Sarah Neville

About


Sarah is an Australian choreographer who devises new media dance, instigates inter-disciplinary practices and invests in multi-platform processes and production outcomes. She is interested in revealing multi-facetted dramatic analogies through contemporary performance to connect ideas, people and cultures whilst honoring difference. Her new media choreographic practice is grounded in the art of designing movement to communicate concepts and stories of the world; contemporary concerns, age old mythologies and futuristic prophecies.


To ground her choreographic world view, Sarah studied Theatre, English literature and Cinema studies at the Flinders University of South Australia, graduating with a triple honors major in 1994. During this time Sarah also worked as a student director at the Centre of Performing Arts in Adelaide and received funding to choreograph for the South Australian Independent Dance Collection.


Following university, Sarah moved to Tokyo for two years to study Butoh dance with Kazuoh Ohno and Min Tanaka. There she performed with Kazuoh and Yoshito Ohno in The Power of Life and assisted in designing the lighting for Min Tanaka's Wizard of Oz. Whist in Tokyo, Sarah was a member of Butoh based multinational, multimedia performance unit 66B. With this company Sarah performed in venues and galleries in Tokyo, Yokohama and Hong Kong.


Upon returning to Australia Sarah began the new media dance production company Heliograph Productions, in collaboration with lighting designer, Nic Mollison. With this company Sarah produced, choreographed and performed in numerous productions including Heliograph Travelogues at Dancehouse and Calculus of the Nervous System for The Adelaide Festival. As an independent artist Sarah has created work for the Adelaide Fringe, Ausdance Choreolab in Adelaide, Dance House in Melbourne, The Australian Choreographic Centre in Canberra and The Australian Dance Theatre's Ignition season.


Professional development opportunities to date have taken Sarah to New York to Robert Wilson's Watermill Centre and to New Delhi India to fulfill a residency at Sarai New Media Lab. At the close of 2003, Sarah achieved a Masters of Arts (research) in dance from the Queensland University of Technology, based on choreographing new media dance.


Sarah resided in Perth from 2007 -11, there she worked with Jo Pollitt and Caitlin Mc Loughlin, creating new interdisciplinary work including, "Listen...Silence" and "Panic, Paranoia and Predictions" for STRUT Dance. In 2008, Sarah was choreographer in residence with Link dance company, at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. In 2010, Sarah performed with la Fura dels Baus for the opening of the Perth Festival. From 2009-11 Sarah was a participant of SCOPE for artists.


Recently, Sarah has been working for Australian/ Spanish physical theatre company Corazon De Vaca, directing their new work, 'The Bridging Project,' which premiered at Deckchair theatre Freemantle in August 2009. She worked as assistant director to Julian Fuentes Reta on Maitland Schnaar's new play, If I Drown I Can Swim, which premiered at Yirra Yaakin theatre in Perth, Western Australia in September 2010. Sarah was an artist in residence with Fuentes Reta at Can Sopa theatre in Ibiza, Spain the same year, researching physical theatre.


Sarah's current work, 'Remote Real,' had a first stage development in April/ May 2010 at Rorelsen Choreographic Centre, Malmo, Sweden and a second stage development at Deckchair in Fremantle, Perth, Western Australia. This work is being developed in collaboration with Maitland Schnaars, Adelina Larsson, Mia Holton, Jo Pollitt, Helen Duncan, Rhiannon Newton and Madeleine Karlsson.

Sarah is now living in Adelaide.