ESCALATOR Event Program

Program credits

Presented by Stephanie Lake Company in association with Abbotsford Convent.

Images courtesy of the Stephanie Lake Company.

Welcome to ESCALATOR!

Presented and curated by Stephanie Lake Company, ESCALATOR is a night of short dance works created by five of our city’s freshest choreographic talents. Be taken on a wild journey to unexpected places, via the brains and bodies of the artists, in the hauntingly stunning spaces of Abbotsford Convent.

ESCALATOR launched in 2023 to rave reviews and buzzing audiences. It returns in 2025 with brand new works created by five choreographers: Alice Dixon, Marni Green, Robert Alejandro Tinning, Thomas Woodman and Carmen Yih.

Prepare for a night of dance that is fresh, thought-provoking, funny, and physical.

“Prepare to be moved, surprised, delighted, and devastated,” chimes the opening night event program, and in the accelerated span of an hour or so, this “Escalator” proves true. Be extended. Be challenged. Be magnified. Be wigged. Be intensified.”

— Fjord Review, 2023

Choreographers: Alice Dixon, Marni Green, Robert Alejandro Tinning, Thomas Woodman and Carmen Yih

Producer: Beth Raywood Cross
Lighting Design and Production: Rachel Lee

Lighting Associate: Nick Moloney

Producer Intern: Kayla Douglas

Curated by: Stephanie Lake Company

AUSSIEAUSSIEAUSSIE by Carmen Yih

HELLO NEW CITIZENS!

WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA! <3

⊹ ₊ ⁺‧₊˚ ♡ ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡˚₊‧⁺ ₊ ⊹

Credits:

Created and Performed by Carmen Yih
Projection Design and Programming: Derrick Duan
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee
Music: Nabii (Grace Kim) and The Song of Australia by Caroline Carleton and Carl Linger
Costuming: Aaron Rueda

Audience warnings: Contains references to racism.

More about the artist

Slipping Into Filth by Marni Green

I’m in the burrow with you.
I offer all of my skin for you, I receive fruit in return.
I go back into the burrow with you.

Credits:

Choreographer: Marni Green
Performers: Mara Galagher and Avril Eatherley
Composer: Robin Fox
Costume designer: Andrew Treloar
Lighting designer: Rachel Lee

Additional music:

I Need You Tonight by Punkin’ Machine

More about the artist

Sandunga by Robert Alejandro Tinning

A diaspora holds many things. We can be in solidarity with many peoples at once.

 Credits: 

Choreographer: Robert Alejandro Tinning
Composer: Louis Frere-Harvey
Costume Designer: Andrew Treloar
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee

Initial developments through: Instituto Sacatar Fellowship & Tanja Leidtke Studio Residency X Australian Dance Theatre

Thank you:

To the ESCALATOR program, Stephanie Lake Company, Abbotsford Convent and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation and their unceded lands we dance and create upon.

More about the artist

cold slow shock by Thomas Woodman

Risk is often pursued and avoided in the same breath. cold slow shock looks at how choreographic action, language and speculation can produce an impression of risk without a risky situating ever eventuating. It also considers tension, reconfiguration and uncanny transformation in the process.

Sometimes what you see is what you get. Sometimes what you see and what you get is a cold slow shock.

Credits:

Choreographer and performer: Thomas Woodman
Opening music: Toby Graham
Outside eye/text assistant: Megan Payne
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee

Audiences be advised: this performance contains flashing lights and loud, sudden noises.

More about the artist

The Folded Scene by Alice Dixon

“You seem restless, in a kind of permanent way.”

— Sarah Polley

Credits:

Choreography: Alice Dixon
Dancers: Alice Dixon, Martin Hansen, Rachael Mackie
Sound: includes compositions by Matthias Schack-Arnott and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106: III. Adagio by Bela Bartok.
Lighting Designer: Rachel Lee

Thank you:

Thanks to Stephanie Lake Company, Martin, Rachael, Matthias, Geoffrey Watson and Chimene Steele-Prior.

More about the artist

ESCALATOR by Stephanie Lake Company
6 — 9 August
Magdalen Laundy and Industrial School

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ESCALATOR is presented and curated by Stephanie Lake Company. In 2025, the ESCALATOR choreographers are also supported by partners Insite Arts International.

Stephanie Lake Company and ESCALATOR are supported by Creative Australia, Creative Victoria, Sidney Myer Foundation, Canny Quine Foundation, The Humanity Foundation, and individual donors.

Stephanie Lake Company would like to thank and acknowledge Abbotsford Convent for all of their support and The Australian Ballet for providing valuable studio space for our choreographers.

ESCALATOR Event Program

Program credits

AUSSIEAUSSIEAUSSIE by Carmen Yih

Slipping Into Filth by Marni Green

Sandunga by Robert Alejandro Tinning

cold slow shock by Thomas Woodman

The Folded Scene by Alice Dixon

ESCALATOR is presented and curated by Stephanie Lake Company. In 2025, the ESCALATOR choreographers are also supported by partners Insite Arts International.

Stephanie Lake Company and ESCALATOR are supported by Creative Australia, Creative Victoria, Sidney Myer Foundation, Canny Quine Foundation, The Humanity Foundation, and individual donors.

Stephanie Lake Company would like to thank and acknowledge Abbotsford Convent for all of their support and The Australian Ballet for providing valuable studio space for our choreographers.

Wominjeka! Hello!