Solarpunk
by Jonathan Homsey
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Solarpunk (2026). Photo by Shannon May Powell.
– “the [evolution] will be [photosynthesised]” – Gil Scott Heron
Solarpunk is a choreographic gift to the city and to you: an invitation to put down your phone, dissolve fascism from your fascia, and lift westward towards the horizon.
Performed at sunset, Solarpunk is a quartet that honours Melbourne’s history of grassroots activism. Gathering at the sculpture The Great Petition by Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee, audiences are guided through movement studies and images, drawing on Skinner Release Technique, street dance, and the sculpture’s feminist history. Solarpunk aspires to embody Dr Jonathan Homsey’s philosophy of Soft Participation and Holding Time.
The Solarpunk text also functions as a portable practice, available on the Dancehouse Soundcloud in March. It is a gift for toning your vagus nerve anytime, anywhere or with anyone.
Choreographer Jonathan Homsey
Performers Carmen Yih, Trevor Santos, Jonathan Homsey
More Collaborators Announced March 2026
Outside Eye Wendy Smith
This project is supported by City of Melbourne.
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Carmen Yih’s practice skates along the boundaries of hybrid dance-theatre, telling stories that draw on forgotten histories and marginalised voices. In her theatrical work, Carmen uses movement scores and structures influenced by non-Western narrative world-building, immersive theatre, and street and club dance forms. She has been selected for Stephanie Lake’s ESCALATOR, as one of five up-and-coming choreographic voices debuting AUSSIEAUSSIEAUSSIE for the program. Carmen is the recipient of the Abbotsford Convent Maggie Maguire Residency 2025-26. Carmen’s major works include: to disappoint a god (2025) for Dancehouse Season 3, M_N (2024) at Bowery Theatre, and Texture of Absence (2025) at Platform Arts. As a performer, she has performed in Miet Warlop’s One Song (2024), Jonathan Homsey’s Thoughts on Destiny (2024), Amelia Jean O’Leary’s CODED (2025), James Batchelor’s Gesturing, Weaving, Unfolding (2023), Alleyne Dance’s HOME (2023) for Shepparton Festival and more.
Trevor Santos is a Naarm/Melbourne-born dance artist and choreographer with nearly 20 years of experience in arts, entertainment, and education. He has collaborated with artists including Guy Sebastian, Mo’Ju, Missy Higgins, Hayden Calnin, Sheppard, and Hangeng, and worked with brands such as Toyota, Lee Jeans, Nuform Clothing, Baker’s Delight, Vicks, and Boost Juice. Expanding into musical theatre, Trevor has performed in Jagged Little Pill, Miss Saigon, the global phenomenon Hamilton, and most recently, In The Heights. As a choreographer and teacher, he has worked on the 2022 Miss World Australia finals and created acclaimed independent works, 100 Haikus (Dancehouse 2021) and In Other Words. His teaching has taken him to cities worldwide, including New York, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Gold Coast, Perth, and Hobart.
Dr. Jonathan ‘Jonni’ Homsey has a deep passion for dance, beginning with street dance in 2002. Born and raised in Hong Kong and the USA, his accolades include the 2013 Melbourne Fringe Award for Best Emerging Producer, the 2021 Green Room Award for Best Dance Production for “I Am Maggie,” the 2022 Melbourne Fringe Festival Director’s Choice and the 2024 City of Melbourne Arts & Heritage Collection Resident. Jonathan is an emerging academic who researches strategies for choreographic empowerment. He is inspired to continue his decades-long pursuit of creating well-being, on and off the dancefloor, with his first book about his practice with Rosie Fayman, to be published in 2026.
More collaborators announced March 2026.
