Generative Dancing Roundtables is a series of hybrid talks developed in partnership between VCA Dance at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music and Dancehouse. These facilitated conversations bring together dance practitioners and thinkers across live and virtual spaces and will later be edited into a series podcast. The Roundtables invite generative investigations of current choreographic practices, challenges and interrogations. They will foster inter-generational dialogue and exchange between dancers, choreographers and pedagogues working across a diversity of genres, bodies and politics.

This year’s series follows the successful launch of the series in 2022 with (In)corporeal Encounters: Proposing Choreographies for the Future.

Generative Dancing Roundtables are co-curated by Carol Brown and Philipa Rothfield assisted by Angela Conquet.

Generative Dancing #1: Glocal Street Dance Cultures in Australia

How can we think about the relationship between the (g)localised dance culture and its black cultural roots? What place does it occupy within Australia or within different cities in Australia? How does it afford its practitioners a sense of belonging to a local as well as global dance community? What are the challenges and tensions inherent in this dynamic? A podcast on what it means to belong to, practice, be part of local Street Dance / Hip Hop cultures, or Street Dance / Hip Hop scenes in Australia with Amelia Duong, Rachael Gunn and Efren Pamilacan in conversation with Julie Ann Minaai and Elena Benthaus.

A podcast jointly produced by Dancehouse and Victoria College of the Arts Dance.

Generative Dancing #3: THE IN/OUT SIDES OF DANCING

Featuring an inter-generational panel, with guests ranging from undergraduate students to established practitioners, this edition of Generative Dancing is about the inside and outside of dance and dancing. What happens inside dance and how does it relate to the wider socio-political context? What identities are at stake in generative dancing? How is the identity of the dancer formed, performed and derived? What happens inside the studio, inside the dancing we are doing, the teachers we have, and what happens outside and around dance? What is the context within which we do what we do? Who sees it? How is it presented? How is knowledge transmitted?

Facilitator
Anstassia Krstevska

Speakers
Derrick D. Brown
Angélique Willkie

About the Speakers
Derrick D. Brown is a dance, and performance science researcher with concentrations in the cognitive psychology and human motor behaviour domains. He is currently a senior lecturer Senior Lecturer Dance Science at VCA. Before academia, he worked for thirty-five years professionally in dance, first as a dancer, teacher, and rehearsal director. He danced with Peridance, Ballet Manhattan, Pretty Ugly Dance Company, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. He has taught in companies throughout Europe, including Finnish National Ballet, Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo, Noord Nederlands Dans, Staatsoper Hannover, The Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, and Cullberg Ballet.

Performer, singer, dramaturg and pedagogue, Angélique Willkie pursued a career in Europe over 25 years, where she performed notably with Alain Platel/Les Ballets C. de la B., Jan Lauwers/Needcompany, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, to name just a few. As a singer, she has collaborated with Zap Mama, dEUS, DAAU and Zita Swoon Group. She also lent her voice to musicians Walter Hus and Spectra Ensemble, Kaat De Windt, David Linx, Fabrizio Cassol and the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles. In addition to her career as a performer, Angélique Willkie taught for eight years at the École supérieure des arts du cirque (ESAC) in Brussels. She is currently a professor in the Department of Contemporary Dance at Concordia University. and she continues to work as a dance dramaturg in dance, both in Montreal and in Europe. More recently, she marked a return to the stage in works by Montreal-based choreographers, including Helen Simard, Daina Ashbee, Sovann Rochon-Prom Tep and Mélanie Demers.

About the facilitator
Anastassia Krstevska is a Naarm (Melbourne) creative, working with contemporary dance, comedy, and analog photography to create work which engages in social commentary. In 2019, Anastassia completed a Bachelor of Politics Philosophy and Economics from the ANU in Canberra. Ironically, it was during this time that she discovered a passion for performing, writing and dancing. In 2018, she was an ACT Raw comedy finalist. From 2017-19 she wrote, performed and directed the Women’s Revue – a skit comedy show highlighting the experiences of women and non-binary students at the ANU – whose iterations were performed to sold out audiences. After returning to Melbourne, Anastassia began studying dance full time, completing the first year of a Diploma of Elite Performance at Transit Dance in 2021. In 2022, she choreographed and danced in the show Slutnik™ at the Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe festivals. She is currently undertaking a degree in Contemporary Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.