fLiNG Alumni Receive Awards by Lee Pemberton South East NSW dancers Siobhan McKenna, Jacqueline Trapp and Olivia McPherson have all received graduate awards and successfully completed their dance training. They finished the year performing in the graduate season of ‘Beyond the Line 2’ in Melbourne during November 2016 completing their Bachelor of Arts (Dance) at Melbourne University Victorian College of the Arts.
Siobhan and Jacqui trained with Andy Cross at the Wyndham School of Dance doing ballet, tap, jazz and Irish dance. Olivia learned to dance from Colleen Meessmann and Lee Pemberton at Insight Dance & Movement studying classical ballet and contemporary dance during her childhood years.
They all also gained extensive training with Veronica Valderrama, Colleen Meessmann, and Lee Pemberton and were members of fLiNG Physical Theatre during the years of training before auditioning for the VCA.
The three dancers have each received an award given annually to third-year graduating students from the Victorian College of the Arts.
Siobhan McKenna has received the 2016 Choreographic Award ($3000) from which she is hoping to put toward developing a new work next year. Siobhan choreographed a work that premiered in June 2016 at the VCA which explored the relationship between voice/sound and movement and she said she would like to continue this investigation further next year.
Jacqueline Trapp has received Dr Phillip Law Travel Scholarship (Dance). This scholarship is given to graduating students to help these emerging artists to continue to expand their dance experience at an international level.
Jacqueline will be travelling to Berlin in 2017 to explore the rich dance hub that Berlin provides. Jacqueline will be attending various workshops and be apart of a performance lecture with an artist she has been recently interested in who works in Europe. There is also a very large dance festival that runs in August in Berlin – the Tanz im August, which also includes artist talks and dance classes.
Olivia McPherson has received the Orloff Family Charitable Trust Scholarship in Dance for the most outstanding dancer in the graduating third year at the Victorian College of the Arts. Olivia will be spending time continuing her career in Melbourne, Bega and Europe in 2017
