The Wheeler Centre Gala 2017: Stories for the Dead

Founder and artistic director for EkosDance Company and Solo Dance Studio in Surakarta Indonesia, Eko Supriyanto’s performance career spans major works and tours throughout Indonesia, Europe, America and the Asia Pacific.

Trained in Javanese court dances and the Indonesian martial arts of Pencak Silat since the age of seven, Eko is a full-time faculty lecturer at the Indonesian Institute for the Arts, Surakarta (ISI Surakarta). He holds a PhD in Performance Studies (2014) from Gadjah Mada University and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance and Choreography from the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures (2001). 

Eko’s performance career stretches across major commercial productions and dance research projects. He was enlisted as a dance consultant for Julie Taymor’s Lion King Broadway production, and choreographed and performed for major international productions including Peter Sellars’ Le Grand Macabre, John Adams’ A Flowering Tree in Vienna, the Barbican Centre in London and the Lincoln Centre in New York, Garin Nugroho’s Opera Jawa, MAU Lemi Ponifasio’s Tempest, solid.states with Arco Renz, and was a featured dancer in Madonna’s 2001 Drowned World Tour.

His recent major works have received great acclaim. The first in a trilogy of works, Cry Jailolo – with seven young men from Jailolo, North Maluku – is followed by the sister work Balabala, and his solo work in development, SALT. Alongside these works, Eko has developed discourse surrounding silent tourism and performance research into the embodiment of Indonesian dancers and its connection to maritime culture, entitled The Future of Dance is Under Water.

Candy Bowers is an award-winning writer, actor, social-activist, comedian and producer. The co-artistic director of Black Honey Company, Candy has pioneered a fierce sub-genre of hip hop theatre that delves into the heart of radical feminist dreaming.

Born of multi-racial South African parents and raised in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, her life experiences have created a unique foundation to build her body of work upon. A poet, playwright and speaker from an early age, in 2001 Candy was accepted into the Bachelor of Dramatic Arts – Acting course at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

Since then she has gone on to build her own company, star in sketch comedy, perform on Australia’s main-stages and tour the country with original works including: Sista She, Australian Booty, MC Platypus, Who’s That Chik? and Hot Brown Honey. You can also catch her on the small screen in Newton’s Law, Get Krack!n, Tonightly with Tom Ballard (ABC/Netflix) and The Cry (BBC.)

Candy is currently working on her first feature film with ArenaMedia, an anthology of Australian monologues for Actors of Colour called EVERYBODY ELSE, Twelve – a soul musical from the streets (after Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) and One the Bear – a fairytale for the hip hop generation heading to the Arts Centre Melbourne and Sydney Opera House in 2019.

Her awards and accolades include: Green Room Association Awards: Geoffrey Milne Contribution to Independent Theatre Award, British Council of the Arts Realise Your Dream Award, Australia Council of the Arts Cultural Leadership Fellowship, NIDA Glorias Fellowship, Creative Sydney Top 100 Creative Catalysts List, Philip Parsons Young Playwright Award Short List, Melbourne Fringe Best Performance and Director’s Choice Award and Adelaide Fringe Youth Education Award.

Eddie Ayres is a writer, music teacher and broadcaster. He was born on the White Cliffs of Dover and began playing violin when he was eight years old. He studied music in Manchester, Berlin and London, played viola professionally in the UK and Hong Kong and moved to Australia in 2003.

Eddie is the presenter of ABC Classic’s weekend breakfast show.

Eddie has written three books – Cadence, about his journey by bicycle from England to Hong Kong with only a violin for company, Danger Music, describing his year teaching music in Afghanistan, and a children’s book, Sonam and the Silence. He is currently working on a new book about the benefits of music in our lives.

Eddie was born Emma, and transitioned just before his 50th birthday. Better late than never.

Nobuko Aiso is a translator, interpretator, writer, project manager and international correspondent. In 2015, she co-founded Art Translators Collective, an independent organisation that explores the value and possibilities of translation in the field of art.

Born in Japan, Aiso spent her formative years in the US and the UK. After receiving a BA from Keio University, she attended the Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Kakushin Nishihara is a Tsuruta-style Satsuma biwa player and a collage artist. (The Satsuma biwa is a traditional Japanese lute.) She trained under the tutelage of biwa master Kinshi Tsuruta until her teacher’s death.

Kakushin is active not only within Japan, but also in Europe and Africa. Her musical activities span classical biwa performances, original pieces using noise, and collaborations with other instruments and genres such as contemporary art.

Pichet Klunchun bridges Thai Classical Dance language with contemporary sensibilities – while keeping the heart and wisdom of the tradition. He has earned domestic notoriety for his efforts in contemporising Khon.

Pichet has received many honorary awards, including the 2008 ‘Routes’ ECF Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity from the European Cultural Foundation – an award that honours artists and thinkers in the field of cultural diversity, for helping to combat fear and disrespect of the other.

In 2012, he received the Chevalier of the French Arts and Literature Order from the French Ministry of Culture for his contribution to the influence of Culture in France, in Thailand and around the world. In 2014, Pichet was awarded the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award by the Asian Cultural Council for a significant contribution to the international understanding, practice, or study of the visual or performing arts of Asia.

Clementine Ford is a Melbourne-based writer, speaker and feminist thinker. She is a columnist for Fairfax’s Daily Life and is a regular contributor to the Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Through her twice-weekly columns for Daily Life, Clementine explores issues of gender inequality and pop culture. Fight Like a Girl is her first book.

Her ability to use humour and distilled fury to lay bare ongoing issues affecting women has earned her a huge and loyal readership. Clementine’s work has radically challenged the issues of men’s violence against women, rape culture and gender warfare in Australia, while her comedic take on casual sexism and entertainment has earned her a reputation as an accomplished satirist.

Amanda Palmer is a performer, director, composer, musician and author who came to prominence as frontwoman and keyboardist for the punk cabaret band The Dresden Dolls.

In 2008, Amanda released Who Killed Amanda Palmer, her debut solo album. It was produced by Ben Folds and accompanied with the release of a fine art photography book, on which she collaborated with esteemed author Neil Gaiman (whom Palmer also married). She subsequently went on an international tour, highlights of which included three performances with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall and a critically acclaimed performance at the 2009 Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival.

She then took on the role of the MC in a sold out run of the musical Cabaret with Cambridge’s own American Repertory Theater in 2010. In the same year, she was named Artist of the Year 2010 by the Boston Music Awards. Amanda tends a blog and Twitter feed and was dubbed ‘The Social Media Queen of Rock-N-Roll’ by the Huffington Post.