BEACON - TEN DAYS ON THE ISLAND 2025
This transformative encounter brings community members and professional artists together to explore our deep connection to place, confront the challenges of our climate, and embrace the power of gathering. Immerse yourself in a shared energy and leave feeling inspired and hopeful as we navigate an uncertain future – together. As the sun sets, take a moment to wander down to Civic Square and experience this free performance.
Lead Artists: Emma Porteus + Adam Wheeler
Choreographers: Jenni Large, Gabriel Comerford, Izzy Lockett
Country Man: Nathan Pitchford
Musician: Emily Sanzaro
Lighting Design: Jenny Hector
Guest Dance Artists: Sarah Groth, Kady Mansour, Toby McKnight
Company Manager: Caitlin Comerford
Light & Space Assistant: Lilly Amos
Light Movers: Sugar MacGillivray & Lottie Sutton
Video: Michael O'Neill
Proudly supported by Arts Tasmania, Creative Australia, Festivals Australia, and City of Launceston.
BODY BODY COMMODITY 2024 + 2023
Body Body Commodity is a visceral, visual, defiant, and explicit demonstration of feminine fury and power. Five celebrated female dancers manipulate and interpret a mass of pastel foam objects, blurring the lines between object, body, power, and product. The performers balance on the sharp, serrated line between humorous and harrowing, inviting the audience to connect with the confronting demands society and commerce place on women’s bodies.
Choreographer/dancer: Jenni Large
Dancer/collaborator: Amber McCartney
Dancer/collaborator: Ashleigh Musk
Dancer/collaborator: Georgia Rudd
Dancer/collaborator: Erin O’Rourke
Internship dancer: Ebony Nichols
Sound designer: Anna Whitaker
Costume + set designer: Michelle Boyde
Production Manager and Lighting Design: Greg Thompson (2024), Chris Jackson (2023)
Proudly supported by Regional Arts Fund, Dancenorth, Arts QLD, Judith Wright Centre, RANT Arts, Strategic Touring Fund, Arts Tasmania and the Creative Australia.
DANCEWEEKENDER - BURNIE, HOBART + LAUNCESTON 2024
In September 2024, Tasdance partnered with 14 social dance groups to present three afternoons of performance, teaching and dancing. Over 450 people attended the Pataway/Burnie, Nipaluna/Hobart and Launceston events.
Concept: Adam Wheeler
Curators: Adam Wheeler + Emma Porteus
Participating Groups: Burnie Scottish Country Dancers, Treenoner Dance Mob, Burnie School of Irish Dance, Cradle Coast Cloggers, Slipstream Circus, Pakana Kanaplila, Long Steps, Moonlight Aviators, Bella Dance, TUSA, Wuji Tai Chi, Diversity Line Dancers, Bhutanese Dancers, Tasdance MAKE 24 Cohort
Proudly supported by The TPAC Strategic Touring Fund, WD Booth, and Arts Tasmania.
REACTOR
Tasdance + Stompin Mona Foma 2020
Concept + Direction – Adam Wheeler Director – Caitlin Comerford, Stompin Artistic Director
Producer – Alison Copley
Producer – Mary Shannon, Stompin Producer
Sound Design – Anna Whitaker
Production Manager + Lighting Design – Chris Jackson Costume Design – Ingrid Reynolds
Creative Consultant + Videography – Gabriel Comerford
Tasdance Ensemble Olivia McPherson, Jenni Large, Amber McCartney, Kyall Shanks, Damian Meredith
Stompin Cast Ella Williams, Sage Price, Riley Price, Ebony Nichols, Hannah Nichols, Toby McKnight, Zoe Howard, Ruby Howard, Lauren Stanley, Izzy Lockett, Charlotte Mattern, Sophia Mattern, Jack Duncan, Jaan Schild, Anabelle Hawthorne, Cooper Orchard-Skey, Michayla Staines, Sammie Lester, Gabrielle Martin, Emily White
FIRST FLOOR
Junction Arts Festival 2019
CONCEPT | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Adam Wheeler
PRODUCER | GENERAL MANAGER Ali Copley
CHOREOGRAPHERS | PERFORMERS Sofie Burgoyne, Gabriel Comerford, Thomas E.S. Kelly, Rachel Arianne Ogle, Isabella Stone
COMPOSER Anna Whitaker & Thomas E.S.Kelly (Waiburra) PRODUCTION MANAGER | LIGHTING DESIGNER Chris Jackson
COSTUME DESIGN Allanah Sarafian (Room No.19)
STAGE MANAGERS Byron Davis, Lucas, Jack Challis, James Conway, Brady Haas, Noah Wanrooy
DANCE SECONDMENTS Tenae Smith, Shana Therese, Jemma Stein, Tessa Redman, Holly Hepburn
YATRA
Gabriel Comerford | Mona Foma 2019
Yatra
Join us on a Yatra (Journey) as Tasdance and the local Launceston Bhutanese community seek the definition of place and home through stories of living and growing up in refugee camps to resettlement on the Apple Isle.
DIRECTOR Gabriel Comerford
ARTISTIC LIAISON Adam Wheeler
PRODUCER Alison Copley
MUSIC PRODUCER James Mangohig - Skinnyfish
LIGHTING & MOVING IMAGE Chris Jackson
COSTUME DESIGN Ingrid Reynolds
COLLABORATING ARTISTS Benge Allen, Sofie Burgoyne, Rachel Arianne Ogle, Isabella Stone
BHUTANESE ARTISTS Mon Rai, Obeth Sampang, Bijay Tamang, Binod Biswa, Yadav Mangar, Susmita Pradhan
PRODUCTION MANAGER Chris Jackson
SIMULCAST
Alice Lee Holland | Chunky Move | Yellow Wheel | Dance Massive
Junjeiri Ballun - Gurul Guareima
Biologically dead yet teeming with life. Five bodies ebbing and flowing to the songlines of the river from the first nations to the locals today. Water splashing, rhythms vibrating, head banging dance that explores how we repair the damage through cultural, classical and contemporary movement, music and magic.
CHOREOGRAPHY Thomas E.S. Kelly
SOUND Thomas E.S. Kelly
COLLABORATING ARTISTS Sofie Burgoyne, Gabriel Comerford, Rachel Arianne Ogle, Isabella Stone
ARTISTIC LIAISONS Adam Wheeler & Carol Wellman
PRODUCER Alison Copley Alison Copley
Fragile Matter
…more than machinery we need humanity, more than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness… Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator 1940.
CHOREOGRAPHY Christine Gouzelis & Paul Blackman
SOUND Murcof, Ben Frost, Alessandro Scarlatti, Amon Tobin, Jozef Van Wissem, Devo
DANCERS Gabriel Comerford, Robert Flehr, Bec Jones, Olivia McPherson, Jack Riley, Isabella Stone, Nikki Tarling, Robert Tinning
DESIGNERS Lighting: Luca Sirviö Recreated by Darren Wilmott Puppet: Dimitris Nassiakos
Light Entertainment
Light Entertainment is a physical and theatrical exploration of light. Viewed through a prism of rhythm and repetition this hypnotic work shifts perspective from wave to particle, observed to obscured, animal to abstract, entertainment to architecture and finally from light to a space in its absence. The structure of this work takes its form from the wave/particle dichotomy inherent in light itself and as the work progresses both the material explored and the method of creation changes dramatically. The first half of the work explores the wave function of light and is therefore loose in structure; it is concerned with improvisations based around repetition and emergent qualities.
CHOREOGRAPHY Byron Perry
DANCERS Original cast: Dean Cross, Sarah Fiddaman, Brianna Kell, Jenni Large, Timothy Walsh 2015 cast: James Batchelor, Sarah Fiddaman, Katherine Gurr, Brianna Kell, Andrew Searle
DESIGNERS
Set Design Byron Perry, Darren Willmott. Costumes Tracie Leslie
Thorn
Bodies emerge from the mass. Voyagers and heralds grasp hands as they stride across the dark. Tracing landscapes, leaving footfalls and breathing from the past. Part system and part science-fiction, Thorn creates an evolving landscape for a brave new world. Drawing a wavering line between fantasy and reality, the work is a small study of humans, nature and human nature.
CHOREOGRAPHY Gabrielle Nankivell
MUSIC/SOUND Nick Roux
DANCERS Alana Everett, Bec Jones, Alya Manzart, Robert Alejandro Tinning, Joshua Thomson, Sharon Lee
DESIGNERS Nick Roux