Teaching Artists

GUEST ARTISTS


Gianne Abbott
Gianne placed in the Top 8 of So You Think You Can Dance Australia 2009. In 2007 she won the title of 'Cidada de Samba de Florianopolis' which means the Best Samba Dancer of Florianopolis, Brazil. Gianne created the dance studio Sambaki - The dance of Brazil - in 2007.








Adrian Burnett

After a successful career as a Senior Artist with the Australian Ballet and as an
International Guest Artist, Adrian now works as a freelance choreographer, guest
teacher and creative producer.







Timothy Brown

Timothy began his choreographic career while still a student at The Australian Ballet School. He has choreographed over 10 ballets and in 2009 choreographed a short contemporary ensemble work, Message Me, as part of EDC’s season of The Dance Makers. In 2010, he will be choreographing a new work as part of The Australian Ballet's Bodytorque season. 






Megan Futcher

Megan’s professional career has spanned thirteen years and includes stints with Queensland Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Expressions Dance Company. She has worked with many Australian and international choreographers performing various featured classical and contemporary roles. Megan has also toured extensively throughout Australia, USA, China, New Zealand and the UK.

Lisa is a performer, choreographer, and teacher who has worked and toured nationally and internationally with many Australian dance companies including Chunky Move, Tasdance, Sue Healy Company and many more. Lisa has received two Australian Dance Award nominations for Best Female Dancer (2008 & 2009) and will be performing Sue Healey's new work The Curiosities at Carriage Works later this year.

Avril Huddy

Avril is a lecturer in Dance in the Creative Industries Faculty at QUT, where she teachers contemporary dance technique, alignment and anatomy. Avril was a recipient of a 2009 Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for Outstanding contribution to Student Learning.







Carol Wellman Kelly

23 years of professional experience in the Dance Industry throughout Australia and Europe, Asia and the Unites States. Freelance performer and educator in Europe and UK for 7 years and Assistant Director of Australian Dance Theatre for 8 years. Member of: Restless Dance Theatre Board of Directors, Industry Development Board Arts SA and newly appointed to Dance Board of Australia Council for the Arts.






Vanessa Mafé
Brisbane-based independent choreographer and teacher, Vanessa recently re-developed her work Skin Graft for EDC’s 2009 season of The Dance Makers. 

Nerida Matthaei
Nerida is a professional independent dance artist based in Brisbane. Over the past ten years she has worked as a performer, choreographer, tour manager, rehearsal director and arts marketer working nationally and internationally. Nerida is a founding member of Phluxus Dance Collective and has worked for Expressions Dance Company and Buzz Dance Theatre to name a few. Nerida is currently creating a new dance work in Ireland.







Israel Oritz

Graduate of National School of Art, Dancer for Harmonic Body Contemporary Dance Group & Caribbean Contemporary Dance Group, Cuba, Dancer & Trainer for Havana Nights International Dance Spectacular, Director of Cuban Dance Company, Australia.

Claire Marshall
Claire’s choreography fuses contemporary dance with robotic movement. This is evident in her work - for both contemporary dance projects as well as in music videos and TV commercials.



EDC ARTISTS



Natalie Weir

Natalie is an internationally renowned choreographer who has been choreographing professionally for more than 20 years. In that time she has created over 150 works. She was a founding member of EDC and took up her role as EDC Artistic Director in 2009.







Richard Causer

Richard is a graduate of Queensland University of Technology's dance degree and has performed in works by Csaba Buday, Rosetta Cook, Ming-Shen Ku, Claire Marshall, Maggi Sietsma, Ricky Sim, Gavin Webber, Natalie Weir and Xiao Xiong Zhang. Richard joined EDC in 2005 as a member of the Dance-In-Education team and joined the main company in 2007. Richard’s choreographic work Delirium opened the national design conference '4um? Advertising and Design Asia Pacific' and was also presented at the 2005 Malaysian Dance Festival in Kuala Lumpur.





Ryan Males

Ryan’s extensive dance career includes seasons with the South Australian Opera Company, Opera Queensland, Tasdance, One Extra Dance Company and Opera Australia. Since joining Expressions in 2001, Ryan has performed in the company’s Brisbane seasons, national tours and international tours including to Singapore, China, Germany, Mexico, New Caledonia, Macau and the USA. During 2000, Ryan had the pleasure of performing along side Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann’s feature film ‘Moulin Rouge’.



Elise May

Elise is a Brisbane-based dance artist who has worked as a performer, teacher and choreographer with Queensland University of Technology, Clare Dyson, Chrissie Parrot, Cheryl Stock, Andrew Corey, Mariana Verdaasdonk, Wendy Morrow and Bonemap. In 2005 Elise represented Australia in the Asian Young Choreographer's Project (World Dance Alliance - Kaohsiung City, Taiwan). Elise was commissioned to choreograph a new work, End Up, for EDC’s ‘Core Borders’ program in 2008 and joined the main company as a dancer in the same year.






Riannon McLean

Riannon graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2000, and has since worked with companies such as Dancenorth, the Merenia Gray Dance Company and Australian Dance Theatre. Riannon has choreographed works for The Place (London) and Dancenorth’s Extensions Youth Company (Townsville) and continues to explore choreography here in Brisbane. Riannon joined EDC in 2007 and has toured with the company on its regional and international tours.






Samantha Mitchell

Samantha joined Expressions Dance Company in January 2008 performing in the world premiere of Maggi Sietsma's On Thin Ice and touring throughout Queensland and overseas. During her time at the New Zealand School of Dance, Samantha attended the Cultural Traditions Programme at Jacobs Pillow in Massachusetts (USA) and worked with New Zealand choreographer Daniel Belton, performing Stitchbirds at the 2007 Body Festival in Christchurch.

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