

2023 Sustaining Practice Residency Artist - Matthew Miceli Photography

Jane McKernan image: Heidrun Löhr

Sustaining Practice
Moving Ideas
2023 SUSTAINING PRACTICE RESIDENCY
ReadyMade Works is very pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2023 Sustaining Practice residency is Lizzie Thomson. Lizzie will be working at ReadyMade across July and August. We are so looking forward to having her in the studio.
"Through this residency, I propose to thoroughly reawaken my semi dormant dance-improvisation practice. I want to use this return to dancing as an opportunity to re-engage with dance differently, with a new and greater permission. Gone are the days of a young, injury-free, fit, muscly body. I want to focus now on a deep exploration of a dancing bodily condition of radical, empathic subjectivity. This experimentation into embodied subjectivity smiles back at the 1960s feminist statement ‘the personal is political’. I am interested in delving far into what it means to develop idiosyncratic, personal movement and how to dwell inside the intimate relations between the person and the dance."
The Sustaining Practice Residency is supported by the City of Sydney.
Image: Matthew Miceli Photography
The aim of the Sustaining Practice Residency is to support NSW-based dance artists to deepen their creative practice and develop their work in a funded capacity. Artists can apply to develop a creative project or explore their creative practice. The residency is open to professional mid-career and established NSW-based artists working with dance, choreography and movement-based practices.
Support:
• An artist fee of $3600
• 120 hours of studio space at ReadyMade Works
• A collaborator, or production budget, of $1000
• A facilitated open showing at the conclusion of the residency
Timing:
• June - August
• 120 hours can be undertaken consecutively, or spread out throughout June - August 2023
Who can apply:
• Artists with a professional practice whom identify as mid-career* or established artists.
• Individuals or groups of artists
• Artists who are NSW-based* however interstate artists can be involved as collaborators.
• Collaborators can be from any discipline and can include outside eyes, or
mentors.
*Mid-career indicates an artist who has accumulated experience presenting their creative work in a professional context and who has been developing their practice as an artist for at least ten years. This experience should be reflected in the biography provided.
*NSW-based indicates an artist who considers NSW to be the primary base for their creative practice and residence. This should be the case for the duration of the residency and reflected in the artist biography provided
The Sustaining Practice Residency is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Image: courtesy of Rakini Devi, 2022 Sustaining Practice recipient
2022 Sustaining Practice Resident
Rakini Devi
We are excited to announce that Rakini Devi will be undertaking our Sustaining Practice Residency for 2022 and will be in the studio across July/August.
By employing the body as the receptacle of memory, and her love of satire, choreographer and performance artist Rakini Devi will explore her concept of a long-brewing work titled I Used To Be A Dancer, experimenting with text, choreography and film, integrating her own visual art practice of drawing and painting. Known for her satirical parodies on contemporary western dance, New Age fads, and other themes, Rakini will target several aspects of her past and current practice, including the ageing dancing body, stereotypes, transitions and transgressions.
The title is a satirical response to many who ask if she “still” performs. Her performance language is an ongoing work in progress, an unbroken journey of three decades of practice- led research of hybrid and intercultural performance and visual art.
Rakini’s 2019 Critical Path residency titled " The body as archive" included a collaborative process with Karl Ockelford (Melb) who will continue to contribute video and sound design to this sustaining practice residency, expanding on their 19-year collaboration.
Sharing - Saturday 27th August at 6pm a
Where: The Rex Cramphorn Studio, University of Sydney
Rakini's sharing will be held at The Rex Cramphorn studio in order to support her tech requirements in sharing this work. The residency was undertaken in the studio at ReadyMade Works.
There will be drinks, nibbles and an opportunity to provide feedback on Rakini's work. Please join us!
RSVP to creativeproducer@readymadeworks.com.au
The Sustaining Practice Residency is supported by the City of Sydney.
Image: Rakini Devi: Inhabiting Erasures by Heidrun Lohr
2021 Sustaining Practice Resident
Lee Serle
Lee is a Sydney based choreographer and performer. He graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Dance in 2003. His work has been presented in France, USA, Colombia, Lebanon and Australia, and he has been commissioned to create new works for the Lyon Opera Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Lucy Guerin Inc, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Dancenorth, Victorian College of the Arts, and Colombian visual artist Mateo López. Lee has performed in the works of many notable choreographers including; Trisha Brown, Lucy Guerin, Tere O’Connor, Gideon Obarzanek, Shelley Lasica, among many others, and has received Fellowships from Rolex Arts Institute, Australia Council for the Arts (Creative Australia Fellowship) and City of Sydney.
Lee will use the Sustaining Practice residency to continue his solo choreography and improvisation practice, specifically focusing on the concept of originality:
"Considering my career dancing for others, some for over a decade, choreographies and movement practices are embedded in my body and are difficult to undo. I am the product of my choreographic ‘parents’ and I have learned to dance a certain way, to value certain structures and aesthetics over others, yet over time I’ve consciously worked to create my own value systems, to incorporate certain aspects and reject others. From here I will tangle these choreographies and movement practices, rendering a third person that is not them, but not entirely me"
Lee will be collaborating with sound artist Gail Priest, and will share his work during the residency through improvisation workshops and open showings.
2020 Sustaining Practice Resident
Martin del Amo
Martin del Amo is a Sydney-based choreographer and dancer. He started out as a solo artist, acclaimed for his full-length solos fusing idiosyncratic movement and intimate storytelling. In recent years, Martin has also built a strong reputation as creator of group works and solos for others. His work has toured nationally in Australia and internationally to the UK, Japan and Brazil. Martin’s contributions to the Australian dance sector have been recognised with the 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance and a 2015 Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship.
Martin intends to use the Sustaining Practice Residency to re-establish his solo practice by reconnecting with the methodological strategies he has developed over the last 20 years, both as solo artist and choreographer of works for other dancers. The focus will be on the interplay between movement, stillness, text and silence; the fragmentation and reconfiguration of separately choreographed body zones; and the contrasting of slowed down movement with accelerating spoken text.
Martin will be collaborating with dance artists Sara Black (practice partner) and Julie-Anne Long (outside eye).
ReadyMade Works will be working with Martin to support his solo practice from May-July in accordance with restrictions relating to Covid-19.
The Sustaining Practice Residency is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
ANNOUNCING THE MOVING IDEAS RESIDENCIES
We are delighted to announce the Moving Ideas residents for 2023/24:
Alex Craig with Jeremy Lowrencev,
Nadeena Dixon
Brian Fuata
Victoria Hunt
Aroha Pehi
Noha Ramadan & Charlie Trier
Emma Riches
Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal (regional artist)
Alice Weber
We awarded a total of 9 week-long residencies for our Moving Ideas program this year, adding some additional funds from our reserves to allow an extra three. The residencies will be happening in the studio from January - April. We look forward to sharing the resident artists' work with you over the coming months.
We received double the amount of applications of previous years and the additional residencies were a response to the demand. We want to thank all artists who put in proposals for this opportunity, and to thank Martin del Amo and Angela Goh who, alongside our Creative Producer, Jane McKernan, made up the panel making decisions.
The aim of the Moving Ideas residency program is to support NSW-based dance artists to do their creative work in a funded capacity. Artists can apply to work on a creative project, explore a new idea, or develop their practice. The residency is open to professional, emerging and established NSW-based artists working with dance, choreography and movement based practices.
Support:
• An artist fee of $1200 for 40-hours of studio time
• A collaborator or production budget of $300
• An allowance of $1000 for travel and accommodation is available for one regionally based
NSW artist
Timing:
• Six 40-hour residencies are available to be undertaken from December 2023 to April 2024
• Residencies will be scheduled in consultation with ReadyMade Works staff
• ReadyMade Works will facilitate a closed showing event for invited peers and community at the culmination of residency period
The Moving Ideas Residency is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Since 2014, our Moving Ideas program has been supporting dance artists through funded residencies, giving them space and time to explore new ideas.
Image Credit: Gabriella Quinsacara and David Prakash Moving Ideas April 2023. Image by Samual BeazleyThe Moving Ideas Residency is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
2022/23 Moving Ideas Residents
2022/23:
Feras Shaheen
Gabriela Green Olea
Anton & Timothy Ohl
Renata Commisso
Eliza Cooper
Phaedra Brown
Gabriela Quinsacara
Martin del Amo
Past Residents
Azzam Mohammed, Sue Healey, Patricia Wood, Amy Flannery, Isabel Estrella and Tiana Lung, Emily Flannery, Lisa Maris McDonell, Matt Cornell, Justin Shoulder, Jane McKernan, David Huggins, Kristina Chan, Angela Goh, Bhenji Ra, Kay Armstrong, Miranda Wheen, Lizzie Thomson, Ivey Wawn, Matt Cornell, Kathryn Puie, Sara Black, Thomas Bradley, Lucy Watson, Raghav Handa, Rob McCredie, Katina Olsen, Rakini Devi, Rhiannon Newton and Adelina Larsson, Joel Bray.