Rhiannon Newton

Rhiannon Newton

PhD Candidate
Arts, Design & Architecture
School of Art & Design

Supervisors: Rochelle Haley, Tema Milstein

Rhiannon is an Australian dancer and choreographer who grew up on Dunghutti Land on the Mid-North Coast of NSW. Her creative work draws attention to the interconnection of the body and the more-than-human world. Working from Gadigal land (Sydney), Rhiannon makes contributions to community and culture through choreography, performance, education, research and curation. She has developed her choreographic practice through residency, commission and presentation opportunities throughout Australia, South-East Asia, Europe and North America. Rhiannon's recent projects include Caresss (Riverside Theatre, 2024), Earthbound (VOLUME, AGNSW, 2023), Explicit Contents (Sydney Festival, 2021; Dancehouse Melbourne, INDance Sydney Dance Company, QL2 Dance, 2022); A Strange Place (Dance Nucleus, Singapore 2022); The Gift of a Warning (New Breed, 2021); Long Sentences (Baltic Circle, Helsinki, 2019); and We Make Each Other Up (Dancehouse, Melbourne 2018).

Rhiannon has worked as a performer and collaborator with artists such as Mette Edvardsen (Belgium/Norway), Martin del Amo, Lee Serle, Ivey Wawn, Amrita Hepi, Rosalind Crisp, Paea Leach, Angela Goh and Brooke Stamp. In 2022 she completed an MPhil at the School of Arts and Media at UNSW and she is currently PhD candidate at the School of Art and Design at UNSW. Rhiannon has been on the board of ReadyMade Works since 2015 and co-directed the organisation from 2018-2021. Rhiannon co-curates the performance-lecture series Talking Bodies since 2019, is a member of the Dance Research Australasia (DRA) working group, and is a part-time lecturer at the Australian College of Physical Education and tutor at NAISDA Dance College.

Dance practice approach to embodied ecological awareness

Creative Practice

  • Dance Performance (excerpt): 'Long Sentences' (solo) for Performance Space and Critical Path's Experimental Choreographic Laboratory
  • New Work: 'Caresss' for Future Makers presented at Riverside Theatre, Dance Makers Collective's ECHOES, 2024
  • Dance Performance: 'Earthbound' (solo) for MOVES at VOLUME Festival, Art Gallery of NSW, 2023
  • Creative Practice Lab Facilitation: 'A Dream of Cave as a Portal to a World' in collaboration with Ivey Wawn for Performance Space's Liveworks Festival in partnership with the Art Gallery of NSW, 2023

Publications

  • 'Embodying an Ecological Condition: A Dance Practice Approach to Sensing Multiplicity' for Performance Paradigm 19 Special Issue 2024: Moving South
  • Panel Presentation: 'Multisensory Attunements: Dance Practice Methods for Embodying More-than-Human Communication' for 'Ecocultural Identity in the Humilocene Epoch: Expanding Communication Inquiry to Include More-Than-Human Rights' at The International Communications Association Conference 2024, Gold Coast