The Trans Tasman Dance Exchange is a 3-year partnership (2025-2027) between Dancehouse, (Naarm / Melbourne) and Wellesley Studios (Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland) with support from Creative New Zealand, to connect Australian and New Zealand independent dance artists and communities. 

A call-out for the 2026 residencies will open in September/ October 2025.

2025 Artists: Amber McCartney (AUS) + Joshua Faleatua (‘Fale’) (NZ)

Dancehouse and Wellesley Studios are thrilled to announce the inaugural 2025 artists as part of our Trans Tasman Dance Exchange. 

Australian artist Amber McCartney will be in residence at Wellesley Studios in September/ October 2025. Amber’s choreographic practice incorporating prosthetics, mask-making, and practical special effects to create new augmented bodies is well-timed with  World of WearableArt (WOW) in Wellington. 

And in July, New Zealand artist Joshua Faleatua (‘Fale’) will be in residence at Dancehouse and will be a guest of Dance (Lens) Festival. Joshua’s accomplished practice as a dancer and and choreographer across contemporary and street dance forms also extends into screendance and his work with Threading Frames co-founded with Tyler Carney-Faleatua.

Both Joshua and Amber will host sharings and opportunities to share and meet with artists and communities locally. Stay tuned for some unique opportunities to exchange and connect with these brilliant and talented dance artists.

About the Artists

AMBER MCCARTNEY (Australia)

Australian artist Amber McCartney will be in residence at Wellesley Studios in September/ October 2025 and attending the  World of WearableArt (WOW)  Festival in Wellington

Amber McCartney is a Naarm/Melbourne-based dancer and choreographer. Her practice incorporates prosthetics, mask-making, film and practical special effects to create new augmented bodies. Amber has worked extensively with Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc. and is a creative associate of Tasdance. Amber was commissioned by Sydney Dance Company to create ‘leech’ for New Breed 24. She received the John Truscott Artists Award for her solo Tiny Infinite Deaths, performed in RISING 2023, originally commissioned by Lucy Guerin Inc and The Substation. In 2023 Amber premiered her solo Baby Girl, commissioned by Tasdance, for MONA FOMA. In 2022 she was honoured to receive a Chloe Munro Fellowship from Lucy Guerin Inc. She won a Green Room Award for Best Performer in Prue Lang’s Project F and was a finalist for Telstra Emerging Choreographer Award. Her film Tiny Passenger was screened in dance(lens), Dancehouse. In 2020 Amber was a recipient of Chunky Move’s Solitude 1 and created her film Softtrap for the 2021 Activators program.

JOSHUA FALEATUA  (New Zealand)

New Zealand artist Joshua Faleatua (‘Fale’) will be in residence at Dancehouse in July 2025 and will be a guest of Dance (Lens) Festival.

Joshua is a freelance choreographer, dancer and filmmaker of New Zealand and Samoan descent with family ties to the villages of Gataivai and LufiLufi on the islands of Upolu and Savai’i in Samoa. A graduate of the University of Auckland, he has performed and collaborated with companies such as Footnote New Zealand Dance, Chunky Move, Guangdong Modern Dance Company, The New Zealand Dance Company, MOTH, IDCO,

and Ta’alili. His artistic journey has taken him across the globe, performing in live shows that have toured New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Kuwait, the United Kingdom and China. Joshua’s movement practice is deeply rooted in the dance styles of hip hop, breaking, krump and contemporary. Beyond his performance work, Joshua has shared his expertise in dance at institutions such as the University of Melbourne, the University of Auckland, Unitec Institute of Technology and Brent Street. His commitment to dance extends to film, where he has directed and created content for a range of artists and organisations, from musicians, clothing brands, small businesses, theatre and dance companies. Joshua is the recipient of the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard award 2024 and has been consistently funded since 2020 to create digital works. Joshua continues to expand his body of work within the digital space, with a particular focus on dance films.