CREATOR & CAST BIOGRAPHIES

GAELLE MELLIS ~ Creator & Designer Gaelle has been working as a theatre designer and collaborator in Australia and overseas for over 25 years. Her designs have toured to the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and the United States. She has designed for companies including Restless Dance Theatre, Australian Dance Theatre, Brink Productions, Adelaide Film Festival, Vitalstatistix, Rambert (UK), Graeae (UK), Tanja Liedtke and was a co-founder of performance company Ladykillers. Individual awards received throughout her career, include 2002 Adelaide Critics Circle Individual Award; a 2004 Churchill Fellowship, a 2009 South Australian Screen

Award for her production design Necessary Games and most recently in 2012 she was awarded an Australia Council Creative Australia Fellowship. Gaelle proudly defines herself as an artist with disability committed to cultural accessibility and diversity. Gaelle works with Access 2 Arts (formally DATT) to increase access and inclusion for Deaf and disabled people’s participation in arts and culture. It was in this role, she provided access consultation for the 2012 Adelaide Festival. Gaelle is currently developing her own disability related performance project Take Up Thy Bed & Walk.

JO DUNBAR ~ Performer

Jo was born profoundly deaf. She was first introduced to dance training in 1999 by Company Chaos in Australia. In 2001 Jo returned to the UK where she was awarded a scholarship for Professional Diploma in Community Dance Studies at Laban, where she continued to study gaining a distinction for her Masters in European Dance Theatre Practice. She started work with Green Candle on placement in 2002, assisted with the annual Deaf Dance Summer School at Sadler's Wells in 2003 & 2005 and performed in the first tour of Listening Eyes in 2005. Jo was one of five emerging

choreographers selected for East London Dance’s Cultural Shift initiative. In 2006 she played the part of ‘Jak' a leading role in the ground breaking BBC2 drama Soundproof. Since arriving back in Australia in 2009, she has performed with Restless Dance Theatre in Bedroom Dancing and Strange Fruit at the Australian Deaf Games. She is currently based in Melbourne, choreographing and creating The Delta Project, a new dance theatre company for Deaf and hearing dancers.

EMMA J HAWKINS ~ Performer Emma is a short statured, triple threat performer. She performs regularly as alter ego The Divine Miss Em, known for her dancing prowess. She has television and film experience with Pizza (SBS), Star Wars and an American Nintendo Ad Campaign. She has held a range of roles in different projects from feature roles in King Lear and Sideshow Alley to touring with the Crusty Demons and her own award winning show One More Than One. As a performer she has appeared in Eat Your Young (Arena Theatre Company), Volpone (STC), The Fire Raisers, The Maids & Spots (Finalist–Short & Sweet Fest).

She has worked in physical theatre, circus and sideshow with PlazaReal, 7 Sparks and The League of Sideshow Superstars. She recently spent a year with Circus Oz. Emma currently runs Atypical Theatre Company, a company that focuses on fair representation of disability in the Performing Arts and is performing in the musical Love Never Dies.

KYRA KIMPTON ~ Performer Since 2006 Kyra has been performing with Restless Dance Theatre and appears in a number of the company’s award winning works, including the nationally and internationally acclaimed short film Necessary Games. Kyra has a vision impairment. She has been involved in a number of independent projects, spanning dance, film, installation and theatre. In 2009 Kyra received funding to work internationally with UK based director Jemima Hoadley, developing work that incorporates creative access (sign language, audio-description etc). This work was well received in both

London (Independent dance) and Sydney (Arts Activated National Conference). In 2009 she performed at This is Not Art (NSW) in a work that went on to the Next Wave Festival 2010. She has also choreographed and performed for Ausdance SA’s Choreolab and the award winning short film The Forest 2006.

MICHELLE RYAN ~ Performer Michelle Ryan is a filmmaker, choreographer, dancer, collaborator and administrator. Michelle worked as a dancer for Queensland Arts Council before joining Meryl Tankard in Canberra and then as part of Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre. She worked as a performer with Tankard for 7 ½ years followed by projects in Europe as her assistant. In 2002, Michelle returned to Australia after receiving a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. She became a founding member of the acclaimed Splintergroup as Associate

Artist and Rehearsal Director for lawn, roadkill and underneath. From 2005 - 2010 Michelle worked at Dancenorth in various capacities. Works created by the creative partnership of Gavin Webber and Michelle Ryan, including Remember Me, Undergroupd, Nightcafe and Gravity Feed, received national acclaim through the Australian Dance Awards, Green Room Awards, Townsville Arts Awards and the Australian Critics Choice. In 2010 Michelle won the Townsville Arts Award for dance for services to Dancenorth. In 2009 Michelle created the dance film Nerve Ending that has been screened nationally and internationally as part of Reeldance, The Other Film Festival (Melbourne), Singapore International Film Festival and Inshadow International Film Festival (Portugal). The film won the WOW Film Festival Indie Flix competition and continues to tour as part of the WOW programme. In 2010 Michelle created the film Four Short Films About Juanita, which featured an Indigenous woman with a disability, Juanita Hammer. Michelle returned to the stage after a 10-year absence, due to the challenges of her disability, at the invitation of Alain Platal of Les Ballet C de la B. She performed in the Brisbane Festival season of the company's production Out of Context for Pina. Michelle currently works in the disability sector for National Disability Service and continues to be a performing arts practitioner.

GERRY SHEARIM ~ Performer Gerry is a professional Auslan (Australian Sign Language)/English interpreter with 20 years experience in the field of deafness. Throughout her career, Gerry has jumped at opportunities to work in the arts. She has performed as an interpreter/actor with the Australian Theatre of the Deaf in productions including Interpretation (2003), There and Back (2005) and The Cat Lady of Bexley (2006). Gerry has also interpreted shows for the Sydney Theatre Company including Self-Esteem (2007) and Optimism (2010), a Sydney production of Wicked (2010) and the Sammy J & Randy show The Inheritance at the 2012 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

TAKE UP THY BED & WALK Presented by Vitalstatistix Created & designed by Gaelle Mellis, featuring Jo Dunbar, Emma J Hawkins, Kyra Kimpton, Michelle Ryan and Gerry Shearim. Co-director: Ingrid Voorendt; Writer: Hilary Bell; Lighting design: Geoff Cobham; Sound design & music: Zoë Barry & Jed Palmer; Video production: Heath Britton & Jennifer Greer Holmes; Animation: Heath Britton. 24th October to 10th November Wed to Sat at 8pm, Sat & Sun at 3pm Waterside, 11 Nile St Port Adelaide Book at www.bass.net.au or 131 246 FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, PLEASE CONTACT ~ Neil Ward Publicity on 0438 095 580 or neil@neilwardpublicity.com.au.