We’re thrilled to announce Motus Collective as the recipient of our STRUT Residency for 2025.
Felicity and Zoe will be travelling to Perth to develop and present their second-stage development TRIFLE at STRUT Dance.
This residency unites national dance sectors by providing development opportunities for dance-makers across Australia.
About the artists:
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Motus Collective was formed in 2019 by Adelaide College of the Arts graduates, Zoe Gay and Felicity Boyd.
The collective was formed out of a desire to create a sense of community, to foster collaborations, expand performance opportunities, and to create a revenue of exploration and experimentation.
Motus Collective began their journey hosting Improvisation and ‘Jam Sessions’, before conducting residencies through Australian Dance Theatre, The Mill, VitalStatistix and more. With a heavy importance being placed on inter-disciplinary collaboration, Motus Collective have worked extensively within the visual arts world including performing with Tom Borgas and Amber Cronin in HyperObject, created in Arthur Art Bar’s SA LA LA LAND program, worked with Fine Print Magazine in their live response to If the future is to be worth anything, performed Hiromi Tango’s Brain Flower at Splendour in The Grass, and more recently collaborated with eDuard Helmbold in Elegy of The Pale Lion for VitalStatistix.
Motus Collective were selected to be Share House residents at Carclew in 2021, where they produced Open House, a platform for emerging artists to create and perform, and premiered White Rhino in the Adelaide Fringe, performing to sold out audiences and winning the ‘Best Emerging Artist’ award. 2022 saw Motus Collective premiere The Leftovers, a collaboration with sculptor Nicholas Hanisch, and were selected to be a part of the InSpace program through Adelaide Festival where they developed Trifle, a choreographic experiment melding clowning, cabaret and contemporary. In 2023, Motus Collective returned to the Adelaide Fringe with a remount of The Leftovers and collaborated with Dragon Mill on Unseen Fire Festival, a month long performance celebrating the Winter Solstice. 2024 saw Motus Collective present The Leftovers at the Space Theatre, produced in collaboration by Adelaide Festival Centre. In 2025, Motus Collective is focusing on building the independent sector within South Australia, by starting weekly free classes for professional dancers, and a monthly newsletter highlighting funding opportunities, classes, workshops and more happening within the state.
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Felicity is currently working as a dancer, choreographer and physical theatre performer based on Kaurna Yerta, South Australia. Felicity is the co-director of project-based dance company Motus Collective, founded in 2019 after returning from touring Q&A with ilYoung dance company in Sweden. Her practice involves a multi-disciplinary approach to dance.
Felicity’s roles as a performer have most recently involved working for Lina Limosani on What Lurks on the Edge (2025), Requardt & Rosenberg (UK) on Future Cargo at the 2024 Adelaide Fringe, and as producer/performer in Motus Collective’s The Leftovers at the Space Theatre at Adelaide Festival Centre 2024. She has worked for Australian Dance Theatre as a replacement dancer on Garry Stewart’s South and toured and performed with Lewis Major Projects on Losers. She has worked with Tobiah Booth-Remmers, Eldad Ben-Sasson, Matan David and APHIDS. Felicity’s theatrical credits include Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s L’Hotel and Frank Theatre’s Chameleon, as well as Aaron Schuppan's short film Heavy Red.
Felicity’s choreographic commissions include works for Australian Dance Theatre’s The World’s Smallest Stage, Vitalstatistix’ Adhocracy, Tom Borgas’ HyperObject, Dragon Mill’s Unseen Fire Festival and Motus Collective’s co-choreographed White Rhino (winner of Best Emerging Artist award 2021), Old Body, New Management and Trifle.
Felicity holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Dance) from Flinders University, and a Certificate IV in Commercial Dance from Gravity Studios.
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Zoe Gay is an independent contemporary dancer, choreographer, and producer based on Kaurna Land. A graduate of the Adelaide College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Dance), Zoe has collaborated with a range of acclaimed artists including Lee Brummer, Israel Aloni, Lina Limosani, Garry Stewart, Michelle Ryan, and Larissa McGowan. In 2019, she co-founded Motus Collective, through which she has developed and performed in projects such as Brain Flower by Hiromi Tango, eDuard Helmbold’s Elegy of The Pale Lion, and the Vitalstatistix Adhocracy program. Her co-choreographed work White Rhino won Best Emerging Artist at the 2021 Adelaide Fringe. She also directed The Leftovers, presented in both the 2022 and 2023 festivals.
Zoe moved to Bergen, Norway in 2023, where she completed a choreographic residency at Bergen Dansesenter for a new work, Narrated by Cillian Murphy, worked for Borealis Music Festival as Ticketing Manager, and premiered Once More With Feeling in collaboration with Norwegian artist June Lysjø at Festival Danserom in Bergen. In 2024, Zoe returned to Australia to create and premiere On Not Knowing with the Bachelor dancers at Adelaide College of the Arts, and was commissioned by Adelaide Festival Centre to present The Leftovers at the Space Theatre. Zoe’s choreographic work explores the space between realism and absurdism, often drawing from time paradoxes, thought experiments, and the complexities of the human condition—constantly returning to the universal stories that connect us all.
This residency has support from
