DANCE / YOUTH / COMMUNITY /
DANCE / YOUTH / COMMUNITY /
Stompin is a vital force in Australian youth dance, leading the sector with its ambitious site-specific practice, innovative programs and empowering approach to the engagement and development of young dance artists. Stompin began in 1992 with the idea that when young people collaborate with professional artists they can create inspiring, bold and relevant new dance works and through that process, experience transformative personal and creative growth.
Based in Launceston, Tasmania, Stompin investigates Australian youth culture in a regional context, exploring issues proximate to young people through a collaborative, creative process alongside professional artists. The Company prides itself on its welcoming and non-competitive environment and the promotion of creative and healthy lifestyles for young people through an arts-based dance practice; providing a platform to empower young dancers and makers to believe in the strength of their own artistic voice.
During Stompin’s 30-year history, the Company has presented 45 new, large-scale, site-specific performances involving over 7,000 young people, performed to over 40,000 audience members taking over sites such as wetlands, conservatories and the underbellies of historic theatres. The Company has also presented countless smaller scale projects, showings and public and school-based workshops. Stompin presents work in acclaimed festivals, Ten Days on the Island, Junction Arts Festival and MONA FOMA.
Our Team
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Artistic Director - Caitlin Comerford
Caitlin completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance (Performance) at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2009 and a Bachelor of Arts in Dance (Honours) at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2010.
Caitlin believes strongly in supporting and building artistic expression and fostering the next generation of professional dance artists and makers. As an alumna of Canberra-based youth dance company QL2, Caitlin knows the immense value of being a part of the arts sector from a young age and brings a deep passion and wide network to her role as Artistic Director. She has choreographed for Tasdance, Junction Arts Festival, Mona Foma, The Australian Youth Dance Festival, Ten Days on the Island, QL2 Dance, QUT, Out of the Box Festival, the Aboriginal Centre of Performing Arts (ACPA), and Brisbane Festival. Caitlin has taught for countless groups and organisation including professional companies, youth dance companies, community workshops and in schools and universities.
She was the Co-Artistic Director of the Australian Youth Dance Festival 2021/2022 and is a committee member of Youth Dance Australia. Across all her work, Caitlin aims to create authentic opportunities to communicate and connect.
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General Manager - Rachel Moore
Rachel comes to Stompin with extensive managerial and festival experience and over 9 years in the industry. She has worked both interstate and internationally, managed large-scale and small homegrown events and worked with countless artists across music, theatre, dance, visual arts and circus. Most recently she has worked for Dark Mofo, Junction Arts Festival, Mona Foma, Party in the Apocalypse, Panama and Falls Festival.
She is also currently the treasurer of Youth Collective North-East Coast Tasmania and has a deep passion for movement, young people and supporting their expression, creativity and growth.
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Artistic Associate - Gabriel Comerford
Gabriel Comerford is an Australian-Malaysian artist with over 10 years professional experience. He is a founding member of MakeShift Dance Collective and is currently based in lutruwita/Tasmania working with Tasdance, Stompin and MakeShift in a range of differing capacities.
He thrives off working across disciplines and is constantly seeking to challenge and extend himself. Gabriel has worked and performed with a diverse range of companies and choreographers both Nationally and Internationally.
Whilst his practice is rooted in dance, his experiences have allowed him to learn from and incorporate elements of physical theatre, object theatre, puppetry, visualarts, site-specific, Suzuki method, integrated practice, installation and durational performance. His interest lies in collaboration and the creative process; sifting through first impressions to expose the core of the theme or concepts at hand. He has an inquisitive mind, a powerful physicality and a captivating stage presence.
Gabriel is a passionate performer, choreographer, educator and mentor who believes deeply in the power of dance to create connection, transformation and healing.
Company Champion
Stephanie Lake is a multi award-winning Australian choreographer, dancer and director of Stephanie Lake Company. She is also a Stompin alumni and continuous supporter.
The turning point for Lake was the arrival of Stompin, Launceston's now-luminary youth dance company, which was founded in 1992 by choreographer Jerril Rechter.
Lake was part of the 1993 intake, and she credits the company and Rechter (who now chairs the board of Stephanie Lake Company) with igniting her passion for dance, describing the years she spent performing with the Stompin as "the beginning of my origin story in contemporary dance".
Stompin also set Lake on her path as a choreographer — a good decade ahead of schedule.
The company's philosophy of fostering co-creation between professionals and young artists gave her the confidence and skills to make work from a young age — setting her apart from most of her peers, who made the shift from dancer to choreographer later in their careers.
"Those shows [by Stompin] just felt so intense and epic, and we were so [much] part of the creation of the works," Lake recalls.
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Stompin Board
Chair - Jane Woollard
Vice-Chair - Dwayne Baraka
Treasurer - Megan Mantach
Secretary - Joh Breen
Member - Jon Addison
Member - Julie Sanderson
Member - Kelsey Rosevear
Dancer Representative - Cat Kerr
Dancer Representative - Max Eastman
Stompin was founded in 1992 by Jerril Rechter. By the year 2000, Stompin had begun to shift from a sole Artistic Director/Choreographer model to a new model focused on diversifying the opportunities, both choreographic and organisational, that were available to the Stompin participants. This included transitioning Stompin alumni into potential leadership roles. From 2002 to 2006 two Stompin alumni, Bec Reid and Luke George, were co-Artistic Directors, and Luke was sole Artistic Director from 2006 to 2008. Luke mentored former Stompin dancer, Adam Wheeler, as Artistic Associate. Becky Hilton was invited to curate the 2009 to 2011 Stompin program and during this time she mentored Emma Porteus who held the position of Artistic Director from 2010 until 2016. Caitlin Comerford has been Stompin's Artistic Director since July 2016.
Here is a list of wonderful Stompin Alumni and artists that have worked with the company - click on their name to check out what they are up to now:
Past Artistic Directors and Producers
Jerril Rechter, Luke George, Bec Reid, Becky Hilton, Emma Porteus, Sarah McCormack, Alison Wilkes, Mary Shannon, Freyja Wild.
Artists
Adam Wheeler, Stephanie Lake, Ben Cisterne, Martyn Coutts, Antony Hamilton, Marne Palomares, Luke Smiles, Eleanor Bauer, Matt Adey, Dylan Sheridan, Alice Lee Holland, Lewis Major, Alisdair Macindoe, Rikki Mace, Matt Cornell, Bones Sylvan, Nicholas Higgins, Liesel Zink, Gabriel Comerford, James Batchelor and Mike Willmett, Yolande Brown, Adam Thompson, Bec Dundas, Jenni Large, Jack Ziesing, Michelle Boyde, Sofie Burgoyne, Rebecca Jensen, Anna Whittaker, Ash Musk, Michael Smith, Joshua Thomson, Ebony Nichols, Zoe Howard, Gabrielle Martin, Kyall Shanks and Courtney Scheu.
Alumni
Our Stompin dancers assist in creating the choreography for all of our shows. Thank you to all the dancers who have been a part of Stompin and whose names are not included in this list:
Danielle a'Campo, Mitchel Abraham, Rebecca Aitchison, Zoe Aitken, Hannah Allan, Isabelle Allen, Cassie Anderson, Lil Andrews, Emma Anglesey, Shenoa Anglesey, Jesse Apted, Nicki Armstrong, Peter Arnold, Chet Aswib, Laurel Atkins, Bodhi Aulich Croll, Georgia Babos, Justine Bailey, Jason Bakes, Claire Barker, Corey Barker, Dylan Barker, Angela Barnard, Heath Barrett, Holli Barrett, Paige Barry, Alice Baxter, Tom Baxter, Eden Beck, Emma Beechey, Jess Bennett, Vanessa Bessant, Arsene Biamungu Igulu, Ali Bignal Alison Bignell, Chelsea Billett, Allanah Blackman, Ellen Blackman, Rachelle Blakeley, Simone Blanch, Shenoa Bland, Emily Blazely,Kathryn Bloom, Ellen Bodell, Hannah Bodell, Sophie Bodell, Soph Bodell, Breia Bolton, Alaya Bolton, Chloe Boon, Abby Bowyer Bower, Tara Boyd, Joel Boyd, Hamish Brass,Damian Brauchli, Alex Braybon, Mark Brazendale, Conor Breen, Grace Brewer, Laura Briant, Josephine Briginshaw, Imogen Brown, Carmen Brown, Michelle Brown, Sean Brown, Skye Brown, Ebony Brown, Geordie Browning, Cassie Brumby, Melissa Brumby, Hayley Buckley,Kelly Burke, Emily Butler, Amanda Calabro, Ava Campbell, Tess Campbell, Jasmine Carr, Sarah Chapman, Sally Anne Charles, Sylvia Claridge, Peyton Claxton, Joanna Clifford, Barrie Cole, Rowena Collings, David, Coombs, Ashlee Cooper, Emily Costello, Jim Coulson, Eva Crainean, Laura Crick, Jess Cripps, Kristian Crowe, Katie Crowley, Dorothea Csutkai, Samara Cunningham, Billy Cure, David Cutler, Fiora Cutler, Emily Daly, Gina Damiano, Lashana Dance, Taynisha Dance, Ineke Dane, Stacey Davis, Nadia and Mikaela De Zoete, Stacey Dean, Lily Deeth, Megan Denne, Alex Dennis, Anna DePaoli, Paris Dingemanse, Cody Dittman, Lisa Divall, Caleb Doherty, Gemma Donnelly, Anthea Doroloulos, Ashley Dyer, Caitlin Eade, Jayde Earl, Lisa Eastman, Lane Edwards, Sarah Elali, Lauren Ellerton, Ashleigh Elliott, Clint Elliott, Chloe Elouisa, Liz Elsbey, Josie Emery, Alexander Epstein, Riley and Jorden Farrow, Finda Fayia, Victoria Feeley, Luke Felmingham, Joel Fenton, Andrea Fergusson, Amelia Fergusson, Marini Fernando, Natalie Fitzallen, Eve Flaherty, Holly Flaherty, Jamie Fleming, Janita Foley, Emi Forster, Michael Foster, CindyFoster, Bridget Frain, Jake Fraser, Cat Freeman, Ruby Frelek, Jenna French, Hayley Fulton, Bianca Galvin, Caludia Garwood, Ali Gay, Katherine Genge, Luke George, Scott Gibson, Lucy Gilmore, Grace Goh, Rhiannon Golder, Emily Goss, Siobhan Graham, Laura Grant, Anya Gravell, Jessica Gray, Gemma Gray, Shannon Gray, Chloe Green, Rhianna Greenway, Victoria Greiner, Pip Griggs, Justin Groves, Zeke Guest, Melita Gul, Cameron Hall, Jordyn Halliwell, Emma Handley, Sarah Hanky, Adam Harris, Bonnie Harris, Lauree Harris, Eloise Harris, Taylor Harris Nason, Krystelle Harvey, Daniel Hedlund, Rachel Hewison, Rebecca Hewitt, Chloe Hick, Rachel Hickson, Hayley Higgs, Aisling Hinchey, Cassy Hinds, Katie Hinds, Joshua Hodgkinson, Lyndon Howard, Zoe Howard, April Howell, Kristine Hudson, Madeline Huett, Jessica Hunt, Kei Ikeda, Benjamin Inman, Liz Oliver Inman, Courtney Innes, Emma Issac, Kylie Jackson, Elise Jackson, Molly-Kate Jacob, Natalie Jacobs, Carly Jacobson, Nichola James, Matt Johns, Hayley Johnson, Kevin Jones, Cassie Junkeer, Jezreel Kay, Abby Keen, Cait Kelly, Alana Kiely, Lily King Roberts, Rowan Kirby-Brown, RobertKmetoni, Gayl Koh, Grace Koh, Kyle Kremerskothen, Jess Kristevic, Kirtana Kunasegaran, Ilona Lakatos, Stephanie Lake, Tiffany Landers, Madeleine Lawler, Kaitlin Lee, Cate Lehner, Emily Leslie, Amber Lester, Keith Lim, Jake Lionetti, Zac Lister, Rebecca Livermore, Jessica Loft, Tanya Lohrey, Frith Loone, Angela Lovell, Josh Lowe, Sophie Lucas, Kate MacGregor, Holly Macpherson, Sepideh Madah, Clare Maddox, Emma Magnussin Reid, Nicholas Maine, Ally Mallpass, Holly Margetts, Gillian Marsden, Rosie Marshall, Taylor and Kiaimi Marshall, ChelseaMartin, Jade Martin, Haylee Martini, Liam Martschinke, Jason Maskiell, Jyoti Maulder, Clare McCann McCall, Maranda McCutcheon, Felicity McElwaine, Ashley McHenry, Paris McIntosh Taylor, Alice McKenzie, Kathryn McKenzie, Toby McKnight, DanielleMcPherson, Abby Meyer, Georgie Midson, Kirby Miller, Cheyne Mitchell, Kate Mitchell, Erin Mollison, Liana Mollison Shelley Moore, Lucy Morgan, Ella Morrison, Roisin Mortimer, Holly Moszko, Joel Mukinayi, Hannah Mulligan, Georgia Murphy, Larissa Murray, Natasha Nesbit, Alice Neville, Daniel Newell, Al Newman, Cara Nicholls, Hannah Nichols, Bridget Nicklason King, Alivia Nicolls, Lily Noonan, Anna Noris, Bella Notman, Darcy O'Loughlin, Justine Ocampo, Jessie Oliver, Alison Orr, Rachel Orr, Bec Osborn, Isaac Pace, Maddie Pace, Melanie Palomares, Emily Parsons, Amalia Patourakis, Taylor Paulsen, Tenille Pentland, Isabella Perkett, Alicia Perry, Kieran Phillips, Chris Philpott, Clare Pickett, Genevieve Piedade, Fletcher Pinner, Jarrod Pitman, Rhys Pitstock, Beau Polley, Emma Porteus, Michelle Post, Aimme Powell, Amiee Powell, Scott Prewer, Jasmine Pritchard, Sarah Propsting, Rebekah Pybus, Gemma Pyers, Jess Ransley, Sandi Rapson, Megan Rayner, Nikita Reeve, Frances Reeve Palmer, Bec Reid, Kate Reid Clark, BrookeReynolds, Ingrid Reynolds, Grace Richards, Jenni Richards, Jonathan Robarts, Jodee Roberts, TheresaRoberts, EbonyRobertson, Charley Robertson, Rhea Robertson, Anna Robins, Anna Roddick, Amber Romein, Kelsey Rosevear, Holly Russell, Immogen Ryan, Yasmin Santoso, Hannah Saunders, Jessica Scales, Emma Schubert, Shannon Scott, Frances Seen, Ellen Sheil, Joe Shrimpton, Jinaya Simpson, Alicia Smith, Ash Smith, Jordan Smith, Josh Smith, Keida Smith, Megan Smith, Mikaela Smith, Frankie Snowdon, Kate Southam, Heloise Sowerby, Corey Speers, Lyndsay Spencer, Made Spencercastle, Molly Spicer, Katie Stackhouse, Lauren Stanley, Chimene Steele Prior, Haylie Steuart, Mekaela Stonehouse, Ede Strong, Alicia Stroud, Natasha Tabart, Nessie Tamba, Rachael Taylor, Sam Thiele, William Thomas Nicolson, Alex Thompson, Cara Thompson, Keisha Thompson, Emma Thorold, Emily Titmus, Lachlan Tong, Georgia Triffitt, Alex Tse, Bella Tuppini, Hayley Turner, Skye Van Asch, Jade VanStralen, Linda Voumard, Priya Vunati, Carmen Walters, Eve Walters, Samantha Warmsley, Rebecca Warner, Janine Watson, Jay Watson, Nicola Watson, Sarah Watson, Sam Wearne, Rachel Weiner, Sarah Weiner, George Weir, Adam Wheeler, Zoe Whiley, Alison Wilkes, Emma Wilkinson Reed, Emily Rose Wills, Madeline Wilmot, Courtney Wilson, Marianne Wilson, Brittany Wood, Dylan Yeandle, Bridie Youd, Aliesha Young, Monika Ziemkiewicz.