MaggZ is a Naarm-based movement-sound artist, creative director and producer-researcher of Chinese-minority descent. MaggZ is trained in ballet and now specialised in w_acking – a freestyle dance originated in 1970s LA from the Latinix and African American queer community, predominantly involving arm movements. Rooted at the intersection of street dance, site-specific installation and technology, extending into somatic and relational research and community-building with sustainability, MaggZ’s practice is hybrid, timeless, visceral and unapologetic as they constantly outbox themselves. MaggZ’s soundscape is deeply intimate, visceral, tender and penetrative, with the influence of ambient, experimental electronic sound.

MaggZ founded (nexus) in 2024, an experimental community initiative of exchange and interdisciplinary research, cultivating infrastructures to support a culture of innovation, experimentalism and discovery across the creative community. MaggZ is appointed as Young Artistic Directorate at Next Wave in 2023 (Melbourne, Australia), Producer in Residence in 2022 (Melbourne, Australia), and producer / performance art consultant at Collide24 in 2022 (Berlin, Germany). MaggZ is also the recipient of the Young Creative Awards in 2020, nominated four times by the Green Room Awards, as well as the winner 4v4 waacking Waack Inferno Vol.3 in 2023, 2v2 allstyle Destructive Steps, 2v2 allstyle Waack Inferno Vol.2 dance battle in 2022.

Carmen Yih (she/her) is an emerging Chinese-Australian dance-artist graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts’ (VCA) Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance). Carmen’s practice centres on platforming the unique perspectives and stories of young people of colour through vernacular and contemporary dance forms. In 2023, Carmen was awarded the Creative Brimbank Be Bold Residency for the development and presentation of a new street-dance theatre work ‘M_N’, tackling the impact of socio-cultural notions of masculinity on youth mental health. Carmen is the founder of Space Generate – a pop-up initiative facilitating multi-art exchange and storytelling. Interested in street and club dance forms, she also trains and performs in the 1970s queer club dance form of Waacking. Some of her performance highlights include: Miet Warlop’s One Song (2024), Jonathan Homsey’s Thoughts on Destiny, Alleyne Dance’s ‘HOME’ (2023) and James Batchelor’s ‘Gesturing, Weaving, Unfolding’ (2023). Carmen was awarded the Lionel Gell Foundation Scholarship, VCA Choreography Development Award and Paul and Donna Dainty Award by the VCA for her excellence in the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance).

Aqua is a 25-year-old Vietnamese-born artist who centres their work around queer identity, femininity, fluidity, and culture. Migrating to Naarm from his homeland at the age of 18, Aqua immersed themselves in the street dance community, specifically Burn City W_ack, and began their dance journey. Despite having minimal exposure to dance previously, Aqua has adopted Waacking and Voguing as their main practices over the years, which significantly influence their identity as a performing artist. Their work has been shown on queer-empowering stages like Midsumma Festival, Melbourne Fringe, Sydney’s Pride, Worship Queer Collective, and art exhibitions in various scales such as ARI(SE) by ZAP Exhibitions and Asia TOPA. Since self-teaching and learning directly from the elders within these dance cultures have been pivotal elements of Aqua’s journey, they hope to inspire queer youths to have the same autonomy and pay respect to the cultures they are participating in. Aqua’s achievements also expand to being an active leader and mentor within the Burn City W_ack’s community, being an active participant within the Naarm’s Ballroom scene, and winning 1st and 2nd places in different street dance battles such as Waacking Inferno vol. 2 & 3, Uni Sessions 2023, Toast or be Toasted vol. 4.

d duan 段耀钦 is a hybrid AV artist preoccupied with body, tech, (para)text and spatial magik/rituals, working and living on unceded Wurundjeri land. Their speculative multi-lingual~multi-lore practice is bookended by an evolving philosophy of slow working~slow living~pleasure.

kez93 is a classically trained pianist who blends club music with hip-hop influences. Practice includes a combination of samples and live instrumentation to craft unique and dynamic soundscapes, with a heavy emphasis on creating rhythms designed for street dancers and rave enthusiasts.