Dancer and choreographer Anya McKee, who has performed with the likes of Kate Champion’s Force Majeure, has been chosen as the inaugural UNSW School of the Arts and Media (SAM) alumni resident artist.

Anya will use the $5000 stipend and campus facilities that come with the position to develop a new work with dancer and aerialist Lee-Anne Litton.

Runners up, performance artist Emma Maye Gibson, best known for her Burlesque character Betty Grumble, and theatre and performance maker Nick Atkins, who is a producer of the Q theatre production program in Penrith, will also get space in which to work on new projects.

The SAM Alumni Residency Program is a new initiative aimed at supporting recent graduates in their professional creative endeavours. The residency supports the development of a specific project.

The program is open to alumni from all disciplines in the school, and residents can use the school’s rehearsal spaces, recording studios, audio-visual equipment, workshops, and props and costume stores.

Resident artists will also have access to the expertise of the staff in the Creative Practice Lab.

Anya, who graduated from UNSW with a BA Arts (Dance), takes up her three-week residency in SAM on the 23 November 2015.

The SAM residency is supported by the Creative Practice Lab and UNSW Arts and Social Sciences.

The residency will be offered again, next year.


Wendy Frew