Dance Launchpad 2022

When: Friday, May 20, 7pm; Saturday, May 21, 3pm and 7pm

Duration: 45 minutes

Where: The Odeon Theatre, 57a Queen St, Norwood

Cost: $18 (+ booking fee)

Presented by The Mill, supported by Venue Partner ADT, Dance Launchpad is a professional development program designed to support emerging dancers to build experience in the professional industry.

The program nurtures the ecology of dance in SA by commissioning established SA choreographers to make new work, and share their industry knowledge with emerging SA dance artists.

Dance Launchpad 2022 is a contemporary dance double bill by choreographers Amanda Phillips and Tobiah Booth-Remmers performed by four emerging dancers Jess Minas, Isobel Stolinski, Amelia Walmsley and Amelia Watson, presented at ADT’s Odeon Theatre in May 2022.

Work 1:

Loom is a new dance work about the forces that drive us, directed by Amanda Phillips.

Loom is layered with both the impact of an irrepressible pull and desire, and the dread and knowing that follows or predicts our destination. On this pathway, it’s the shadows we can’t shake or the belief systems that are ingrained, or the disease/s we face or live with – that are ever present. We all have something looming or deep set inside us, which is part of us. The work aims to explore this terrain - the interplay of paying attention to the things that define us, or control us, or conversely to release and find a freedom in being: carried by these forces. How are we controlled? Is it a choice? Does what is looming, define us?

Loom is about what walks with us, follows us, hangs over us and what we carry within.

Composer: Alexander Waite Mitchell

Amanda Phillips s a multi award-winning Australian Director, Choreographer, Digital Media Artist, Filmmaker, Educator and Creative Producer across stage, screen and events. Her “mastermind” ground-breaking work is hailed as “the new deal arts-wise at its mesmerising best”. Amanda holds a Masters of Dance (Laban Centre, London) and has worked prolifically in the UK, Europe and Asia. She is a Churchill Fellow and Centennial Medallist, and has received numerous accolades across her body of work including a Ruby Award for Innovation. In the past decade, she has created over 30 projects across dance, theatre, film, installation, public art and performance art.
Amanda works in partnership with composer, music producer and media artist Alexander Waite Mitchell in researching and realising hybrid projects through the application of 3D-stereo, immersive cinema, sensors, real-time systems and emergent technologies. Since 2003, their creations include: MASS – Moving Audience Street Sculpture, Future Memory, 3xperimentia: Live Cut in 3D, Otanical and conceiving X for Dance Hub SA.
Amanda is the Artistic Director of Dance Hub SA – Adelaide’s home of independent dance.

Work 2:

Semblance will revolve around ideas of seething, subtlety and singularity, directed by Tobiah Booth-Remmers. These will be the starting points that the dancers will jump off from, diving into movement research that seeks strong imagery and poignant moments within these ideas.

In general, Tobiah is interested in work that explores humanity and relationships to each other and ourselves. He likes to use a combination of movement, imagery and moments to create a world or atmosphere that an audience can fall into and inhabit for a time. Semblance will continue this line of research and creativity.

Videographer: Peter Drew

Lighting designer: Aaron Herczeg

Tobiah Booth-Remmers is a freelance dance creator, performer, teacher and facilitator from Adelaide, Australia. He has worked with Garry Stewart, Graeme Murphy, Branch Nebula, Brink Productions, Larissa McGowan, Lina Limosani, Gabrielle Nankivell and Paulo Castro among many others. Tobiah has performed in major arts festivals including the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Brisbane Festival, WOMAD, Dance Massive, Dublin Dance Festival and has performed at the Barbican Centre in London.
As a dance maker Tobiah has choreographed numerous commissioned and self-produced works, including large immersive, site specific and more traditional format performances. Tobiah has lectured and taught dance to students at Adelaide College of the Arts, LINK, WAAPA, QUT, Transit Dance and at SDC Pre-Professional Year. Tobiah also regularly works overseas and has received residencies and made work in Bulgaria, Brussels, Sweden and Greece. He has taught workshops on his own creative and movement practice in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, France, Israel and Mexico.

About the artists:

Isobel is an emerging freelance contemporary dance artist from Adelaide, South Australia. Since completing her formal training at Adelaide College of the Arts (2020), Bachelor of Creative Arts (dance), Isobel has embarked on her professional development journey, transitioning into the industry. In recent years, Isobel has collaborated with a wide-ranging mix of Australian and International artists.
Whilst in training, she has most notably worked with Gabrielle Nankivell, Peter Sheedy, Paulo Castro, Niv Marinberg (Israel), Joanne Stone, Carlie Angel and many others. Isobel has performed in arts festivals such as WOMadelaide (aus, 2019), The Adelaide Fringe (2020) and Paul Gazzola’s ‘SUE Festival’ (Series of Unexpected Events, 2019). Isobel has also gained industry experience whilst on secondment with Dancenorth (2020), Chunkymove (2021) and Australian Dance Theatre (2020).
As a maker, she has self-directed short performance works, both live and on screen. Isobel now spends her time exploring new information and opportunities across Australia, looking to inform her growing practice as an emerging artist
Amelia Watson is a contemporary dance artist based on Kaurna Land in Adelaide, Australia. Since graduating from Adelaide College of Arts in 2020 they have worked across various performance disciplines including contemporary dance, puppetry, theatre and dance theatre. Amelia has worked as a collaborator and dancer with artists and groups such as Windmill Theatre Company and HVK Productions on Bluey’s Big Play, Windmill Pictures on Beep and Mort, Daniel Jaber and Lina Limosani for Projekt Moxie’s Declivity, Lina Limosani for Dekolta Vs Auzinger, Motus Collective for Open House, Carclew as an assistant teacher for Stage Sparks and with DanceHub for the November iteration of X. Amelia has worked on short projects with local Adelaide artists Alison Currie, Tanya Voges, Carlie Angel and Jen Lush.
Amelia is a passionate emerging artist and strives to lead a practice that is inclusive, curious, collaborative and vulnerable.
Jess Minas is an upcoming Adelaide based artist working in dance, theatre, puppetry, and film. Whilst studying Jess worked with Niv Marinberg, Jo Stone and Paulo Castro, Peter Sheedy, Kialea-Nadine Williams, Rosemary Myers, Lewis Major and Tobiah Booth-Remmers. In 2019 she was photographed by Chris Herzfeld in a dance-based photoshoot directed by Erin Fowler, as well as a promotional photoshoot led by Australian Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director, Garry Stewart. Jess danced in Anifex’s award winning stop motion animation titled The Better Angels (2019). Since graduating Jess began working as a puppeteer for Windmill Theatre Company and HVK Productions on their 10-month national tour of Blueys Big Play, directed by Rosemary Myers. Jess recently worked as Movement Director on Lachlan Barnett’s ActNow Theatre MakeSpace Residency (2021) whilst also puppeteering on Windmill Pictures production of Beep and Mort, supported by the ABC. Most recently Jess worked as a dancer/ collaborator on Projekt Moxie, directed by Lina Limosani and Daniel Jaber.
Jess has created works for live performance and digital medium, Salute (2020) as part of Rip Drag and Ruminate in the Adelaide Fringe Festival, winning Best Dance Show at the weekly Adelaide Fringe Awards (2020), as well as creating two movement-based short films Etiquette and Snail Mail, in collaboration with Australian Dance Theatre and MusicSA.
Amelia is an independent dancer and artist based in Adelaide. She holds a Bachelor degree (2018) in contemporary dance, and has spent time freelancing in performing, teaching and visual arts contexts. Over the last few years Amelia has worked and performed both overseas and around most of Australia, in dance shows, circus shows, and cross disciplinary works, working with both other local independent choreographers and groups, and wider scale companies. She has collaborated closely with groups such as Lewis Major Projects, Motus Collective and MAD|DAN Productions; and with solo choreographers: Jessie McKinley, Tobiah Booth-Remmers, and Sophie Theodoros. Amelia has choreographed and performed in many of Adelaide’s festivals and parades: Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, OzAsia Festival, the Fringe Parade and Moon Lantern Parade. Although predominantly trained classical ballet and contemporary dance, Amelia is well versed in the disciplines of yoga (Ashtanga), circus acrobatics, improvisation, jazz, pilates, progessing ballet technique (PBT), and tumbling, and has dabbled in other areas of dance and physical movement such as circus, aerial arts, pole dancing, Javanese dance, Kandyan dance and fencing.

This project has support from

Dance Launchpad 2022