
Eric Avery
Eric Avery is a Ngiyampaa, Yuin, Bandjalang and Gumbangirri Musician (violin) and Dancer. Eric has studied at NAISDA, Australian Institute of Music, completed a mentorship at the Australian Ballet and has engaged with Marrugeku Dance Theatre for 5 years attending their Indigilab Program, dancing in Cut The Sky (co choreographed by Serge Alime Coulibaly and Dalisa Pigram) and has recently developed a solo work 'Dancing With Strangers' with Belgian Choreographer Koen Augustijnen. Eric has performed with the Black Arm Band, opened for Rhiannon Giddens for her Australian Performances at the Factory Theatre, Newtown. Eric regularly plays violin with his Father Graham King (Yidaki/ Didgeridoo) recently performing at Boomerang-Byron Bay Bluesfest 2018. He recently headlined at the National Indigenous Music Awards and plays the Syndey Folk Festival in August 2019.
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Natasha Rogers
Natasha Rogers is a proud Noongar woman from the South West of Western Australia but grew up in Maitland NSW on Wonnarua country. Natasha has been a Newcastle/ Sydney based artist since graduating from NAISDA Dance College in 2016 with a Diploma in Professional Dance Performance. Most recently Natasha has been a dancer for EmilyFlannery’s Dirty Feet Lab Residency in Sydney and also dancing with Wagana AboriginalDancers and Jannawi Dance Clan. Natasha has just completed work with Erth Visual & Physical Inc performing in Vivid Sydney Season 2019.

Jo Clancy
Jo Clancy is a descendant of the Wiradjuri people of Western NSW. She was raised and still lives on Gundungurra and Darug country in the Blue Mountains with her family. Jo commenced her full-time dance training at NAISDA Dance College in 1990 and then went on to the University of Western Sydney where she became the first Aboriginal person to gain a Bachelor of Arts in Dance in NSW. After graduating from UWS, Jo worked as an independent Dance Artist performing and teaching throughout Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains and was Head of Dance at NAISDA Dance College from 2005- 2007. Over the past twenty-five years Jo has developed many Contemporary Aboriginal dance works and education projects for festivals and events throughout Australia and overseas

Graham Davis King
Graham Davis King is a Wiradjuri and Ngiyampaa artist and activist. He was born in the Crown Street Women’s Hospital in March 1967 to Ada King and Sid Davis. King’s grandfather Archie King was among the last Aboriginal law men to go through ancient Wiradjuri and Ngiyampaa Aboriginal law ceremonies in the first half of the 20th century. King grew up in the Sydney inner city suburb of Redfern and in and around the inner western suburbs. From an early age King has been involved in projects that concentrate on Aboriginal culture and education as an outcome. In 1985, and for the following 10 years, King worked on an Aboriginal radio program called 'Aborigines in Focus’ for Radio 2SER in Sydney whilst concurrently working at Radio Redfern (1985-1993). In 1993 King received a writing award from the Cannes Film Festival for his work on the film Lake Mungo Lady. King also continues to work as a dancer and storyteller and has performed in the Koories In Theatre troupe alongside the renowned storyteller, Pauline McLeod (deceased) from 1993 to 1999. This troupe performed at many venues in and around Sydney including schools, galleries and museums and also on ABC TV for Playschool. King also performed as a dancer with Yidaki Didj and Dance from 1994 to 2005 and travelled across Australia and internationally with this dance company. King currently resides in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney where he set up the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Artists Cooperative in Katoomba in 2006 and is a Director of the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Culture and Resource Centre. Through this work King has been able to stage local exhibitions in which he also participates. In 2005 and 2006 King was a finalist in the Parliament of NSW Indigenous Art Award held at NSW Parliament House, Sydney. In the 2006 show he won the inaugural College of Fine Arts Professional Development Award. This award offered King a residency at COFA and the chance to work with COFA staff in an art form of his choosing. King chose to work alongside printmaker, Michael Kempson, a collaboration that resulted in King’s first solo exhibition, Wantanganura, staged at COFAspace in October, 2007.

Tammi Gissell
Tammi Gissell is a dancer, performance artist and choreographer as well as being a published poetess and performance theorist. She proudly descends from the Murruwarri nation – quite literally the ‘Back of Bourke’ in North-Western NSW. Since 1996, she has toured regionally, nationally and internationally in a range of performance genres from contemporary, contemporary-Indigenous, musical and physical theatre, cabaret, pantomime, endurance & performance art, as well as appearing in film and music video. She holds a Bachelor of Performance: Theory and Practice from the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and was inducted into the Golden Key International Honour Society for achievements in performance theory In 2004,; and later graduated Deans' Medallist and Reconciliation Scholar in 2005. This same year, Tammi began her mentorship with revered Australian dance master Graeme Watson which continues today. In 2006 Tammi accepted an invitation by the UWS to sit her Honours Degree research into the role of gesture and posture in the formation of body identity- again graduating on the Deans Honour Roll. From 2007 to 2011 Tammi was Course Coordinator at NAISDA Dance College while also presenting her body of solo works independently. She has also appeared with leading Australian dance and theatre makers including Mirramu Dance Co., The Physical TV Company, Branch Nebula, Kinetic Energy Theatre Co., Liz lea and Co., Graeme Watson, Bernadette Walong-Sene, Deon Hastie, Jason Pitt, Deborah Pollard, Sani Townson, and Lina Limosani. In 2009 she was nominated for an Australian Dance Award (Outstanding Performance by a Female) for Eleo Pomares’ Gin.Woman.Distress passed on to her by its original dancer Elizabeth Cameron-Dalman- becoming the third woman to be given permission to perform it (along with Carole Y Johnson). In 2010 Tammi was invited by the World Dance Alliance to present her research paper ‘Dancing the Dreaming: Temporality and Contemporary-Indigenous Dance Practice’ and solo work ‘WHERE’(Choreographed by Graeme Watson) at the World Dance Alliance Global Dance Event held in New York City. She was also awarded an Inaugural Guillermo Keys-Arenas Scholarship to create her first major ensemble work ‘A VELIKOVSKY AFFAIR’. Tammi has taught, lectured or held residency at the Queensland University of Technology, Victorian College of the Arts (Wilin Centre), University of Newcastle, NAISDA Dance College, Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA), McDonald College, Quantum Leap (QL2), Canberra Dance Theatre, National Institute for Youth Performing Arts and National Youth Dance Theatre. She has additionally sat on the Australian Tertiary Dance Council (2008-2011), been a panellist the BlakDance First Nations Dance Panel in 2012. In 2013 Tammi has been an advisor to Quantum Leap Youth Dance Company for the ‘HIT THE FLOOR TOGETHER’ production and a speaker at the National Dance Forum. While artist in residence at ACPA (2011) she created FEATHER + TAR, which was re-developed into ‘FEATHER & TAR: She has completed choreographic commissions for OCHRE Dance Company in 2012, Canberra Dance Theatre for the National Gallery of Australia in 2013 as well as presenting her short solo work A DIP FOR NARCISSUS at Lineage (FORM Dance Projects) in May 2013. In 2012, Tammi began research and development of a full-length solo work around the Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo with Liz Lea & Co. entitled MAGNIFICUS MAGNIFICUS, which will premiere at the Street Theatre, Canberra in October 2013. She looks forward to remounting GIN.WOMAN.DISTRESS with Elizabeth Cameron-Dalman for performances in Taiwan and New Zealand in November 2013.

Dean Cross
Dean Cross was born and raised on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country and is of Worimi descent. He is a trans-disciplinary artist primarily working across installation, sculpture and photography. His career began in contemporary dance, performing and choreographing nationally and internationally for over a decade with Australia’s leading dance companies. Following that Dean re-trained as a visual artist, gaining his Bachelor’s Degree from Sydney College of the Arts, and his First Class Honours from the ANU School of Art and Design. Dean has shown his work extensively across Australia. This includes the Indigenous Ceramic Prize at the Shepparton Art Musuem, curated by Anna Briers and Belinda Briggs (2018), Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia, curated by Nici Cumpston (2017), RUNS DEEP a solo show at Alaska Projects, Sydney (2018), The Churchie Emerging Art Prize (2016), The Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize (2015), and the Macquarie Group Emerging Art Prize (2015) where his work was awarded the Highly Commended prize by artist Joan Ross. In 2018 Dean has also exhibited at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, as a part of the NEXTWAVE Festival Melbourne, with curator Amelia Winata, and at Artbank, Sydney in Talia Smith’s “In a World of Wounds”. Also, Dean has been a year-long Artist in Residence at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space (CCAS). Dean was also selected to be a part of the 4A Beijing Studio Residency Program in Beijing, China. In 2019, Dean will undertake the inaugural Canberra/Wellington Indigenous Artist exchange, where he will be supported by the ACT Government to undertake research with the National War Memorials in both Canberra and Wellington.