PRACTICE AND PLAY

Share your practice: provide a platform for artists to showcase their unique styles and methodologies.
Foster creativity: encourage experimentation and innovation within their own communities.
Build connections: strengthen the local dance network by engaging with fellow dance artists and collaborators.
Enhance visibility: increase the visibility of independent artists and their work within the Northern Rivers region.
Respond to sector needs: addresses the needs identified in the Dance Sector Uplift report.

Dive into a day of creative experimentation designed to bring artists of the Northern Rivers together.

PRACTICE AND PLAY #2 with Lachy Shelley and Philip Channells aims to unite performance makers, including contemporary practitioners from diverse creative backgrounds (dance, theatre, design, music and digital/analogue mediums). The purpose is to foster both individual and collaborative connections. We'll explore our personal artistic practices and uncover exciting synergies for future experimental performance projects.

What to expect:

- the intention of the practice is to connect collaboratively: encouraging participants to play freely without expectations, judgment, or a focus on specific outcomes.

- a group check in with personal introductions: share your music and how you relate to the track, describing why you chose it / design your own offering with movement, text or an alternate medium.

- improvisation sessions: participate in improvisation scores inspired by the songs and stories shared by participants.

- shared meal and fireside conversations: enjoy a communal meal and engaging discussions around a cozy fire.

What to Bring:

- Your favourite song on a vinyl record or if you don’t have any records, visit an op shop or just come check out the collection and choose one on the day

- A treasured item that resonates with you / your story

- Comfortable, warm clothes for indoor and outdoor movement

- A note pad / journal and a pen

- Snacks to share

- A water bottle.

Capacity: 15 places available / Cost: FREE!

Express your interest today and become a part of this dynamic series, enriching our region with your artistic leadership and innovation.

Contact Information:
PRACTICE AND PLAY - Creative Producer, Philip Channells
Phone: 0432 073 304
Email: philipchannells@gmail.com

Main image credit: Chris Bolland

Don't miss out on this opportunity to connect, create, and inspire!

BIOGRAPHIES

Lachy Shelley was born and raised in a large family that highly valued creative thinking. This environment fostered a project-based mentality in Lachy from an early age, leading him to work with numerous people and companies within the creative industries. Introduced to the world of circus during childhood, he dedicated many years to training and performing globally.

Lachy's diverse 20-year career in the entertainment industry spans roles such as Performer, Head Rigger and Rigging Consultant, Instructor, Site Manager, Lighting Operator, Front of House Manager, Circus and Theatre Instructor, Associate Director, and Adjudicator of artistic competitions. He has collaborated with renowned companies including Briefs, Circa, Circus Oz, Company 2, Flipside, Legs On The Wall, NICA, Seed Arts, and Strut n Fret. His extensive project portfolio includes Blanc de Blanc (2019), Commonwealth Games Gold Coast (2017), Dark Mofo (2018 & 2022), King Kong Live On Stage (2013/14), Saudi Arabia National Day (2019), Tasmanian Circus Festival (2013), The Famous Spiegel Tent (2011/12), UAE Union Day Event (2023)and Woodford Folk Festival (2006/12).

In recent years, Lachy has applied his skills in the renewable energy sector. Despite this shift, the relationships, ideas, conversations, and values inherent in the creative industries continue to feel like home to him. For the past decade, Lachy has been fortunate to reside in the Northern Rivers. He values every opportunity to connect and collaborate with the local creative community.

Philip Channells collaborates across art forms including dance/theatre, film, performance installation, community art projects, site-specific work and artist in residencies with collaborators who value, challenge, redefine and inform our different perspectives of contemporary life.

With over 25 years of experience in performance as both a creator and producer in Australia and internationally, his contemporary dance theatre work is deeply rooted in social justice and community engagement. Over the decades he has collaborated with various companies including Access Arts, Accessible Arts, Arts Northern Rivers, Ausdance, Bundanon Trust, Carriageworks, Candoco Dance Company, Corali Dance Company, Danselaboratoriet & Danseteateret Søker Seniordansere and DansiT,, Force Majeure, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, ITAK, Mirramu Dance Company, MCA, No Strings Attached, Restless, Scottish Dance Theatre, Sprung, Stopgap, SOH, Tasmania Performs, Tutti Arts, West Kowloon and Zodiak. He focuses on developing performances that, through their themes and cultural significance, challenge and subvert the status quo, pushing audiences to rethink their expectations.

Philip was recently engaged by Arts Northern Rivers to produce the Dance Sector Uplift (DSU) report and is one of PAC Australia’s Tour Producer Training 2023 cohort. In 2024 he developed the PRACTICE AND PLAY and PH(R)ASE//: initiatives designed to meet some of the long term goals recommended by Patternmakers for the creative recovery of the Northern Rivers dance, physical theatre and experimental performance sector.

For more information about his work, visit www.philipchannells.com

Image credits: L-R Lachy Shelley and Raimond De Weerdt.