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HAPPY HOUR #18

We are delighted to announce Happy Hour #18: Young Folks

"Young Folks is a collective of early career artists who have been meeting weekly since January this year. Our main purpose has always been to share practice and artistically support our peers, however we very quickly evolved to support each other in the non-artistic elements of dance making, holding each other as we navigate the wider industry.  

Coming to you for Happy Hour #18 with a collage of ideas, a fever dream of landscapes and characters, oscillating between life and dance. Humans and monsters; loops and reverberations; improvisations and ongoing explorations. It will feature segments led by individuals but shaped and supported by a collective vision."

Artists: Jacinta Mullen, Jaslyn Boughton, Phaedra Brown, Ashleigh Veitch, Bianca Yeung, Grace White, Layla Meadows, Avalon Ormiston. Mentor for Happy Hour #18: Lizzie Thomson

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Date: Sat, Nov 2nd - Sun Nov 3rd 2024
Time: 6:00 -7:00pm  AEDT
Tickets: $15 

 


Happy Hour is supported by Create NSW and City of Sydney.


Image Credit: Bianca Yeung

Happy Hour is ReadyMade Works' signature short works program showcasing the extraordinary practices of Sydney's independent dance artists. Initiated by Linda Luke and Samantha Chester in 2016, Happy Hour is the platform for encountering the diverse and uncompromising work being made by local dance artists.

ARTISTS:

Ashleigh Veitch 

Ashleigh Veitch (She/Her) is an independent dance maker and artist based in Eora/Sydney. Ashleigh is continuously working within her own curiosities and interests to see how she can create new found perspectives within dance. Ashleigh trained at Ev & bow (2017) and The Victorian College of the Arts (2020) attaining a BFA in Dance. Since 2021, Ashleigh has been a dancer with Dance Makers Collective’s “Future Makers” program she has worked and performed in works by Kristina Chan, Jasmin Lee Sheppard, Patricia Wood, Rhiannon Newton and Eliza Cooper. She has presented her own works ‘ReRun (Working Title)’ in Dance Maker’s
Collective’s “Big Dance 2.0” season and her solo work “Longing” at Sydney Dance Company’s Neilson Studio as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival, featured in DMC’s Future Makers show “MOVE FM.”

Phaedra Brown

Phaedra Brown is an independent dancer and choreographer based on GadigalLand. Her current practice utilises movement, choreography and text, often drawing on media external to dance. Her interest lies in dancers as people, and the way we use the body to tell stories about shared human experiences.Phaedra has choreographed and performed in the works ‘How to Watch People inCafé’s’ (MOVE FM Sydney Fringe 2024), ‘Remnants Re-Made’ (Out of Bounds,Temperance Hall, One Night For Dance, Lot 7, 2023), ‘Waiting Game’ (MarchDance, Melbourne Fringe Festivals in 2022) and ‘A Small Spectacle’ (MelbourneFringe 2020, March Dance 2021). Phaedra holds a BFA (Dance) with Honours from the VCA (2020) and a GraduateDiploma in Cultural Leadership from UNSW (2023).

Jacinta 

Jacinta (she/her) is a dancer living on Gayamaygal Country and working on Gadigal Land and Dharug Country. Her current practice involves improvisation, body work and community dance, drawing on diverse experience in environmental
science, fibre arts and massage. She is a current member of ReadyMade Works’ emerging artist initiative Young Folks and Dance Makers Collective’s emerging artist company Future Makers. Her performance credits include ‘Cue Lab’ by Emma Riches (DirtyFeet ‘Out of the Studio’, 2024), ‘Big Dance 2.0’ by Dance Makers Collective (2023), ‘Caresss’ by Rhiannon Newton (Future Makers’ ‘Echoes’, 2024) and ‘Truth and Consequence’ by Eliza Cooper (Future Makers’ ‘Echoes’, 2024). In 2023 she created ‘We Are Everywhere’ on the Future Makers company as part of their ‘Makers Season’.

 

Jaslyn Boughton
Jaslyn Boughton (she/they) is a contemporary dancer and choreographer living and working on Gadigal Land and Dharug Country. Her current work explores the interaction between human understanding and nature’s complex power. Jaslyn is a member of ‘Young Folk’, an emerging artist collective supported byReadyMade works. They are also a member of Dance Makers Collective’s ‘FutureMakers’ program.She choreographed ‘UnderCurrent’ (2024) on the Future Makers Company as part of Sydney Fringe Festival, supported by Dance Makers Collective. Other works include ‘Womb Room’ (2023), multiple works for Sydney North and State dance festivals (2021-23). Jaslyn has performed at Sydney Fringe Festival 2024 as part of Future Maker’s‘MOVE FM’, Future Maker’s ‘Echoes’ (2024) including works by Eliza Cooper‘Truth and Consequence’ (2024) and Rhiannon Newton ‘Caresss’ (2024), andDance Makers Collective ‘Big Dance 2.0’ (2023).

 

Avalon Ormiston
Avalon Ormiston is an emerging artist currently based on Gadigal land (Sydney)with experience and interest in choreography, performance and creativecollaboration. As a graduate of Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year(2022), she has collaborated and performed for many esteemed artists, includingJames O’Hara, Sam Coren, Gabrielle Nankivell and Stephanie Lake. Most notably,Avalon was a performer in the 2023 season of Aida with Opera Australia as well asPau Aran’s Berlin based work, The Body Keeps it Honest (2024). The opportunity toperform and study in Berlin was made possible by Avalon’s recent success in theIan Potter’s Emerging Artist Grant.

Bianca (B) Yeung 

Bianca (B) Yeung is an interdisciplinary artist working across movement, screen and the written word. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (English andNeuroscience) from the University of Sydney, B trained with the Future Makers of Dance Makers Collective, performing in Patricia Wood's work So Far Sonar. She is interested in the interplay between memory, reality and the stories we tell ourselves, and is extremely grateful to have connected and shared space with the other YoungFolk this year.

Layla Meadows

Layla Meadows, she/her, is an independent dancer/artist based in Eora/Sydney. My interests lay in the body and in magic. Theres a place for the divine, everyday Layla Meadows, she/her, is an independent dancer/artist based in Eora/Sydney. and evil. I'm excited to perform, to tell the truth.

Grace
Grace is a Sydney-based contemporary dance artist who seeks to live through and spread messages from the heart. Grace’s dance practice is deeply informed by an understanding of critical thinking. Grace is fascinated by how movement has the potential to incite social change and touch hearts, with particular interests in ecological philosophy, feminism and gender studies, and embracing life with an open heart. Grace’s solo dance work, Home is an Open Heart, was selected for theWAAPA X Bunbury Fringe Festival Graduate residency. Grace has collaborated with artists of all kinds, including, visual artists, actors, writers, animators, scenographers, and musicians; and she has most recently delved into the transdisciplinary practice of physical theatre and dance theatre. Key works Grace has performed in thus far, include Chants de Marriage by Meryl Tankard (2022,Perth), A Surrender to Small Humanness by Ben Wright (2023, Berlin), All BodiesJust One Body by Gina Tay Limpus (2022, Brisbane), and in Sydney’s VIVIDFestival with Unite Play Perform (2023). Grace performed in the IndepenDANCE Project with Phluxus2 Dance Collective in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and choreographed therein in 2023. Grace produced, choreographed and performed her first full-length independent dance work, Ode to the Earth, with her collaboratorScotia Taylor, in August 2024.

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HAPPY HOUR HISTORY

2024

PACT HOST!Happy HourPlus #2:

Featuring:

Noha Ramadan & Charlie Trier, Patricia Wood & Alex Karaconji and Brian Fuata

Happy Hour #17:

Curated by Feras Shaheen 

Featuring:

CONJAH (Ooshcon and Jahra Wasasala) and Zain El-Roubaei + Gabriela Quinsacara

2023

Happy Hour #16:

Curated by Reina Takeuchi

Featuring:

Amy Zhang with Billy Keohavong and Jackson Garcia, Caya Crew, Madfox, Seet Dance

Happy Hour PLUS!

Hosted by PACT

Featuring:

Lee Serle

Azzam Mohamed

Tra Mi Dinh

 

Happy Hour #15:

Curated by Raghav Handa

Featuring:

Chloe Leong

Proper Motion & Raúl Tamez

Taiga Kita-Leong

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2022

Happy Hour #14:

Curated by Jane McKernan

Featuring: Molonai Makalio

Clive Ellwood

Russell Morell

Gabriela Green Olea

with Zaya Barroso

 

 

 

Happy Hour #13:

 

The Improvisation Edition

Curated by: Amaara Raheem

and Brooke Stamp

Featuring:

Brian Fuata

Patricia Wood

Tony Osborne

Nikki Heywood

and Mark Cauvin

Ryuichi Fujimura

Shota Matsumura

Amaara Raheem.

 

Happy Hour #12:

Curated by: Jane McKernan

Featuring:

Cleo Mees with Poppy Burnett

Victoria Hunt

with Moe Clark & James Brown

Patricia Wood.

2021

Happy Hour #11:

The Street Elite Edition

Curated by: Nick Power

Featuring:

Booyakasha 

Tony Oxybel

Stale Biskitz

2020

Happy Hour #10

Curated by: Adelina Larsson and Rhiannon Newton

Featuring: Linda Luke, Lee Serle and Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal

2019

Happy Hour #9

Curated by: Adelina Larsson and Rhiannon Newton

Featuring: Kristina Chan, Zachary Lopez and Lizzie Thomson

Writer: Jodie McNeilly-Renaudie

Read her response here

Happy Hour #8

Curated by: Patricia Wood, Rhiannon Newton and Adelina Larsson

Featuring: Katina Olsen, Ryuichi Fujimura and Murasaki Penguin (Ana Kuroda and David Kirkpatrick)

Writer: Cleo Mees 

published in ADSR Zine

Writer: Nikki Heywood

Read her response here

2018

Happy Hour #7

Curated by: Julie-Anne Long

Featuring: Martin del Amo and Anton, Kathy Cogill and Nikki Heywood and Tony Osborne

2017

Happy Hour #6  

Co-presented with Critical Path

Curated by: Linda Luke

Featuring: Lucky Lartey, Vicky van Hout, Matt Cornell and Heidrun Löhr

Happy Hour #5

Curated by: Martin del Amo

Featuring: Raghav Handa, Sara Black and Rosie Dennis

Happy Hour #4

Curated by: Narelle Benjamin

Featuring: Linda Luke and Martin Fox, Timothy Ohl, Benjamin Hancock and Julie-Anne Long

Happy Hour #3

Curated by: Kathryn Puie

Featuring: Kathryn Puie, Ivey Wawn and Chloe Fournier

Happy Hour #2

Curated by: Linda Luke

Featuring: Angela French, Paea Leach, Justin Shoulder and Ryuichi Fujimura

Happy Hour #1

Curated by: Diane Busuttil

Featuring: Omer and Sharon Backley-Astrachan and Murasaki Penguin