Choreolab 2026
5th - 16th January 2026
Te Whaea National Dance & Drama Centre
Newtown, Wellington
Join us for two weeks developing your choreographic and movement practice alongside other practitioners. Take this opportunity to deep dive into your practice while engaging with the community.
2026 Choreolab Tutors
Antony Hamilton (Australia)
Rodney Bell (Aotearoa)
Jessie McCall (Aotearoa)
Celia Hext (Aotearoa)
Sebastian Geilings (Australia)
Pōneke Artist Series
Alongside the regular two week programme, we will be offering open evening workshops lead by some of Pōneke’s local artists. These are open to all to attend, no matter your experience level. You do not need to be registered for the full Choreolab programme to attend any of the Artist Series workshops.
Cyphers and Dancing with Shifting Centre
The Voice in Movement with Lila Crichton
Creative Process with Ella Williams
Introduction to Composing with Jesse Austin-Stewart
Introduction to Producing and Marketing with Melanie Hamilton and Maeve O’Connell
See below for more information.
The Tutors
Photo by Isabella Oliveria
Antony Hamilton
Antony Hamilton was appointed Artistic Director of Chunky Move in 2019. His choreographic works examine the material body set against intersecting narratives that explore past, present and future. He employs a sophisticated melding of movement, sound and visual design to imagine complete worlds and develops new choreographic languages to occupy them. Antony has been the recipient of major fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre, the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013 he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at the National Gallery of Victoria. He was inaugural international resident artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. He has created numerous national and international commissions, including Keep Everything and I Like This for Chunky Move, Black Project 3 for the Lyon Opera Ballet (FR), Sentinel for Skanes Dansteater (SE), and They Want New Language for La Comète (FR). Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Projects 1 & 2, and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Company). he has won numerous Greenroom Awards and has also received a New York Performing Arts Award, (Bessie), for outstanding production for MEETING. In his time as Artistic Director at Chunky Move, Antony has premiered new works, including Token Armies (2019), Universal Estate (2019), Yung Lung (2022), Rewards For The Tribe (2022), AB_TA_Response (2022), 4/4 (2023) and U>N>I>T>E>D (2025).
Workshop
Antony's workshop will incorporate the foundations of his nearly 20 years of choreographic practice. This will include: development of complex choreographies using his unique number based choreographic system; collaborative and democratic choreographic tools; live composition and improvisational strategies; voice and percussion exploration; dramaturgy created from the material conditions of the people, objects, and space. Antony's choreographic process calls upon participant's imaginative interpretation of ideas, and intuition with their physical realisation. He will guide participants to approach the process with self awareness and criticality towards dancing. Antony cultivates an environment of playfulness and curiosity, alongside rigour and discipline, where process is equal in its value to the outcome.
Facilitating this workshop with Antony is Jayden Lewis Wall. Jayden is a independent dancer and choreographer based in Melbourne, nationally regarded for his passion and versatility. He is devoted to exploring dynamic movement styles, with current practices focused on improvisation within contemporary dance, freestyle in house dance, and contemporary floor work that draws from breakdance. Jayden enjoys working closely with technique, understanding that a strong foundation can allow for richer expression in any chosen dance style.
Jayden is a regular dancer, performer and teacher with Chunky Move, featuring in recent major works U>N>I>T>E>D (2025) and 4/4 (2023), touring with the latter for 6 weeks across the UK and Europe in Nov/Dec 2024.
Photo: Andi Crown
Rodney Bell
Rodney Bell is from Te Kuuititanga and of Ngaati Maniapoto descent and acknowledges his Elders in all elements in his life.
As a performing artist Rodney enhances each opportunity presented to dance rurally, nationally, and throughout the world. Working with many renowned dance companies and extraordinary artists has brought many accolades into his life.
His career has been nurtured by many caring and trusting people and organisations: his Whaanau, Touch Compass, Movement of the Human, Creative New Zealand, Malia Johnston, Catherine Chappell, Lusi Faiva, Suzanne Cowan, just to name a few.
Acquiring a Disability 35 years ago - paraplegia - with no feeling and control from below the chest, Rodney Bell has discovered a new depth of intimacy, communion, and peace with the tangata haua/tangata whai kaha Maaori (disabled communities of Aotearoa and the World). He creates and performs in dance that cloaks his beliefs and is always acting upon and reimagining a better world for us all to flourish equally.
Workshop - Harmonious Collides
We dance our own language that no one else can speak. Let’s experience each other’s through harmonious collides.
I’ll create a space and environment for you to experience my language of dance, incorporating the extensions of my body through my mobility devices.
I respect the balance of physical and soft approaches creating opportunities for those surprise elements which are my favourite moments.
You’ll never dance the same ever again after experiencing dance with me but we will also never again re-create the same dance, so let’s enhance our moments we share.
Photo: Jinki Cambronero
Jessie McCall
Jessie McCall is a queer movement artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her work harnesses visual design, sound, object, and distinct movement vocabularies to build darkly humorous worlds that are slippery, disruptive, and human.
Jessie has an extensive independent choreographic practice, alongside work with Touch Compass, Footnote New Zealand Dance , Auckland Arts Festival, SPLORE Festival, Auckland Pride Festival, and Performance Space Sydney. She is the co-founder of the choreographic & performance collaboration SOFT. Co, with Rose Philpott.
Jessie’s practice seeks the disruptions of the queer lens as a generative ‘glitch’ in our collective ways of being, and embraces low-culture as a vehicle of the transcendent.
Workshop - Thing Power
Whether or not we are working directly with props, the material world is always at work in our making.
This workshop will delve into the relationship between matter and making - investigating how objects and environments can exert influence, generate metaphor, and unsettle boundaries of meaning.
We will consider the distinct aliveness that the material world offers to a choreographic process- drawing on conceptual texts, artist accounts, and our own experiments. How can we find specificity and authorship in what we create with 'stuff', while honoring its unpredictable agency?
We will also consider how the power of objects might unsettle human dominance over meaning, drawing the ecological and political into closer dialogue with the choreographic act.
We will talk, create, collaborate, and perform. Conceptual offerings will be directly applied to practical making, as we work toward short pieces to share at the end of the week. We will leave with an enhanced curiosity around the role of materials in our distinct practices, and tangible starting points for new work.
Photo by Arnaud Beelen
Celia Hext
Celia Hext (Aotearoa / New Zealand) is a dance artist whose work brims with emotional ferocity, love, mischief, and reverence for the land. Celia is curious about life and our dance with it.
In 2024, Celia was invited by David Zambrano to create and perform one of 24 solos for his project SSS2, following a five-month residency at Tictac Art Centre in Brussels. Described as a “Powerhouse” by internationally renowned dance writer Wendy Perron, Celia has forged a diverse and global career, collaborating with artists and companies including Tino Sehgal, Jennifer Monson, Alexa Wilson, Footnote New Zealand Dance, Foster Group, Dance Plant Collective, and Identity Dance Company.
Celia was selected for the prestigious 2023 ATLAS choreographic residency at ImPulsTanz in Vienna and recently returned from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she performed in The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave—an award-winning endurance work by Oli Mathieson, alongside Sharvon Mortimer and Lucy Lynch.
Celia's choreographic and performance career has led her across the globe, performing and presenting works in Belgium, Austria, Canada, United Kingdom, USA, Australia and New Zealand.
Workshop
Through this body, right now, we guide our artistic intuition, daring to create new languages. To dance on the edge of infinity. This workshop welcomes the whole body into the practice of performance through improvisation. The art of real time composition is delicate and preposterous. Disgusting and divine. We hope to find precision in the nuance and tools for sensitivity. To be vulnerable is to listen is to invite. We will move closer to the body in order to move further away from it. We will create shared fictions, grotesque fantasies and solar systems, challenging our understanding of what it is to dance, what it is to perform.
Through improvised practices we will engage in both practical and intangible tools to harness one's own performative power and construct solo and group compositions in real time.
This workshop welcomes performers across disciplines open to body based practice.
Photo by Mark Panizza
Sebastian Geilings
Sebastian is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher whose practice centres on accessing the body’s deep potential through ease, somatic awareness, play, and the pursuit of connecting to his most authentic self. His relationship with movement has become even more sacred through lived experiences of illness, shaping his relationship to dance as both an expressive art form and a practise of renewal.
A graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance, Sebastian has worked with a range of artists and companies across Aotearoa and Australia, including Lucy Guerin Inc, Australian Dance Theatre, Footnote New Zealand Dance, and the New Zealand Dance Company.
As a choreographer, Sebastian draws from the depths of his own life experiences while celebrating the joy and liberation of moving in space. For him, dance is both a gift and a reminder of how lucky we are to have the opportunity to dance through life.
Workshop
This workshop invites you to meet the body you bring on the day, without expectation, but with curiosity and openness to new possibilities. Together, we’ll explore tools for movement and performance that nurture a more sustainable and inquisitive practice. These are resources I’ve gathered through my own journey with chronic illness, burnout and creative stagnation, and which continue to guide me in reimagining how I show up to my dance, while healing my relationship with it and with myself.
We’ll begin with a class to warm up and activate our playground, tuning into sensation and “nerding out” on how we can direct, release, fall, place, and throw our energy and bone system in space. From there, we’ll transition into a focused investigation of a specific tool or practice, experimenting with it in improvisational and sometimes performance contexts. This shared exploration is an invitation to play, discover, and perhaps unlock new ways of engaging with movement. Together I hope we can tap into the magic of movement and dance.
Workshop Schedule
5 - 16 January 2026
WEEK ONE
Monday - Wednesday
10AM-1PM: Rodney Bell
2PM-5PM: Jessie McCall
Thursday - Friday
10AM-1PM Celia Hext
2PM-5PM: Jessie McCall
Saturday
10AM-1PM Celia Hext
WEEK TWO
Monday - Friday
9AM-11AM: Sebastian Geilings
11:30AM-1PM / 2PM-5PM: Antony Hamilton
Pricing
Option 1: All-in - this is for the entire two weeks, all workshops included. $450
Option 2: Per-workshop (this is for a full week of workshops, not per-session)
Rodney Bell - $100
Jessie McCall - $150
Celia Hext - $100
Sebastian Geilings - $100
Antony Hamilton - $200
Pōneke Artists Series - $10/workshop (included in the All-in option)
All costs are for the week of workshops, and include GST
*Fee is non-refundable. We will consider transfers case by case.
If you have any questions about Choreolab, please email Footnote's Artistic Director, Anita Hunziker anita@footnote.org.nz
Applications for Choreolab 2026 close on 16th November 2025
Payment must be made in full by 9th December 2025
Pōneke Artists Series
5.30PM-7PM
WEEK ONE
Tuesday: Cyphers and Dancing with Shifting Centre
Wednesday: The Voice in Movement with Lila Crichton
Thursday: Creative Process with Ella Williams
WEEK TWO
Tuesday: Introduction to Producing and Marketing with Melanie Hamilton and Maeve O’Connell
Wednesday: Introduction to Composing with Jesse Austin-Stewart
Thursday: Cyphers and Dancing with Shifting Centre
Photo: Havea Latu of Vain Creative
Cyphers and Dancing with Shifting Centre
Shifting Centre is an Indigenous arts collective based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, dedicated to fostering space for Indigenous artists and their work. Through artistic creation and community engagement, we aim to enrich the local arts landscape while uncovering alternative pathways for Indigenous artists in the region.
In these workshops, we will locate our own dance through connecting and exchanging with the people around us. These workshops will offer freestyle tools that Shifting Centre use within their collective practice and will also open doors into the communal practice of cyphers.
The Voice in Movement with Lila Crichton
The Voice in Movement is a beginner-friendly workshop that helps artists reconnect with their voice in a natural, playful, and pressure-free way. For many of us, singing or vocalising can feel tapu, intimidating, or “not for me” — this workshop is about breaking down that barrier and making your voice feel like it truly belongs to you.
Led by singer Lila Crichton, this session explores voice as part of the body, not separate from it. Through breath, sound and movement, we’ll explore how voice can support expression, storytelling, and emotional honesty — even if you’ve never sung before.
In this workshop, you can expect to:
Build confidence through gentle vocal warm ups
Learn healthy breath support and vocal projection
Explore listening and vocal awareness
Try simple harmonies in a relaxed group setting
Experiment with adding voice to movement or text
Reclaim your voice as a tool for expression, not perfection
You’re welcome to bring a short movement phrase or spoken text to explore, or simply show up with curiosity. This is a supportive space for dancers, movers, singers, actors — and anyone who has ever thought “I don’t have a good voice” and wants to discover what their voice can actually do.
Photo: Fern Flicks
Creative Process with Ella Williams
Ella Williams is a professional dancer, born of Canadian, Trinidadian and Pakeha NZ descent. currently working in Te Whanganui a Tara, Aotearoa. She has successfully managed to be a full-time artist and hopes to continue to share her passion in dance.
She is interested in exploring different worlds through dance and using dance as a way to create space for thought and change.
For her, dance is a form of connection with the community, a connection to the world through creating and performing as an act of liberation and a connection to ancestors and her history.
Introduction to Composing with Jesse Austin-Stewart
Jesse Austin-Stewart (he/him) is a sound artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. He is a composer and is currently a lecturer at Massey University.
Jesse’s work explores ways to make sound art more inclusive, often exploring its intersection with disability and hearing. He has written works for contemporary dance and flm and composed and curated performance art works and sound installations. Jesse has exhibited across Aotearoa, Japan, Australia, Czech Republic, Greece, Sweden, France and more.
Join this workshop for an immersive introduction to composing and collaborating with sound designers. Gain practical skills, including how to use QLab, and learn effective strategies for collaborating with composers, providing an insightful entry into the world of music composition.
Introduction to Producing and Marketing with Melanie Hamilton and Maeve O’Connell
Learn the basics of producing and marketing in the Aotearoa arts scene.