Dance Commons offers a 2-hour feedback loop between artists and audience members. A week of creative interaction with a cast of dancers spanning 5 generations and a variety of community groups is shared openly. Great Southern Dance invites audience members to experience live dance and design, discuss it with the artists and then view it being performed again.  

On the cultural commons GSD wants community connectedness to be dynamic, inclusive and cross-generational. We are drawn to ideas that foreground the life we share in common as a prerequisite for valuing the life we lead as individuals. Dance Commons is about the joy of dance shared so that audiences and artists can impact the performance experience together, in real time. 

Sitting at the creative heart of Dance Commons is the intergenerational performance experience Hiero. Meaning ‘sacred’, the Greek word ‘hiero’ is used here to highlight how dancers at different life stages perform together, deeply curious about respective roles, rights, responsibilities and lived experience. 

Conceived/directed by  Felicity Bott  with design direction by  Paul Wakelam Architect, Hiero is being developed in collaboration with  Mature Artists Dance Experience and youth interns who dance with DRILL Performance. 

Join Great Southern Dance to watch, love and do dance! 

2024-25 Artistic Team 
Artistic Director | Felicity Bott 
Ddesign Director | Paul Wakelam 
Costume Designer | Margaret Perversi 
Production Technician | BVAV – Brendan Veronese 
Lighting and Video Designer | Nicholas Higgins 
Design Technician | Antonio Nicasio, Iron Lion Design 
Volunteer Assistant Stage Manager | Sharyn Wilson 
Visual Designer (Hero Illustration) | Joanna Brown (WA-based) 

Creative Associates/Observers 
Chrissie Best (Theatre) 
Dean Stevenson (Music) 

GSD performers 
Alya Manzart 
Robert Alejandro Tinning 
Risa Ray 
Gabrielle Martin 

MADE performers 
Anita Planchon 
Anne Maginnity 
Annie Greenhill 
Cristina Pinedo 
Gabe Gartrell 
Laura Della Pasqua 
Leigh Tesch 
Penny Carey-Wells 
Shirley Gibson 
Sue Hayes 
Sue Pickard 
Yvette Breytenbach 
Melinda Mills-Hope 

Youth interns from DRILL 
Zoe Chilcott 
Evelyn Bryan 
Molly Griffin Taplin
Woolf Wakelam