nebahat Erpolat, Deanne Butterworth, Gabrielle De Vetri and One Step at a Time Like This, amongst others. Recent performance highlights include performing in Lucy Guerin’s retrospective, NEWRETRO at ACCA (2023) and NEWRETRO REDUX (2024) as well touring to Venice and Paris to perform in PENDULUM, created by Matthias Schack-Arnot and Lucy Guerin. Most recently Alice performed alongside Mish Grigor in Class Act at The Sydney Opera House.

Veronica Bolzon

Veronica is a performing arts producer and arts leader with more than 20 years' experience in arts management, programming and community engagement across the independent, government, corporate and not-for-profit sectors.

She is Executive Producer and General Manager of First Nations contemporary dance company Joel Bray Dance. Her career has centred on contemporary dance and interdisciplinary performance, with leadership roles including Program Producer at Dancehouse, Executive Director of Philip Adams BalletLab/Temperance Hall, and Executive Producer of YIRRAMBOI First Nations Arts Festival. She also served as Senior Producer for the Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival (2019 and 2022).

Veronica is a Board Director of Dancehouse, Melbourne, and holds a Master of Fine Arts (Cultural Leadership).