With a successful grant from the NSW Arts and Disability Funding Program, Sprung!! Integrated Dance Theatre have joined forces with RED Inc. and Dance Integrated Australia to deliver a cross art form project in the Lismore/Byron region. Lunched in 2012, Sprung!! is a joint venture project between Sue Whiteman of Alstonville Dance Studio and Robyn Brady of Planet Creature.

I met Sue and Robyn at the Catalyst Dance Masterclass Series III in Sydney where I choreographed Second Skin as part of the series finale at Carriageworks. We sparked up a conversation about the possibilities to work together in the future and have since developed the relationship to include the RED Inc. artists in a new collaborative process on the NSW North Coast.

As an initial starting point for this project dance artists Philip Blackman, Sue Whiteman and myself will each respond to works by Mbatha Nguta, Christopher Wilkinson and Nathan Gooley from RED Inc. An immersion week will begin the process during the second week of the school holidays at the Alstonville Dance Studio from Monday 21 – Wednesday 24 April 2013. With a cast of up to 25 local dancers with and without a disability we will each devise a short dance / theatre work which connects to the overarching theme of the project, dwell.

This is an exciting opportunity for me as I will return to the area where my career began. I first started my formal dance training in 1998 at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium of the Arts (The Con as its known locally) and began dancing with Kat Worth’s Company CHAOS, which was a mixed abilities company for adults… the first of its kind in regional NSW. It was here that I met and danced for Sally Chance who is the founding Artistic Director of Restless Dance Theatre. Little did I know that I would one day follow in both Sally and Kat’s footsteps as the Artistic Director of the same company.

Since leaving the area to pursue an international career, I continued my dance studies in Adelaide and Perth and have worked across Australia, the UK, Europe, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan. Sprung!! is the second company that I will work with on the NSW North Coast. In 2011 I helped establish Studio Aperio with Leanne Juratowitch-Guenther and continue to mentor her through an informal relationship.

At completion of the dwell triple bill project on 28 September 2013, there will be an open public forum, exhibition and showing of the works at the Byron Community Centre (more details to be confirmed). For media enquiries, more information about this event or to express your interest in being involved in the collaboration, please contact Marie Gale or telephone 02 6622 3400.

For more information about Sprung!! click here.

Check out the Ausdance NSW link to my masterclass, ‘Beyond Technique – searching for authenticity’ which I am presenting at the Alstonville Dance Studio on Sunday 21 April 2013. To register for this masterclass or the dwell workshop program you can also email me.

Photograph: Katrina Folkwell