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Joseph Lau

Joseph is an independent artist creating contemporary physical, movement and choreographic work, as well as working in interdisciplinary and collaborative ways. Joseph also has a history in commercial finance and value adding. In making work, Joseph is interested in the political, social justice, value constructs and paradigms, the relevance and impact of work and the visceral. Joseph’s creative process traverses research across: personal & embodied histories, geopolitical histories, economic theories & events, score making, responsiveness and image construction.

 

Joseph’s choreographic work has previously been realised through self-organisation and commissions. Much of Joseph’s work has occurred in public or non-traditional performance spaces. Selected works and commissions include: ‘Viva... ’ (‘Dance Channels’ EU commission presented at festivals in Spain, Italy and in the UK), ‘Deeper Than All Roses’ (FascinatE multimedia project between BBC, Technicolour, University of Salford and EU partners), being an inaugural Moving Dance Forward Associate (Dance Manchester and MDI in partnership with the Unity Theatre, Contact, The Lowry and University of Salford), University of Salford, the 2010 TURN Prize work ‘Abandoned Things’, works as part of the new movement and dance collective Out of the Blue Productions in partnership with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and eu-art-network (presented at MediaCityUK, Teatro La Fenice, Bridgewater Hall and Austrian Cultural Forum), ATOM Choreographic Series #3 (Bulgaria) and the solo work ‘The Age Of Ledger’ (a dystopian work exploring the social and ethical consequences caused by a market based globalised economy and their effects on the psychology, behaviour and attitudes of individuals presented at venues and festivals in the UK and Australia). Joseph’s current project in development ‘Elephants’ has to date been supported by a Dance4 (UK) Remote Residency.​

 

Joseph is a Co-Creator/ Co-Choreographer/ Co-producer of ‘They Gather’ an independent international multi-modal project creating gatherings of people, action, music, sound and dance in public, festival, cultural, digital and personal spaces. ‘They Gather’ has been programmed to date by Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance, The Lowry (#LoveLowry digital programme), The Place and Chisenhale Dance’s digital festival ‘How Do We Tune Into Sensation’ and Rewire international music festival (the Netherlands). https://www.theygatherproject.com

 

Joseph has a history of performance working with imitating the dog (‘Zero Hour’), Boris Charmatz (in Manchester International Festival), Roman Liubyi and Babylon’13 (in ‘Iron Butterflies’ a hybrid documentary about the downing of flight MH17), Opera Queensland(‘Pearl Fishers’ and Graeme Murphy’s ‘Turandot’), Buzz Dance Theatre (company dancer touring works and delivering workshops in metro, regional and remote Australia), Dancenorth Australia, Willi Dorner (‘Bodies In Urban Spaces’), Slunglow (‘They Only Come at Night’), Barking Gecko (‘Hidden Dragons’ - including Australian and internationally touring), Bridget Fiske (‘Inner Terra’, ‘Never The Foxes’, Because of Gravity’, ‘YES Move. NO Move. (Moved?)’) and more. 

Joseph has an extensive history facilitating in education, community and professional training contexts. Since 2011 Joseph has been a sessional lecturer at University of Salford. Joseph has also worked on acclaimed grassroots youth dance projects such as STRIDE - a dance project for young men in Greater Manchester realised via a partnership between Company Chameleon and Dance Manchester, amongst many other projects and engagements.

 

After completing a Bachelor of Commerce and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (Australia & New Zealand), Joseph undertook a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) at Queensland University of Technology. This dual knowledge supports Joseph to also take on roles in arts and cultural leadership, predominantly spearheading artist-led initiatives. Roles include:​ 

  • current roles with hAb (Advisory Committee Member) and Manchester Dance Consortium(Strategic Group Member), and

  • previous roles with Company Chameleon (Board Member), Ausdance Queensland  (Treasurer), Critical Mass - Brisbane artist led initiative (Committee Member) and Expressions Dance Company (Treasurer).

 

Joseph is also the UK Producer of ‘The Correspondents’ (a partnership project with Ukrainian film NGO Babylon’13 supported by the European Union under the House of Europe). Joseph is currently completing a certified Core Skills in Coaching & Mentoring course with Guildhall.

 

Joseph identifies as being born a migrant: born in Singapore of Malaysian citizenship to Chinese Malaysian parents, Joseph migrated to Papua New Guinea and Australia in his youth and then as an adult with a 15 year career in Australia found his way to the UK.

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www.jauartist.com

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