Class Teachers
Kristy Ayre - Contemporary
Since 2002 Kristy has performed regularly with Chunky Move in numerous work’s including the solo Glow (2006) in which she later took on the role of rehearsal director.
As well as working with Gideon Obarzanek (Chunky Move) Kristy has performed in works for Lucy Guerin Inc, Prue Lang, Kim Itoh, Shelley Lasica and Luke George’s LIFE-SIZE. She will continue to work with Luke in 2009 on a new project Now…Now..Now.
In 2008, Kristy choreographed and performed her first solo work Rabbeat as part of Lucy Guerin Inc’s Pieces for Small Spaces and was also choreographic assistant on Eddie Perfect’s Shane Warne the Musical.
She teaches workshops and masterclasses on a regular basis both within Melbourne and around the world.
Deanne Butterworth - Contemporary
Studied at Western Australian Academy for Performing Arts. Dancer, choreographer, teacher since 1994. Her performance work in Australia and abroad includes: - dancer in Shelley Lasica’s work since 1996; Danceworks Company & Sandra Parker Dance, (2001-2007); Balletlab (development 2006); Jo Lloyd (1999, 2001). Film projects- Fiona McDonald (2001); David Rosetzky (2008); Collaborative works: - with Jo Lloyd (2003, 2007); with Tim Harvey (2006-2007); Solo works supported by Australia Council, Arts Victoria, Dancehouse. Project Blah Blah development with Jo Lloyd January 2009 and a Residency at Bundanon Arts Centre planned for July 2009. Deanne has taught at Chunky Move, Dancehouse, Deakin University and Melbourne University Union Arts.
Tim Harbour
Tim was a dancer with The Australian Ballet for 13 years and retired in 2008 as a Senior Artist to concentrate on Choreography. He made his choreographic debut in 2005 with Sunken Waltz for The Australian Ballet which was nominated as Best New Work in Dance Australia’s
Critic Choice Awards. He followed this with Eve in 2006, Fielder in 2007 and Wa in 2008 all receiving wide critical acclaim. Wa has since been nominated 3 times in Dance Australia’s Critic’s Choice Awards for Best New Work.
2008 saw Tim create Schattenwelt for The Queensland Ballet, Ignis for The Australian Ballet School, Tocatta for The New York Choreographic Institute and Tenement for The Melbourne Ballet Comapny which has been long-listed in The Australian Dance Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography.
This year Tim created Fractal Joy for The West Australian Ballet, A Listening World for the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Songs of Light for The Dancers Company.
This September Tim created Leaving Songs for New York based Morphoses – The Wheeldon Company which will premiere in October at Sadlers Wells in London followed by performances at City Centre in New York.
Upcoming commissions include a new work for The Australian Ballet in 2010 with music by Gerard Brophy and design by Bluebottle which will have perfomances in Melbourne and Sydney. Tim resides in Melbourne, Australia and lectures in Classical Dance at The Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School. He is married to Madeleine and has recently become a father to daughter Ella.
Tim Harvey
Tim completed a Bachelor of Arts in Dance/Drama at Deakin University. Since then he has worked throughout Australia and abroad as a performer, dance maker and educator. In 2001 he began working creatively with Jo Lloyd, in her own dances,High Maintenance, Mute and Apparently That’s What Happened and in the works of choreographer Shelley Lasica, including History Situation, Play In A Room and Vianne. Tim joined Phillip Adams’ company BalletLab in 2003 and has since performed in all new works and tours including Fiction, Incarnation, Amplification, Origami and Brindabella (with guest director Miguel Gutierrez). BalletLab’s recent touring schedule has included Romania, Bulgaria and U.S.A. Other directors he has danced with include Luke George, Sandra Parker, Lucy Guerin, Gideon Obarzanek (Chunky Move), Natalie Cursio, Ong Keng Sen (TheatreWorks Singapore) Gerald Casel (GERALDCASELDANCE, NYC) and Alan Greig (X Factor Dance, Edinburgh). His own choreographic works include Long Distance Relationship with Natalie Cursio, the solo Ramona and Pause+Diversion with Deanne Butterworth.
Benedict Kazlauskas
Former Dancer with Queensland Ballet, WA Ballet and the Vienna State Opera Ballet, Ben performed in Germany for 8 years with various Musical Theatre Productions, in Berlin with Disneys Hunchback of Notre Dames, Stuttgart with Roman Polanski's Dance of the Vampires and The Phantom of the Opera.
Teaching pilates, movement and ballet at the National Institute for Cicus Arts, Ben recently staged and choreographed NICA's 1st and 2nd year performance Ariels Dream directed by Megan Jones. He currently completed a national tour of The Jungle Book with The
Australian Shakespeare Co. and is soon to commence rehearsals for the Melbourne season of The Wind in the Willows also with ASC. While perhaps turning his hand towards acting, singing and other stage crafts, Ben is grateful for his background in dance and believes combined disciplines such as musicality, strength, movement and self expression can
benefit anyone in anything they do.
Michelle Ledwith - Funk
With 8 years teaching experience Michelle has taught in various dance schools as well as running high school and primary school programs. Former co-owner of Bounce Funk dance Company in Perth, Michelle moved to Melbourne 3 years ago and has been teaching funk, hip hop and jazz at various venues since, from 8yr olds through to adults. As well as teaching she has worked as a dancer and choreographer in Melbourne, Malaysia and Maccau for companies such as Adidas, Excessive Productions and Sands Casino.
Alisdair Macindoe - Contemporary
Alisdair Macindoe is a Melbourne based dancer who trained in dance at The Victorian Collage of the Arts University. His 2008 performance highlights include: his self devised dance solo Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain in Melbourne's Next Wave Festival, Katrina Lazarof's Pomona Road pt 3, Lina Limosani's The Tighter You Squeeze (development showing) and Seven with Leigh Warren and Dancers.
Alisdair has also performed in work by Nat Cursio Inc (short works by Nat Cursio, Jo Lloyd and Gerard Van Dyke), Underpass, Bare Bones Collective, Lucy Guerin Inc, Balletlab (development showing) and Coby Orger.
Julia Robinson - Contemporary
Julia completed a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne University and trained in dance at Deakin University and in Holland at Danswerkplaats and the School for New Dance Development. In 2004 she was awarded a danceWEB scholarship to attend the Impuls Tanz Festival in Vienna.
Julia has danced for Shelley Lasica in various projects; and has worked collaboratively with dancer Phoebe Robinson and sound artist Felicity Mangan, presenting work in the Next Wave Festival. In 2006 She made a solo work Heimweh for Linden Gallery. Julia has taught English as a second language and has been teaching dance for almost a decade. In
2007 she had a baby boy.
Tamblyn - Yoga
Tamblyn has been a yoga practitioner for over a decade and has been teaching for almost 6 years. He has travelled to India, America, Sydney and Europe during the course of his yoga odyssey.
His focus is Vinyasa yoga but he has trained across several styles; Power Flow, Bikram , Hatha , Sivananda
He has studied anatomy and also trained in the practices of pranayama, meditation and Thai massage.
Breath is the key focus of Tamblyn's sessions. Flexibility, strength and openess all stem from connecting to this vital life force. As body and breath awareness develop, so too does one's own understanding of spirit.
His intention is to challenge, encourage and envigorate students ( of all levels ) through open sessions that stem from a creative and insightful core.
"Yoga is to be enjoyed, not endured."
Adam Wheeler - Contemporary
Adam started dancing at the age of 18 when he joined Stompin Youth Dance Company under the direction of Jerril Rechter. Adam was accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts in 2002 where he worked with choreographers Simon Ellis, Sandra Parker, Rebecca Hilton and Beth Shelton. In his final year at the VCA Adam joined Chunky Move and performed in the premiere of I Want to Dance Better a Parties in Melbourne and tours to Sydney and Brisbane.
Adam is interested in choreography and has created a few works including: I Don’t Do Mornings, 3 Day growth, Soz & Snuf & The Magic Memory Inhaler, for Lucy Guerin and Bone Dry & Green, for Stompin.
Derrick Amanatidis - Ballet
Derrick is a Victorian College of the Arts graduate and the inagural recipient of the Mitcham Dowd Foundation Scholarship.
He has been involved in the creation and premier of BalletLab's Brindabella and Origami and he has toured the United States with BalletLab's Amplification and Origami. Derrick has also toured Tasmania and New Zealand with TasDance's premier of Mercy: A dance for the forgotten and performed in the premier of Australian Dance Theatre's G.
Derrick is also a founding member of the Rogue Collective which debuted at the 2008 Next Wave Festival.
Sid Mathur - Hip hop
Sid is one of the most recognised hip hop performers in the scene and has made a name for himself in the dance community having been one of the final 40 dancers in the first season of So You Think You Can Dance Australia.
He has trained with renowned choreographers from all over the world including dancers from Elite Force, The Electric Boogaloos, The Lockers and The Original Krump Kings. Sid is currently a dancer and choreographer for the award winning crew, The Collektive.
Today he specialises in hip hop, urban choreography, animation, popping, krump and dancehall.
Kate Lister - Funk
Kate comes from a strong dance back ground, she completed the Performing Arts Course at Patrick Studios Australia and has travelled the world performing extensively in, London, Dubai, Malaysia, Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Kate recently performed in the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards 2009, the Grease Tribute Show (in the main role of Sandy) and has performed on Rove and with many Australian pop singers including Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy.
Having recently returned from working in Los Angeles, Kate choreographed the Beyonce Fragrance Launch at Myer.
Phillip Adams
Phillip is the Artistic director of BalletLab and is regarded as one of the most inventive choreographic visionary artists working in Australia today. Phillip is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and lived and worked in New York for a decade. He has been commissioned by several leading Theatre and Dance Companies including The Australia Ballet, Chunky Move, Dance Works Rotterdam, CCDC Hong Kong among others . His company BalletLab tours international and has performed in the USA, China, Scotland, Germany, England, Korea, Mongolia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Staton Laws - Yoga
Staton was born and raised on a small island in the coast of Georgia. In 2002 he began learning various yoga asanas in college to become more flexible and improve his surfing. Through the yoga, Staton’s consciousness began to awaken as well as his curiosity of the human body. In 2005 he took his first Hot Yoga class and was hooked. In the summer of 2008, after graduating with a degree in Nutrition, Staton took the Barkan Method Hot Yoga Level I Teacher Training. In 2009 he continued his yogic education with The Barkan Method Hot Vinyasa Level II/III Teacher training.
Dedicating his life to learning more about Yoga, Staton will help lead individuals in revitalizing the relations within the mind, body, and spirit through their yoga practice.
“The holistic high one can receive from doing this type of yoga is amazing.”
Roland Cox
Roland’s extensive dance career has seen him perform with many of Australia’s major dance companies including Sydney Dance Company, Australian Dance Theatre and The Australian Ballet for which he performed various Principal Roles. He has danced in works by celebrated choreographers such as Duato, Tetley and Tharp as well as having new choreography developed on him by Tanja Liedtke. He has also created work with several choreographers in France, Switzerland, Austria and the UK. His choreography has been presented by Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London and been nominated Most Promising Choreography in Dance Australia magazine. Roland was awarded the Khiterc’s Foundation scholarship by The Australian Ballet and has also been nominated Most Outstanding Dancer in Dance Australia.