Don Asker

Dip. of Dance (Australian Ballet School), M A (University of Melbourne), PHD (University of Melbourne)

Choreography
2002 'Playback', VCA, Gasworks Theatre, Melbourne
2001 'Hypertension', Melbourne
1999/98 'Installations nos. 1, 2, 3'. Melbourne.
1995 ‘Star Dragon’, (full length work) Greenmill Dance Festival, Merlin Theatre Malthouse, Melbourne.
1994 ‘Bending the Willow’, (full length work) Victorian Arts Centre.
1994 ‘Surface Tension’ Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane.
1994 ‘Mirage’, VCA tertiary dance program
1993 ‘Skin Deep’, Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane.
1993 ‘Monkey see, monkey do’, VCA tertiary program
1992 ‘To Tango at the Side of Angels’, Nucleodanza, Argentina.
1992 ‘Mother Tongue’, CUB Malthouse, Melbourne.
1991 ‘Interior Discourse #2’, (full length work) Beijing, Fuzhou and Melbourne.
1991 ‘Interior Discourse #1’, ADF, North Carolina, USA.
1979-1988 Artistic director of Human Veins Dance Theatre, Canberra, Australia. Choreography of more than twenty new works, including 5 full length works, performed throughout Australia and New Zealand
1973-1978 House choreographer Nederlands Dans Theater, Holland, created 6 new works, performed throughout Europe. Other choreography for the Kibbutz Dance Company (Israel), Rotterdam Dans Centrum (Holland), Basic Space (UK), the Australian Ballet, the Queensland Ballet, The West Australian Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, and Australian Dance Theatre.Multi-modal performance
2002 Stepping lightly (installation work for Wildart exhibition, Bega Gallery)
2001 Perspectives on a river installation for Wildart, Bega Gallery.
1996/98 ‘Ways of Seeing’ collaborations with independent artists, Melbourne

Teaching
(Fulltime and guest teaching positions include)

2002 Workshop ‘Embodied knowledges – researching your dance practice’ Omeo dance Studio, Sydney, Australia.
1999-2004 Lecturer MIECAT (Melbourne Institute of Experiential and Creative Arts Therapy)
1989-2004 Senior Lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts, coordinator of postgraduate studies in dance
2000 Danceworks, Melbourne.
1999 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
1997 Seoul University, Seoul Contemporary Dance Company Chen Chen University,(International tertiary workshop)
1994 West Australian Academy of the Performing Arts.
1993 Nucleodanza, Argentina
1992 Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane.
1991 Fuzhou, Beijing (Australia China dance exchange project)
1989 China: Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu. Hungary: Pecs, Budapest, Szeged.
1986-88 Human Veins Dance Theatre
1978 The Kibbutz Dance Company, Israel.
1975/78 The Queensland Ballet
1973-78 Rotterdam Dance Centrum, Rotterdam Conservatorium, The Hague Conservatorium.

Professional performance
2002 'Cracking it open' Dancehouse, Melbourne
2002 'Wildart', Bega Gallery, NSW
1998/99 'Installations nos. 1, 2, and 3'. Melbourne.
1999 Illinois, Krannet Centre, Urbana-Champagne, USA. ‘Interior Voices’.
1997 Seoul and Chen Chen, South Korea, ‘Interior Voices’
1995 Greenmill Festival, Melbourne, ‘Star Dragon’.
1991 Cross country Flying, Mallacoota Festival, and Melbourne
1991 Interior Discourse #1, ADF, North Carolina, USA
1991 ‘Interior discourse#2’, Fuzhou and Beijing.
1979-1988 Human Veins Dance Theatre
1979 ‘Shedding of Leaves’, Kibbutz Dance Company
1973-75 Nederlands Dans Theater (including works by Kylian, Van Manen Sanders,)
1973 London Festival Ballet
1971-73 The Australian Ballet
1970 Australian Dance Theatre

Opera and theatre
Choreography for productions of Britten’s ‘A Pilgrim’s Progress’, and Verdi’s ‘Aida’.
Director/Choreographer of Stravinsky’s ‘Les Noces’ and Xenakis’ ‘Oresteia’, for the Canberra Theatre and the Victorian Arts Centre.
Movement direction for Canberra Theatre Centre, ‘On Our Selection’, directed by George Whalley, Canberra Repertory Theatre’s ‘From the absence of sunshine’ directed by Sandy McCutcheon.

Film/video
2002 'Gwen and Lewis', documentary
2000 Installation "Views of a river" Wildart group exhibition, Bega Art Gallery NSW.

1999/2000 ‘Clay’ Collaboration with film-maker Nubar Ghazarian, Don Asker and Jane Mortiss
1999 Video: ‘Fully Immersed’
1995 Star Dragon, (stand alone film) Co direction with Philippe Charluet
ABC TV films of dance works Clowns and Eclipse

Grants and awards

2004 Research grant, VCA/University of Melbourne
1998/99 Australia Council Choreographic Fellowship
1989-99 Numerous Australia Council and Arts Victoria grants to develop and realise new performance works.
1990-2001 Victorian College of the Arts research awards.
1992 International choreographer, ADF.
1991 Myer Foundation grant towards Australia China dance exchange.
1989 Winston Churchill Fellowship
1980 Australian National University artistic fellowship.

Board Membership
2001-2002 Danceworks, Melbourne
1999-2004 Melbourne Institute of Experiential & Creative Arts Therapy
1994-96 Australia Council, Dance Committee
1992-94 Arts Victoria, Dance Committee
1991-94 Melbourne International Chinese Arts Festival
1992-95 Greenmill Dance Festival
1995-2002 Green Room Awards Committee

Papers and publications

2003 Qualitative reflections on collaborative improvisation, Brolga
2001 Doctoral dissertation: 'Personal meanings and artistic processes:
a study of multi-modal improvisation'
2001 'Experiences in cross modal improvisation', in <proximity> Vol 4, Edition 1 March 2001
1999 'Creative approaches', seminar presentation University of Illinois Urbana - Champaign
1997 'Phenomenological research: a case study in the performing arts', paper presented at the Double Dialogues: Conference with a Difference, Melbourne
1996 'The body in question: new dance in the 90s', unpublished Masters thesis.
1995 'Inscriptions on the body', prepared for and presented at the Sixth Dance and the Child International Conference, Sydney, Australia. Conference proceedings published.
1992 'Cultural fusion: a questionable collusion', prepared for and presented at the ASPACAE (Australian and South Pacific Conference of Arts Educators, Melbourne.
1991 Australia China Dance Exchange, report on cultural interaction for Churchill foundation.