Create Space October 2025 Residency
The October 2025 Create Space Residency partners with FORM Dance Projects — Western Sydney’s leading producer and presenter of contemporary dance. Based at Riverside Theatres, FORM drives local and international collaboration through programs including FORM Presents (new Australian work, international programming and touring) and IDEA (Independent Dance Exchange Australia), a capacity-building platform for independent artists.
Yeah The Boys is a transformative new work exploring Australian masculinity, mateship, and drinking culture through dance, gesture, and community. Developed from the award-winning short film (scored by The Avalanches), the project unfolds as a raw and immersive live performance staged in backyards, galleries, and alternative spaces. Equal parts cheeky, brutal and tender, the work traces six young men at a suburban gathering — mapping larrikinism, tenderness, aggression, and hierarchy without dialogue, using only movement and music.
During the Create Space Residency, co-directors Vanessa Marian and Stefan Hunt will collaborate with six dancers to expand the movement language and narrative. The residency will culminate in a showing.
The development emphasises Western Sydney engagement and a creative team made up of 50% CaLD artists.
About the team
With a foundation in Indian classical dance and training across cities including New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Brazil, India, and regional Australia, Vanessa brings a global lens to her work. Her practice is shaped by a deep fascination with street Dance, often born from political and socio-economic resistance, which informs her commitment to using movement as a tool for connection and social impact.
In 2016, Vanessa founded Groove Therapy, a platform that aims to democratise dance and make its mental and physical health benefits accessible to all. Through this work, she has collaborated with at-risk youth, Indigenous communities, people living with dementia, refugee girls, and diverse audiences worldwide, always with the belief that movement can bridge divides and build belonging.
“Yeah The Boys marks my first foray into developing a full-length live theatre work. While I have experience as a choreographer and movement director on screen, this project allows me to explore the theatrical form in new ways, drawing from my dance roots while embracing the collaborative, live nature of performance.”
“Movement has taken me all over the world, letting me connect with people even when we don’t share the same spoken language. It’s universal. You can speak through gestures, through body language, through the way you move. It cuts across cultures, silence, and difference.”
Stefan is a filmmaker and creative director who tends to make joyful things about existential topics. Over the years, that’s looked like short films, docos, public art, interactive installations, and once, an entire festival about death. His work usually lives somewhere between satire and sincerity, and I’m mostly just trying to turn emotional chaos into something that connects with people.
Stefan has told stories with everyone, from school kids to global NGOs, and co-created They Saw The Sun First with his wife, Vanessa Marian, a short film that somehow found its way to a few awards and a bunch of strangers’ hearts.
“Yeah The Boys is my first full-length work for live theatre. It’s also the first time I’ve tried to dissect Aussie masculinity using nothing but choreography, beer cans, and six semi-naked men. I’m still not entirely sure how we got here, but it feels urgent, ridiculous, and strangely beautiful.”
Artistic Director and Executive Producer of Riverside's National Theatre of Parramatta, creating and presenting transformative and inspirational theatre experiences that reflect the world around us.
Joanne was formerly co-Artistic Director and founder of the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival, Artistic Director at Sydney Improvised Music Association, General Manager of The Song Company, Business Manager of Programming Sydney Opera House, founder and director of places + spaces, a capacity building not for profit working with independent artists, ran a national contemporary music touring project, Sound Travellers and worked at the Arts Council of England and Carnivale, multicultural arts festival.
Through Places + Spaces, Joanne showcases independent artists to wider audiences via presentation opportunities and international touring.
