Dance board members

Chrissy Sharp (Chair), Vic

Chrissy Sharp was appointed chair of the Dance Board and a member of Council for three years from 19 October 2009. Chrissy is the inaugural Director of the Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne and brings to the Australia Council more than 20 years experience in the arts in Australia and overseas.

Until her recent return from London, Chrissy was General Manager of Sadler’s Wells Dance Theatre and a Board Director of Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company in London.   She was previously General Manager of the Sydney Festival, Head of Policy at SBS and the Executive Director of the Australian Writers’ Guild.  During her time at  Sadler’s Wells, this venerable institution saw a dramatic change in its financial situation and was repositioned as one of the leading European contemporary dance houses.  Chrissy grew up in Canberra and studied History at the Australian National University.

Jeff Khan, Vic

Jeff Khan is a curator, writer and arts administrator and is Next Wave's new artistic director. Originally from Western Australia, Jeff moved to Melbourne in 2003 to take up the role of communications manager at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces. Prior to this, he held positions at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) and the John Curtin Gallery, and in 2002 undertook a six month internship athe Guggenheim R. Museum in New York. Jeff has developed numerous exhibitions, performance events and special projects, both at Gertrude and other organisations.

Jeff was a curatorial advisor for Rapt!, a major cultural exchange project between Australia and Japan in 2005-6. He is also a founding editorial committee member of un Magazine, was a member of the Midsumma Festival's visual arts working group from 2003 - 2006 and currently sits
on the City of Yarra's arts advisory committee. As a writer he has contributed to numerous magazines and journals including Artlink, Photofile, RealTime and un Magazine as well as catalogue essays for the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and numerous other galleries and artists' projects. Jeff was a member of Next Wave's curatorial advisory committee for the 2006 Next Wave Festival.

Julie Anne Long, NSW

Julie-Anne Long is an award winning independent dance artist based in Sydney. Since the mid 1980s she has performed and choreographed on a wide range of projects, with companies such as One Extra, Open City, Theatre of Image, Legs on the Wall, Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Bell Shakespeare Company and Dance Works. From 1991-1996 Julie-Anne was Associate Artistic Director of One Extra Company with Artistic Director Graeme Watson. During 2006/2007 Julie-Anne was Acting Director of Critical Path, a dance research organisation. In recent years Julie-Anne's dance practice has focused on solo work and dance films including MissXL: Let the Dance Speak for Itself, Boxing Baby Jane, Trust and Try! and Nuns Night Out. Julie-Anne is interested in making performances, which have a personal and often intimate voice, in unexpected places. The Nun's Picnic was a site-specific response to the village of Hill End, NSW, incorporating a collection of activities ranging from solo work, ensemble performances, video installation and writing, around a central theme, as a response to the time and people involved. In February 2007 Julie-Anne Long was awarded an Australia Council dance fellowship and begins her two-year program in October 2007.

Brian Lucas, Qld

Brian Lucas is a Brisbane-based performer and choreographer. Trained in both dance and acting, he has worked with many of Australia's most interesting performing arts companies and ensembles including Chunky Move, Rock’n’Roll Circus, Chamber Made Opera, QUT Creative Industries, Dancenorth, Extensions Youth Dance Company, Queensland Ballet, Queensland Theatre Company, La Boite Theatre, The Lyric Opera, KAGE Theatre and for almost 8 years with Expressions Dance Company (4 of those as assistant artistic director). He has established a national reputation for creating and presenting provocative and intelligent choreographies, and is renowned for his powerful and commanding performances.

Over the past 25 years, Brian has been involved in an extensive range of performance and creative development projects, and has initiated a wide variety of independent and fringe projects, including the Crab Room Performance Space, the Cherry Herring Collective, and the EMERGENCY peer-mentoring project.

Since 2001, Brian has held the position of artist-in-residence at Brisbane Powerhouse, where many of his highly acclaimed solo performance pieces - including monster, the book of revelation(s) and Underbelly - have premiered. In 1996, Brian was awarded a two-year Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts in 2005 to reflect on and further refine his creative processes within his primary field of practice - solo work.

Elizabeth Walsh (community interest representative), Tas

Elizabeth Walsh took up the appointment of artistic director, Ten Days on the Island (2007 & 2009), she was previously executive producer of Tasmania’s premier cultural event, since its inception in 2001 after a distinguished arts career spanning more than two decades. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Ms Walsh has worked in a host of roles in the performing and visual arts, in small to medium-sized companies such as the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, in major centres for the creative arts such as the Sydney Opera House (program manager), Footscray Community Arts Centre (director) and on international arts festivals, including as programmanager of Sydney Festival and on various projects for the Adelaide and Melbourne Comedy Festivals.

Carol Wellman Kelly, SA

Having graduated with a B.A. Dance from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1985, Carol has worked with many companies during her 23-year career. Her commitment to dance education allowed her to work with the outreach education units of Rambert Dance Company, Richard Alston Dance Company, Cando Co foundation course and the London Contemporary Dance Theatre.

After a long performing, teaching and facilitating career in Australia, Europe, Asia and the USA Carol joined The Australian Dance Theatre  as Assistant Director and Rehearsal Director with Garry Stewart from 2000 - 2008. In 2002 she took 12 months to fulfil the role of Artistic Director for Buzz Dance Theatre-with whom she began her professional career in 1986 when the company was known as 2 Dance Plus.  Carol now works as a freelance dance artist, performer, manager and educator. She  works with Flinders University tertiary Drama/Theatre students, Force Majeure and DV8 as well as intensives for Ausdance SA. Recently Carol rehearsed and toured the latest Tasdance production and was commissioned to create a short work for Quantum Leap Youth Dance Company (QL2). She was a peer adviser to the Dance Board when they assessed all of their Key Organisations in 2008.