The Dreaming Project

Dylan Singh is a proud Wiradjuri man hailing from Albury/Wodonga, NSW. Dylan’s passion for performance comes from two different schools of art and culture that are as he describes, strange cousins. His father, a traditional dancer and yidaki player with a group called Bubbu Yella, travelled across the country learning new dances and songs from mobs all over. His mother was one of the first members of Albury circus school, the Flying Fruit Fly circus.

Dylan has been inspired by his culture through dance, music and songlines and continually tries to blend these elements into his circus and music art. Dylan believes that the two types of art forms share so many similarities that they can influence and support each other. Dylan tries to find ways to express his culture through his art form and wishes to pass on culture through his art onto the next generation of first nations people who wish to follow an artist path.

Tarryn Love is a proud Gunditjmara Keerray Woorroong woman from south-west Victoria and has grown up on Wadawurrung country in Geelong. Tarryn creates artwork under the collective of Koorroyarr which means ‘granddaughter’ in her mother tongue Keerray Woorroong, to capture the vital role that family has in her practice. Tarryn’s body of work is grounded in the passing down of her family’s ways of knowing, being and doing to honour Keerray Woorroong and represent the distinctiveness of Gunditjmara culture. Tarryn aims to explore the synergies between her cultural and creative practice to expand her work beyond the gallery walls to interrogate, challenge and disrupt space and place.

Monica aka ‘MpathSoul’, is a spoken-word poet, singer-songwriter, actor and emerging playwright. Monica has been performing and creating in Narrm for over 8 years in various projects, festivals, creative developments and collaborations. 

Monica completed her Business in Arts traineeship  at Ilbijerri Theatre Company 2015 and studied Fine Arts Theatre at Victorian College of the Arts in 2016- 2018. Monica MC’d Share the Spirit Festival and would expand her spoken-word horizons being a feature poet for Girls on Key, performing her music and spoken word at Northcote Social Club event ‘Baggarook and would showcase her original collection of work at the Wheeler Centre’s Collective Spirit Talks  alongside other First Nations Poets, after being mentored by winning poet Ali Cobby Ekkerman at the Kalang Poetry Retreat. Monica performed her original piece “Whispers of 5 wise women’ at the Opening for the Yaluk-ut Weelam Festival 2019, as well as MC-ing the next day festivities. Monica performed her original piece ‘Urban Dreaming’ to James Henry’s music composition for the opening night of Yirramboi Festival 2019 which would be later published by Yirramboi ‘Blak Bloggers’. 

Monica performed at Fed Square for NAIDOC in The City with headlines such as Dan Sultan, Later in 2019 Monica performed her music and spoken-word for Blak and Bright First Nations Literary Festival Bogong event, as well as acting in Ellen Van Neervans script read ‘Swim’ and Jacob Boehmes ‘Flash Blaks’ Directed by Margaret Harvey. 2019 also saw Monica showcasing an excerpt of her play in development ‘Mother’s Country’, characters performed by Leonie Whyman, Tahlee Faraday, Carly Sheppard, at MTC as a part of Ilbijerri Theatre Company’s Black Wrights Program directed by Rachael Maza and Dramaturg Carly Sheppard. 2020 Monica recorded her music for Radio Reimagined Festival and was apart of Fuse Darebin Wurru Wurru series curated by Allara Briggs Pattison. Monica brings a raw element by infusing her spoken-word, writing and music with personal experiences of womxnhood, connection to Country and Kinship, love and loss. Cultural and spiritual reclamation are integral to her artistry as she hopes to empower, bring about justice, change and healing through her work.

Brent is a Gunai Kurni man from southeastern Victoria, with Noongar Yamatji ancestry from WA. He currently resides on Wurrundjeri and Boon Wurrung land in Narm, what is commonly referred to as the city of Melbourne. Brent gets his inspiration from his Nan, Rita Watkins. In his own words “Growing up seeing her fight for country and our people and strong Kurni woman. Now it is my responsibly to fight for country, for my son and generations to come”.

Brent is a dancer (traditional/ hip hop), didgeridoo player and visual artist, that has established himself in the Melbourne cultural arts scene over the past decade. Since a young age he has been teaching and performing, doing art workshops and playing didgeridoo. In high school he was selling his art around Melbourne and the world with his artwork going to customers in five different countries. When Brent left school he started working at Mia Mia gallery, his first job, which led him to where he is today.

Brent’s major career next step was to create Culture Evolves. Drawing from his ancestral epistemology, combining it with contemporary narratives, Brent conveys the struggles that First Nations people are experiencing in Australia today. Through elements of traditional dance, hip hop and storytelling, Brent has entertained and educated a wide range of audiences from school groups of all ages, local and visiting dignitaries, corporate clients, international world peace meetings, national sporting events and performances with nationally and internationally recognised bands and musicians such as Mulatu Astatke, Coloured Stone and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

Ex Ponto is the creative studio of multidisciplinary artist Ivan Mašić, whose work explores the insoluble intimacy between music, light and the moving image. Since 2015, Ex Ponto has delivered a wide range of creative projects including music videos, site-responsive projection, short-form documentary, music composition, production and live performance.

In 2019, Ivan toured Europe with Yolngu trio Malawurr as DoP and camera operator on the forthcoming documentary, Morning Star, and created opening night projections for the Melbourne Museum’s Revolutions: Records & Rebels exhibition. Other credits include full-scale video productions for Barra-Westwind (Arnhem Land), Crown Ruler, RMIT University, Testing Grounds, Remuse Designs and Festival in Opposition (Serbia).

As co-director of Little Projector Company, Ivan has been interrogating societies’ mediation of the living world through the radical potential of projection technology. Since 2010, Little Projector Company has been creating and facilitating the development and exhibition of site-responsive installations, performances, and tours that combine projection, storytelling, cinema, sound design, sculpture and more.

As a musician, composer and producer, Ivan has released over 20 albums for improvisation collective, Council of Elders and experimental no-wave band, Wunderlust. 2019 saw the international release of Ex Ponto’s debut album Neka Neka on General Purpose records. The release is an ode to Ivo Andrić, ex-Yugoslavian experimentalists of the 1980s and the thriving late-night hedonism of Belgrade’s Club 20/44. More recently, Ex Ponto composed and produced a number of short compositions for Testing Grounds’ Knowledge Economy Series (episodes 2-5).

Lee Ramseyer Bache’s work is about human subjugation of the living world, responsible technology, and storytelling about place. He is a trained script writer and filmmaker.

Kiara Malcolm- Bodle’s story begins in Broome WA, Yawuru country. It travels all the way to Darkinjung country in NSW, 2016. There, Kiara studied and graduated (2019) from a four year Dance Diploma at NAISDA Dance College. Since then, she has worked as an independent artist and after choosing to do an extra year and a half of studies, has just finished her Advanced Diploma in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dance Practice.

Kiara has worked with/seconded and participated in choreographic labs around Australia with companies such as Legs On The Wall, NT Dance Company, Lucy Guerin, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Sydney Dance Company, Marrugeku, Browns Mart, KARUL Projects and have been privileged to work with multiple amazing independent artists along the journey. Kiara has also worked in Canada at the Banff Centre for Create Arts and travelled to New Zealand, strengthening her Maori roots/heritage, whilst spending time with Atamira Dance Company.

This year, Kiara has been teaching/ working/ storytelling with companies such as Browns Mart, NT Dance Company and KARUL Projects. She will endeavour to continue evolving her choreographic practice and have begun seeding her own choreographic work that she one day hopes to share.

Edan Porter is a proud Gomeroi man from North-West NSW. His dance journey started as early as the age of 6, learning traditional Aboriginal dancing from family back home in Moree, NSW.

He then started his professional dance training at the age of 18 (2016) with NAISDA Dance College and graduated (2019) with a Diploma of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Practice. 

Within Edan’s studies, he has worked with amazing choreographers such as Craig Barry, Frances Rings and Pamela Williams. He has also worked with Professional companies such as Sydney Dance Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Marrugeku, Atamira Dance Company, Opera Australia, Lost Allsorts, Brownsmart Theatre and many other amazing independent Artists. 

Edan danced in Canada as part of the Intercultural Creation Lab at Banff Centre of Creative Arts and hopes to travel more internationally as the border restrictions ease.

His story this year continues alongside company’s such as Browns Mart, NT Dance Company and KARUL Projects. Through this time, Edan will continue to hone in on his choreographic development and start creating more work that he hopes one day will be able to resonate with everybody.

Born from a desire to take storytelling through film out of the cinema and into the street, Little Projector Company have presented work at Australia’s biggest light festivals and collaborated with hundreds of artists & communities. As an artist-led creative organisation they create and facilitate the development and exhibition of installations, performances, screenings, and tours that combine projection, film, animation, storytelling, sound design and more. Through their 2022 – 2032 strategic plan, Little projector Company has identified their purpose as ‘Delivering provision for communities to share stories through projection, with a focus on championing First Nations voices’.

The artists who lead Little Projector Company (Ivan Masic and Lee Ramseyer-Bache) are currently bridging the gulf between audio-visual technology, creative digital arts practice and site-responsive storytelling. They have presented work at Geelong Gallery, Vivid Sydney, Darwin Festival, Gertrude Street Projection Festival, The Substation, Testing Grounds, Shorts Place Geelong, Due West Festival, Mapping Melbourne, White Night Melbourne, Parramatta Lanes, and Wagga Wagga Lanes, amongst many others.

Reuben Cumming is an artist and technician living and working on Wurundjeri Country. At the heart of his practice Reuben is a sound artist, audio engineer, producer and composer. He also works across areas such as teaching, video synthesis and lighting.
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Reuben has worked predominantly in the performing arts, taking on a range of different roles in Theatre, Music and Community-Based Arts projects. Having studied Interactive Composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and worked in venues such as The Substation, The Bowery Theatre, The Melbourne Recital Centre and Footscray Community Arts, Reuben’s work is a coalescence of his multi-disciplinary creative practice and technical knowledge.