Dance Australia – June-July 2017

JUNE / JULY 2017 | WWW.DANCEAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

64 /CLASS

Josephine Weise and Nelson Earl

JOSEPHINEWeiseandNelsonEarlhadtheir

talent recognised when they both took part in

thepre-professionalprogramatSydneyDance

Company. They have both now secured

covetted traineeships with the company.

Josephine, who hails from Brisbane, first

trainedwithPamelaMarshallAcademyof

DanceinHerveyBay,Qld,beforecompleting

her secondary education along with her

dancestudieswiththeQueenslandDance

School of Excellence (QDSE). She won the

QDSE Dance Excellence Award in her final

yearalongwithanRSLYouthDevelopment

Program Grant in 2013.

For Josephine, the highlights of the last

coupleofyearshavebeenworkingwith

many inspirational dancers at SDC and

joiningthecompanyonherfirst

international tour last year.

Sydney dancer Nelson Earl received much

of his dance training while attending

NewtownHighSchoolofthePerforming

Arts(NHSPA).WhileatNHSPA,Nelson

worked with Adrian Van Winkelhoff and

visiting US choreographer Garfield

Lemonius.HewasawardedtheMarcus

SantosOutstandingMaleDanceraward

in 2013 and the Mary Zuber Scholarship

while in the pre-professional year at Sydney

Dance Company.

Nelson says that, among the many

opportunities to have come his way in the last

12months,acoupleofthehighlightshave

beenworkingwithIsraelAloniandLee

Brummer. He also finds inspiration in the

work of Cass Mortimer Eipper from SDC and

GuyShomroni,aformerdanceratBatsheva

DanceCompany.Healsolovesthemusicof

Sun Kil Moon.

On days off, Nelson likes playing bass

guitar. “I’ve just got a real groovy reverb pedal

that sounds like My Bloody Valentine are

playinginmyroom.”Healsoloves

doughnuts, he says, “the mouth-watering type

of love”.

Josephine and Nelson in SDC’s

recent production of ‘Orb’.

PHOTOS: PEDRO GREIG