(Up)holding 2023

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Tra Mi Dinh

A high energy work that has three dancers stuck in a loop - enduring, struggling, and performing their way towards clarity and resolution. In a world of unstoppable motion, our role as viewer is challenged as we witness the ridiculous/unrelenting marathon of life (dance) alongside the dancers.

Cast & creatives

Choreographer/Performer: Tra Mi Dinh

Performers: Emma Riches and Emma Harrison

About the artists

Tra Mi Dinh is a dancer and choreographer based across Sydney and Melbourne. As a dancer she's worked for artists including Lucy Guerin Inc, Chunky Move, Victoria Chiu, Lee Serle, Michelle Heaven, Isabelle Beauvard and Monica Bill Barnes & Company in works presented at Rising, Dance Massive, AsiaTopa, MEL&NYC, and Melbourne International Arts Festival.

Her choreographic practice has been supported through residencies with Tasdance's On the Island program, Sydney Fringe Festival's Art in Isolation, Critical Path, and Readymade Studios Constant Relay. Most recently, she was announced as the winner of the 2022 Keir Choreographic Award for her work ​​The ___. She will be presenting a new work at ReadyMade Works next Happy Hour program, as well as for Dirty Feet's Out of the Studio program.

Emma Harrison is a performer and maker across a multitude of art forms. Primarily a contemporary dancer and choreographer, Emma's practice encompasses multidisciplinary works merging dance, sung and spoken voice, improvisation, film and theatre. She is a graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts /LINK Dance Company and holds postgraduate degrees in Media Arts and Production and Primary Education (currently completing).

In dance, Emma works with independent choreographers in both Sydney and Perth and is a member of Dance Makers Collective. She has presented choreographic works through March Dance Festival, Art Month, Ausdance NSW, Firstdraft, Bondi Feast, Crack X Festival, Strut Dance WA, Sydney Fringe Festival, Fremantle Arts Centre and as a DirtyFeet Choreographic Out of the Studio recipient. As a film auteur, Emma has worked on projects for Campbelltown Arts Centre, Strut Dance, DirtyFeet, Critical Path, Triple J, NIDA, visual artist Susan Hawkins and various independent dancers.

Emma Riches is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist working in experimental dance. Working as a performer, choreographer and teacher, she is interested in how these roles intersect and inform each other. Emma has presented short choreographic works at Temperance Hall, Dancehouse, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Fringe Festival and LASALLE College of the Arts (Singapore). As a dancer, she has worked with Jo Lloyd, alice will caroline, Siobhan McKenna, Phillip Adams and Victoria Hunt. She has performed in Dance Massive Festival, Next Wave Festival, Festival of Live Art, Melbourne Art Fair, Immigration Museum Victoria, Melbourne International Festival, Public Art Melbourne, Yirramboi Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival and at the Art Gallery of NSW. Emma is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (BFA Dance 2015) and was a recent artist in residence at Schoolhouse Studios.

Image: Tra Mi Dinh and Zachary Lopez. Photography by Emma Harrison.