Frontiers

Matthew Robinson (he/him) is a practicing artist currently based in the United Kingdom.

Collaborating internationally in a variety of contexts as dancer, choreographer, facilitator, rehearsal director and artistic director, he is currently Artistic Director of National Dance Company Wales.

His choreographic work has moved extensively across the United Kingdom and internationally to venues and festivals in Europe and beyond. Built from the body, the work seeks to translate contradictions and complex emotions, through highly physical choreographic construction. Collaborating across forms, Matthew is engaged in ongoing and emerging collaborative partnerships in the fields of sound, fashion, theatre and technology.

An experienced facilitator, Matthew has co-developed projects and experiences around the world in educational and non-educational contexts with students, artists and those with little to no experience of dance. With a passion for the potential of dance to enable us to see ourselves, each other and our world differently, Matthew is an advocate for movement as a fundamental part of everyone’s lives.

For many years Matthew was an integral part of Scottish Dance Theatre, performing work by a range of international choreographers, including Sharon Eyal, Damien Jalet, Hofesh Shechter, and Victor Quijada. In 2013 he was invited to become Rehearsal Director, supporting the dancers and guest artists in their creative process, and the company on multiple international tours.

Matthew was Artistic Director of VERVE from 2016-2021. Collaborating with world renowned and fresh choreographic voices, the company created distinct, engaging programmes of dance work for international touring programmes. Reaching thousands of people each year, onstage, online and in outreach work, the company developed its reputation for bold commissioning and the quality of artistic training it offers emerging dance artists.

In 2021 Matthew was appointed Artistic Director of National Dance Company Wales and has been developing the interweaving possibilities of the company’s artistic and engagement programmes. Rooted in bold collaborations, the companies artistic work embraces the highly distinctive physical vocabularies of artists from near and far, forming unique programmes to inspire and excite audiences and participants across Wales, the United Kingdom and all over the world. With developing work for theatre, public space, festival, and immersive contexts the company is boldly stepping into its future, interrogating and developing the role of repertory companies now.

Matthew is a graduate of London Contemporary Dance School.

Melanie Lane is an Australian choreographer and performer of Javanese/European cultural heritage. She works across visual arts, theatre, music and film. Her work interrogates physical and cultural histories to explore current social mythologies and extrapolates these into surreal futures that are confounded, broken and reconfigured. These independent works have been presented globally at festivals and theatres in Europe, Indonesia, United States and Australia. Drawing on her European and Indonesian heritage Lane moves between cultural landscapes and influences. Melanie engages regularly across projects in Indonesia as choreographer, collaborator, performer and mentor.

Alongside commissions with WA Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Australasian Dance Collective, DanceNorth, Chunky Move, Schauspiel Leipzig and HAU Berlin, her collaborations extend to artists; Marrugeku/Bhenji Ra, Clark, Adena Jacobs, Amos Gebhardt, Leyla Stevens, Monica Lim and Rianto. Her choreographic work for theatre and opera includes English National Opera's Salome (London, 2018), Burgtheater's Trojan Women (Vienna, 2022) and Nosferatu (Vienna, 2024) directed by Adena Jacobs.

Melanie won the prestigious Keir Choreographic Award in 2018 and the 2017 Leipziger Bewegungskunstpreis in Germany, and has been nominated for both Green Room and Helpmann awards as both a choreographer and a dancer including the Shirley McKechnie Award for Choreography (2020).

In 2022, Melanie was Artist in Residence for Digital Innovation at the University of Canberra x Belco Arts.

Melanie is 2023/24 Choreographer in Residence at Chunky Move, Resident Artist at The Substation, 2015 resident director at Lucy Guerin Inc., Associate Artist at QL2 and is a current 2023/24 Australia Council for the Arts Fellow.

In 2024, Melanie launched her project Corps Conspirators. This initiative, supported by Creative Victoria and led by Melanie Lane, is a project exploring collaborative choreographic practices, multi-artform experimentation and transcultural experience.