Ann-maree Ellis
Having trained almost exclusively in the duet form of Contact Improvisation, my current preoccupation is discovering what a contact improviser does alone in the studio, and (with slightly more urgency) alone in front of an audience. Since The Little Con began I have mostly performed with Joey Lehrer in the contact-based duo ‘Gravitate’. This year I’m immersed in the Solo Residency Program at VUT, charting un-traversed solo territory and asking many questions about what is possible, what is poetic, what is happening, and where the hell might it be going? At the end of the day I hope to continue calling myself a dance artist.
 

Joey Lehrer
Having danced the majority of my life, my improvised performance practice grew from an enduring passion with the form of contact improvisation, that began almost a decade ago. I am interested the scenes/stories/naratives that emerge from a somatically and kinesthetically driven working and performance relationship. As a performer, holding both an internal orientation to an exploration of physical forces, while at the same time attuning to an external possiblity of structure and crafting, is a very interesting endeavour. But most of all, beyond the convoluted arty-babble, I just like to dance!
 

Shaun McLeod
I am an improviser, teacher and choreographer with over 20 years of experience working in dance and have been a regular contributor to improvisation forums such as Conundrum, Cracking it Open and The Dance Card. In 2005 I was invited to perform at the Seoul International Crossover Improvisation Dance Festival in South Korea. Some of the qualities I enjoy about improvisation are the immediacy, attention and presence that manifest in improvisation and the imaginative crackle that radiates from dancers when they improvise. I relish in performance improvisation that begins from the completely unknown, but am also interested in the ways performance improvisation intersects with structured choreography. I usually perform solo but love a good duet.
 

Dianne Reid
I am a performer, choreographer, camera operator, video editor and educator. I work in both live and screen contexts. As a creative artist I am interested in making work that tells stories, drawing attention to the ‘individual’ experience, the emotional and psychological landscape which ‘lives’ in the physical landscape. I use improvisation as both a means to create dance material and an end in itself as a performance form. I use it to access the manifestos in my muscles, the legends in my ligaments, the tunes singing in my bones, the inventions building under my fingernails, the ideas running through my hair, the dreams drowned in the lens of my eye.
 

Paul Romano
Paul struggles with writing biogs because he doesn’t like any of the ‘he’s worked with,’ or ‘he completed his training in,’ or ‘his influences include,’ or ‘he’s a Melbourne based dance artist’ beginnings that are very boring or horribly well written. But without beginning with one of them he’s not sure how to tell you about his practice which spans pedagogical, community, professional and research contexts, and includes writing and set building as ways of framing the infinitely rich and layered activity of paying attention to the dancing body.
He’s also unsure about how to mention his PhD or his intense curiosity - which is more accurately described as an unreasonable obsession - with continuing to elaborate and frame a constantly evolving, non-codifiable movement language that seems to get wilder, wackier and more intense until it becomes as confused as this uncertain biog that’s now come to an end.
 

Grace Walpole
I have been performing improvised dance since 1993. A shifting terrain, (today) I am interested in
• Communication with an audience via a shared yet direct investigation of the present moment, the present landscape and the present me;
• The long-term investigation of form: the inherently unknowable situation of improvisation intrigues me;
• The particular quality of work and attending that improvising requires;
• Structure and framing;
• Kinaesthetic pleasure, momentum and gravity;
• Lists.
Risky and endlessly interesting: who knows where improvising will take me next.