The Board

Chair - Olwyn Williams

Until recently, Olwyn was Advisor to the Minister for Culture and the Arts in the West Australian government. She took on this role in 2005 after spending six years as General Manager of Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Prior to this, she was the Marketing Manager with West Australian Ballet (1994 - 1998). Olwyn's early days were spent as a radio producer, a role that led to various producer and marketing roles with independent artists and organisations. Right now interests in the retail sector are at the fore. Along the way there have also been various Board positions. Olwyn holds a Masters of Business Adminsitration from the University of Western Australia and loves contemporary dance.

Steve North

Steve is a Director at Veev Group, a Management Consultancy owned and operated in WA. Steve has a background in business and technical consulting specialising in strategic planning, project management, business process improvement, risk and business continuity. Steve has significant experience in business planning and improvement, managing major projects and combines a strong business background with versatile IT skills and experience. Prior to forming Veev Group, Steve was the General Manager of the Advisory and Consulting Division of one of WA's fastest growing companies, L7 Solutions. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Staffordshire in the UK. Veev Group

Liesbeth Goedhart

Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands Liesbeth traveled extensively in Europe and the United States before immigrating to the West Coast of Australia at age 23 where she settled working in tourism, events management and marketing. In her mid thirties, Liesbeth went back to study and completed a fine arts degree majoring in painting. Subsequently, her professional life focused on the arts in various roles including Director Marketing and Development for the Perth International Arts Festival and campaign manager for an Aboriginal art museum project. Most recently, Liesbeth has mentored artists and arts organisations and, as the Western Australian representative of the Australia Council for the Arts, worked towards growing cultural philanthropy in Australia. Liesbeth's interests are eclectic: Indigenous cultures, visual art, photography, textiles (especially the weavings of South East Asia), music, theatre, contemporary dance, literature, architecture, design, the natural environment and always - people. Her journeys in recent years have included visits to Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and a three-month sabbatical travelling around the Top End and remote interior of Australia visiting Indigenous art centres.

Aimee Smith

Aimee strives to be an artist, dancer, choreographer, lover, helper, fast runner, world changer, big smiler, sharp thinker, deep feeler, and a good cook. Since graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Bachelor of Arts Honours 2004), dancing has been taking up most of her time. As a performer Aimee has worked with international choreographers Paul Gazzola (Berlin/ Australia), Didier Theron (France), she engaged Melbounre choreographers Gideon Obarzanek (Melbourne), Gerard Van Dyke (Melbourne), and Phillip Adams (Melbourne) for her own '3 solos' project, and works regularly with local Perth choreographers including Sue Peacock, Deb Robertson, Bianca Martin and Sam Fox/ hydra poesis. As a choreographer Aimee is an active member of STRUT; has been commissioned to create works for BUZZ Dance Theatre (Refund Policy), and WAAPA (waiting for the revolution..., Alpha.Beta, A Lesson in Falling and Crease); has independently choreographed performance and installation works including Breakings(2010), Accidental Monsters of Meaning (2009), Courageously Heroic Gallantry (2007), fragments of a fracture (2007), Press Play (2006) and 53 (2006); received the 2007 WA Dance Award for Emerging Artist, carried out a 2008 Asialink artist residency in India, and in 2010 was selected as an artist to voyage to the Arctic Circle . Aimee is interested in bringing dance back into the world, endeavouring to do this through her community arts practice. Aimee participated in the World Urban EARTH Festival (Canada, 2006), worked as Lead Artist for AWESOME Arts 2007 regional arts program, has undergone numerous artist residencies in regional WA communities, and most recently directed TranscenDANCE, a community dance festival in Esperance. Read more about Aimee Smith.

Justin Rutzou

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and The Australian Ballet School Justin has worked with main house dance companies including The Sydney Dance Company, The Queensland Ballet Company, Leigh Warren and dancers, Expressions Dance Company and various independent works by Clare Dyson, Sue Peacock, Olivia Millard as well as commercial and corporate productions both nationally and internationally. As a choreographer he has been commissioned by Queensland Theatre Company, Queensland Performing Arts Trust, Expressions Dance Company, West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Queensland University of Technology. As a lecturer he has taught at Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Technikon Pretoria, QUT, WAAPA, UNITECH Auckland and has taught for Chunky Move Dance Company, Sydney Dance Company, Buzz Dance Theatre, State Theatre Dance Company, South Africa, Tanz Theatre Cathy Sharpe, Switzerland, Footnote Dance Company, New Zealand. From 2001-2005 Justin was a member of the dance department faculty of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Coordinator of the LINK program from 2004-2005. During 2006-2007 he directed Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane while the Artistic Director undertook a two year sabbatical. During this period the company toured to Stanford University, Washington, Miami, Hawaii and Hong Kong as well as state and national touring with great critical success. The company was awarded two Drovers Awards in 2007 for touring management and Innovation and excellence. From 2008 to mid 2009 he was a lecturer for the dance department of the Queensland University of Technology. Currently he is the Coordinator for Contemporary Dance at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Deborah Robertson

Deborah performs, choreographs and teaches the mediums dance and film. She graduated from WAAPA in 2003, BA Hon. (Dance), completing her honours as a member of Link Dance Company. Deborah has performed with Hydra Poesis (Perth), Aimee Smith (Perth), Compagnie Felix Ruckert (Berlin), and First Wave (Canberra). Her choreographies include The Deconstruction (2007), Confessional (2008) and Intimacy (Link Dance Company, 2010), and the films Lament (2003, finalist ReelDance Awards), The Deconstruction (of my shoulder blade) (2007), Hard Terrain (2009) and HOMME - Death Metal Ballet (2013). Deborah participated in a SPARK mentorship in 2006 with Tracie Mitchell as her mentor. She has worked as Assistant Director on a number of dance and dramatic films, including Tracie Mitchell's dance film Under The Weather and Michael Hatch's feature drama Bitter Art. She has taught contemporary dance technique, improvisation, choreography, dance for camera, and movement for theatre for private dance schools, workshops and numerous public and private high schools, as well as Strut Dance, Buzz Dance Theatre, WAAPA and Fremantle Arts Centre. Deborah is currently the Education Coordinator at West Australian Ballet, an Honourary Lifetime Member of Artrage, and sits on the Committee of Management of STRUT Dance Inc.

Amy Wiseman

Amy is a WAAPA graduate, completing an Advanced Diploma then a BA in Dance with LINK Dance Company in 2008. The following year, Amy received a STRUT Seed Residency collaborating with artists from Australia, France and Brazil in a first-stage development, and performed for the West Australian Opera's The Pearl Fishers. After performing at the 2009 ARIA Awards with Australian electro-pop band Empire of the Sun, Amy was invited to tour internationally, travelling extensively over the next two years throughout Australia, Europe and America. Amy has also been a regular contributor to Dancewest magazine in Perth as writer and editor. Amy is a member of Perth-based Unkempt Dance with fellow graduates Carly Armstrong and Jessica Lewis. The collective formed in late 2010 and performed their first work Tea for Three to a sold-out season at the Adelaide Fringe in 2011 where it was also nominated for the Best Dance Award. An adapted version of the work won the People's Choice Award at Canberra's Short Sweet Dance Festival in 2011, and it was developed again into a full length work for Fringe World in Perth 2012. Unkempt Dance also produced a season for new works by emerging independent artists in October 2012 and have been commisioned by STRUT to run the program again in late 2013.

Serena Chalker

Graduating in 2008 from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts with a BA (Dance), and completing her Graduate Diploma in Arts Management in May 2013, Serena Chalker has been an active emerging choreographer, improviser, performer and arts manager and one half of Australian site-alternative company Anything Is Valid Dance Theatre. She is interested in challenging conventional modes of viewing and interacting with contemporary dance. With AIVDT Serena co-devised and performed in Life in Miniature, which has just returned from the Adelaide Fringe Festival where it won the Award for Best Dance and has been nominated for an Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance. Serena also co-devised UNEXPECTED-microclimates, a site-specific promenade performance in the Perth laneways, which debuted to a sell-out crowd. AIVDT has performed at numerous community and music festivals including the Fairbridge Folk Festival and has popped up all over Perth dancing in unexpected places. In 2009 she was the choreographer and a dancer for electro-pop band Empire of the Sun for their Australian music videos and national tours. She has been a multi-year recipient of the Ars Musica Australis Arts Fellowship for emerging artists, and will be undertaking Masters of Dance Theatre at Trinity Laban College in London.