2023 TASDANCE ARTISTS

GABRIEL COMERFORD

Gabriel Comerford is an Australian-Malaysian man and independent artist with over 10 years professional experience as a maker and performer. Having spent the majority of his career based in Brisbane, in recent years he has relocated to Launceston, Tasmania.

He is a founding member of MakeShift Dance Collective, is currently an ensemble member of Tasdance and working with Stompin youth dance company in a varying range of capacities. 

He thrives off working across disciplines and is constantly seeking to challenge and extend himself. Whilst his practice is rooted in dance, his experiences have allowed him to learn from and incorporate elements of physical theatre, object theatre, puppetry, visual-arts, site-specific, Butoh, Suzuki integrated practice, installation and durational performance.

His interest lies in collaboration and the creative process; sifting through first impressions to expose the core of the theme or concepts at hand. He has an inquisitive mind, a powerful physicality and a captivating stage presence.

Currently he is working to bring elements of his arts, ritual and spiritual practices together to create and hold, sharing and healing spaces for people.

JENNI LARGE

JENNI LARGE is a dancer, performer, teacher and award-winning choreographer based on palawa country in lutruwita/Tasmania. Driven by the personal, political and transformational forces of embodiment, Jenni seeks joy and connection through her practice. Since graduating from WAAPA in 2010 Jenni has collaborated extensively throughout Australia and performed across the world with artists and companies including; Tasdance (2012-13 and 2019-present performing works by Adam Wheeler, Jo Lloyd, Larissa McGowan, Anna Smith, Byron Perry & Tanja Liedtke), Dancenorth (2015-2020 performing works by Kyle Page, Amber Haines, Lee Serle, Alisdair Macindoe, Lucy Guerin, Gideon Obarzanek, Stephanie Lake, Ross McCormack and Jo Lloyd) as well as Legs On The Wall, Leigh Warren & Dancers/SA Opera, GUTS Dance, Ashleigh Musk, Aimee Smith, Sue Peacock and Isabella Stone.

Jenni’s choreographic work is a cross-section of dancing, performance/endurance art, object and sculpture. Centering materials to subvert relational narratives she is transfixed on unpacking socio-political themes that impact women. Her works imbue a playful/serious sexual undertone, utilising the tropes of popular-culture, horror and comedy as an entry point for dialogue around stigma. Jenni’s recent works include; ‘Faux Mo House Party’ - Mona Foma 2022, ‘Wet Hard’ - winner of the 2022 Keir Choreographic People’s Choice Award, ‘Body Body Commodity’ - Mona Foma 2023 and ‘Phantom Femme Fatale’ - The Old Fitz & Desert Festival 2023, ’S U C K E R’ - Sydney Dance Company’s New Breed and recently Jenni was a recipient of a Chloe Munro Fellowship and Asia Link Singapore Arts Now exchange with Tasdance.

AMBER McCARTNERY

Amber McCartney is a Naarm/Melbourne-based dancer and choreographer. Her practice incorporates prosthetics, mask-making, film and practical special effects to create new augmented bodies, unfamiliar to both the performer and viewer. Amber has worked extensively with Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc and is a creative associate of Tasdance.

In 2023 Amber received a John Truscott Artists Award for her solo ‘Tiny Infinite Deaths’, performed in ‘Rising’ at the National Gallery of Victoria. The work originally premiered in ‘Pieces’ 2022, commissioned by Lucy Guerin Inc and The Substation. This year Amber premiered her solo ‘Baby Girl’, commissioned by Tasdance, for MONA FOMA in the Nolan Gallery, Mona.

In 2022 she was honoured to receive a Chloe Munro Fellowship from Lucy Guerin Inc. She won a Green Room Award for Best Performer in Prue Lang’s Project F and was a finalist for Telstra Emerging Choreographer Award. Her film ‘Tiny Passenger’ was screened in dance(lens), Dancehouse. In 2020 Amber was a recipient of Solitude 1, Chunky Move’s home-based residency program and created her film ‘Softtrap’ for the 2021 Activators program. Amber has enjoyed performing for Dancenorth, Antony Hamilton Projects as well as numerous independent choreographers and multidisciplinary artists.

KYALL SHANKS

Kyall is a Naarm/Melbourne based contemporary dance artist. Kyall works within a variety of different areas within the dance industry, including performing, teaching, choreographing, directing and producing for minor and major scale professional companies, institutions, national festivals and organisations. Kyall also works within a number of youth, education and community dance contexts, and is passionate about increasing the accessibility of dance on all levels. Kyall's creative practice is an extension of this, often using introspection, humour and absurdism to reflect on and point out behavioural patterns and structures of society.

Upon graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2015, they were awarded the Orloff Family Trust award for Most Outstanding Dancer. Since then they have danced for Tasdance, Antony Hamilton Projects, Chunky Move, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Opera Australia, The Delta Project and Liquidskin Dance Company. In 2017-2018 Kyall undertook an 8 month international residency program with DanceBox in Kobe, Japan, and then spent 3 months in Sweden as a member of ilYoung 2018.

Notable projects and achievements include working as both a Professional Cast Member and Community Dance Lead for the Arts Centre Melbourne/Matthew Bourne 'Lord Of The Flies' project, helping create the 2019 Dance Massive work 'Simulcast', as well as Stephanie Lake Company's 2020 Melbourne Fringe work 'Multiply'. In 2022 Kyall produced Tamara Cubas’s large scale community work ‘Multitud’ for RISING, as well as working as Co-Artistic Director of the Australian Youth Dance Festival.

Currently Kyall is a Creative Associate of Assembly 197 and Tasdance, and works as Artistic Director to the preprofessional youth dance company Yellow Wheel. Since 2021 Kyall has worked as a Community Dance Lead for City of Melbourne, as part of the core team that helps create and produce the annual Moomba Parade. Kyall also works as an educational consultant for Chunky Move, contributing to their Experiences for Schools program and school engagements.