Kyall Shanks - Freelance Dance Artist & Yellow Wheel Artistic Director
Bio and CV

kyall@yellowwheel.com.au

BIOGRAPHY

Kyall is a Naarm/Melbourne based contemporary dance artist. Kyall works within in a variety of different areas within the dance industry, with experience as a performer, teacher, choreographer, director and producer for minor and major scale professional companies, institutions, national festivals and organisations. Kyall also works within youth, education and community dance contexts, and is passionate about increasing the accessibility of dance on all levels. Kyall's creative practice is an extension of this, often using introspection, humour and absurdism to help audience reflect upon and point out behavioural patterns and structures of society.

Upon graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2015, they were awarded the Orloff Family Trust award for Most Outstanding Dancer. Since then Kyall has danced for Tasdance, Antony Hamilton Projects, Chunky Move, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Opera Australia, The Delta Project and Liquidskin Dance Company. In 2017- 2018 Kyall undertook an 8-month international residency program with DanceBox in Kobe Japan, and then spent 3 months in Sweden as a member of ilYoung 2018.

Notable projects and achievements include working as both a Professional Cast Member and Community Dance Lead for the Arts Centre Melbourne/Matthew Bourne 'Lord Of The Flies' project, helping create the 2019 Dance Massive work 'Simulcast', Stephanie Lake Company's 2020 Melbourne Fringe work 'Multiply'. In 2022 Kyall produced Tamara Cubas’s large scale community work ‘Multitud’ for RISING, as well as working as Co- Artistic Director of the Australian Youth Dance Festival.

Currently Kyall is a Creative Associate of Assembly 197/Tasdance and works as Artistic Director to the preprofessional youth dance company Yellow Wheel. Since 2021 Kyall has worked as a Community Dance Lead for City of Melbourne, as part of the core team that helps produce and create the annual Moomba Parade. In 2024 Kyall will be touring and performing in two Chunky Move works, nationally and internationally.

PRODUCING, DIRECTING, TEACHING AND COMMUNITY WORK

Since 2016 (Ongoing):

• Freelance teaching for schools and companies on public, community, professional and tertiary levels
  Examples include ‘The Victorian College of the Arts, (Melbourne University)’, ‘Chunky Move’, ‘WXYZ Studios’,
  ‘Arts Centre Melbourne’, ‘National Institute for Circus Arts’, ‘Yellow Wheel’, ‘Ausdance Victoria’,
  ‘Transit Dance’, ‘The Space Dance and Arts Centre’, ‘Stompin Dance’, ‘QL2 Dance’.
  
  
  2024

• Artistic Director - Yellow Wheel (Ongoing since 2020)

• Producer and Mentor - Yellow Wheel’s 2024 ‘Trip The Light’ Season

• Assistant Choreographer - Liesel Zink’s large scale community work ‘Us And All Of This’, Bleach Festival
  
  

  2023

• Tour Assistant/Rehearsal Director - QL2, ‘Shared Language’ Thailand Tour

• Teacher - The Smith Family ‘Smart Arts’ Program on behalf of Assembly 197.

• Regional Tasdance Tour - Connecting with Community and Schools in preparation for touring ‘Influencer’,
  choreographed by Kyall Shanks.

• Core Artist - Liesel Zink’s large scale community work ‘Us And All Of This’

• Moomba Parade Dance Lead Producer - Working as part of the core team for City of Melbourne, working
  with local dance, community and cultural groups to bring together the 2023 Moomba Parade.
  
  
  2022

• Rehearsal Director - ‘Rewards for the Tribe’ - Chunky Move and Restless Dance Theatre, UK Tour

• Co-Artistic Director - Australian Youth Dance Festival 2022

• Producer - Tamara Cubas’s ‘Multitud’, 70-person full length dance work presented as part of RISING.

• Moomba Parade Dance Lead Producer - Same as above
  
  
  

2021

• Dance Lead/Choreographer - Slipstream Circus ‘Project Pride’ (LGBTQIA+ Community Project), Ulverstone

• Co-Artistic Director - Australian Youth Dance Festival 2021 (Cancelled due to COVID-19)
  
  

2020

• Core Dance Artist - Assisting in creating and leading Stephanie Lake’s 300- person mass community project
  ‘Multiply’ as part of Melbourne Fringe festival.

• Education Consultant, Employed by Chunky Move to redesign their education programs, ‘Experiences for young people’.
  
  
  

  2019

• DRILL Performance Company Residency at Mountain Heights School, Queenstown, Western Tasmania.

• Core Artist, assisting in creating ‘Simulcast’ a 300-person mass community project as part of Dance Massive
  led by Chunky Move, Tasdance and Yellow Wheel

• Teacher, leading multiple Beginner Series for Chunky Move.
  
  
  

  2017

• Community Dance Artist for Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Re:Bourne. Worked alongside Arts Centre
  Melbourne to teach 57 workshops around Victoria as part of community outreach program. Supported 23 young
  people in the one week season performance outcome at Arts Centre Melbourne.
  
  

PERFORMANCE EXPERIENCE

2024

• Universal Estate - Antony Hamilton/Chunky Move, Ωhm Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse

2023

• BOXed OUT - Film Work by Gilda Jones, MPavilion 10 Year Anniversary

• NON_TA Response - Antony Hamilton/Chunky Move, Now or Never Festival

• 4/4 - Antony Hamilton/Chunky Move premiere season (Understudy)

• Dance With The Demon - Nathan Maynard and Paige Rattray
  

2022

• AB_TA Response - Antony Hamilton/Chunky Move for Australian Ballet ‘Dance X’ season

• Collision - Jo Lloyd and Tasdance, Junction Arts Festival

• Acts of Holding - Wendy Yu, video projection work at Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart.

• House Party – Jenni Large and Tasdance, Durational Performance at Faux Mo, Mona Foma festival.
  
  
  

  2021

• Illuminate - Tasdance and Pakana Kanaplila, Launceston

• Collision - Jo Lloyd and Tasdance, Unconformity Festival

• Where Do We Start - Tasdance, Ten days on the Island festival

• After Eireka Eiffel – Loren Kronemyer, Produced by Tasdance, Mona Foma festival
  
  
  

2020

• Multiply - Stephanie Lake, as part of Melbourne Fringe festival.

• Sex and Death and Slime and Stuff - Tasdance at Faux Mo, Mona Foma festival

• Reactor - Tasdance, Mona Foma festival.
  

2019

• Unnamed Development and Showing - Stephanie Lake and The Delta Project.

• Token Armies - Antony Hamilton/Chunky Move, as part of Melbourne Festival.

• Trolls - Tasdance, Tasmanian School Tour.

• Universal Estate - Antony Hamilton/Chunky Move, Dark Mofo festival

• Universal Estate - Dance Massive festival.
  
  
  2018

• Deakin Motion Lab Mocap Actor - Various events and showings

• Q&A – Rachel Erdos and ilDance, Sweden Tour

• Heritage, Lineage and Future - Directed/Choreographed by Lee Pemberton.

  
  
  2017

• Shin Nagata is Daily Life (Version 2) - Kota Yamazaki, Kobe, Japan.

• +0>0-0 - Shintaro Hirahara, Kobe, Japan.

• King Roger - Opera Australia, Arts Centre Melbourne

• Lord of the Flies - Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Arts Centre Melbourne.

  
  
  2016

• Out of No Thing - LiquidSkin Dance Company, Sibu, Malaysia. Tari festival.

  
  
  2015

• NYX - Antony Hamilton, Melbourne festival

• Dance Farm Game Show - 2ndToe Dance Collective

  
  
  2014

• Dave Backup Dancer - Zoe Coombs Marr, Melbourne Comedy Festival

CHOREOGRAPHED WORKS

2023

• Hive Mind - Yellow Wheel, 2023 Major Work

• The Dancing Fever of 1518 - Yellow Wheel, QL2’s ‘Meet Up’ Festival

• Influencer - Tasdance, second development. Premiere date TBC

• Echo Chamber - QL2 Playhouse Season, Canberra Theatre Centre

• Multi-Story - Stompin Dance, 2023 Site Specific Major Work, Launceston Library.
  
  
  

  2022

• Loophole - Yellow Wheel, 2022 Major Work

• Placeholder Text - Yellow Wheel, Australian Youth Dance Festival
  
  
  2021

• Voice Over Duo - Short Duo Work presented at Tasdance End of Year Event and Slipstream Circus Cabaret

• Where Do We Start? - Tasdance, Ten Days on the Island Festival
  
  
  2019

• Quark - Remount, Yellow Wheel, Desert Festival in Alice Springs

• Remount Director - ‘Circle Dance’ by Gideon Obarzanek, Yellow Wheel, Presented at the Festival of Jewish Arts and Music
  
  
  

  2018

• In Reference to the .PDF - Yellow Wheel, Company 2’s Major Season

• Shared – Created through DanceBox’s 8 month Residency Program, Kobe Japan.
  
  
  

  2016

• Quark - Co-Choreographer, Yellow Wheel, 2016 Major work.

• Ore – Self choreographed solo tour, Tokyo and Ashiya Japan
  
  
  
  
  

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS

2020

• Nomination - Green Room Awards, Best Duet and Ensemble Performance, Cody Lavery and Kyall Shanks –
Universal Estate (Antony Hamilton Projects in Association with Arts House as part of Dance Massive)

(Tertiary - Victorian College of the Arts)

• Orloff Family Charitable Trust Award for Most Outstanding Graduating Dancer

• Creative Scholarship for Undergraduate Students (Dance)
  

TRAINING

• 2013 – 2015: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) - Victorian College of the Arts.
  
  
  

• 2013 - Yellow Wheel - Youth Dance Company member
  
  
  

• 2009 – 2012 - fLiNG Physical Theatre - Youth Dance Company member