EMILY BELL
I've been dancing for most of my life, starting ballet when I was three at Lisa Clark Dance Centre. As I got older I took on more styles, jazz, musical theatre and contemporary. In high school, I grew a lot as a performer and a choreographer thanks to Calwell High School's choreography class where I would help create pieces for events like Ausdance ACT’s Youth Dance Festival and Limelight. In 2014, I joined Quantum Leap for the show 'Boundless' and later that year begun dancing at Bom Funk Dance Studio where I still dance today.
To me ESCALATE is a great opportunity for me to grow as a dancer and as a choreographer, even in the short time I've been involved I've learnt so much and had a great time bonding with the other choreographers and the mentors. I can't wait to continue the choreographic process and to see what I and the others can come up with over the next few months.
CARLY CARTER
Carly is a Year 11 student at Gungahlin College and currently dances with Elite Dance Studio Canberra.
I have been dancing for way over half of my life and I learn something new every year. I am delighted to have been selected for the ESCALATE programme, and thankful for the experiences that will come with it. I have experience in ballet, hip hop, jazz and contemporary. I am looking forward to all the new things I will learn with Ausdance ACT and the new people I will meet.
MELISSA FAWKES
Melissa trained at Dance Development Centre for 12 years before commencing training with Classical Ballet Centre Canberra and MAKS Ballet Studios, completing up to Advanced 2 in the RAD vocational exams, earning a distinction and qualifying for the Genee International Ballet competition last year.
I'm so excited to be a part of this journey that the Ausdance ACT ESCALATE program offers! In the Canberra dance world, opportunities like this can teach us to break free of the typical patterns and moulds that our dancing likes to take. So far, I've learnt that to choreograph something interesting, we need to not rely on what we know, and instead explore the oddities and the unconsidered. I hope that I will be able to create an honest piece of choreography that acquiesces and flows with the music I've chosen, and I hope to learn a lot about the choreographic process through this program.