Dana Nance is a dancer and visual artist. She joined the company as a workshop participant in Restless Central in 2004 and was then asked to join as a member of the Youth Ensemble. She has appeared on television and in numerous productions including Sustenance, Vocabulary, Continual Unfolding of Now, Rebel Rebel and the award winning The Heart of Another is a Dark Forest with Rawcus at the Melbourne Fringe Festival (2008).

Dana was one of the key performers in Necessity one of the three short films that were part of Necessary Games, the multi-award winning piece shown at film festivals around the world. She was also a performer in the award-winning production Bedroom Dancing, which was part of the ComeOut Festival program 2009.

Debut and Debut 2 were Dana’s chance to create and direct work to be performed by members of the Ensemble. For Debut (2008) Dana worked with Alison Currie and for Debut 2 (2009) she collaborated with mentor Sasha Zahra, Tutti Inc visual artists and first year dancers from Adelaide College of the Arts on a piece entitled Colours.

As a visual artist Dana has won many prizes for her work and has exhibited in various galleries including Artistic Licence Gallery, Pepper Street Arts Centre, Outsider Art and Julia Farr Exhibition. Dana’s intimate illustrations are meticulously created and have been used as part of Restless Dance Theatre’s marketing material.

Dana made her professional debut with the Touring Company in the world premier of Beauty as part of the 2010 inSPACE program at the Adelaide Festival Centre. She also performed with the Youth Ensemble and guests in Next of Kin, playing the panpipe with the band led by Hilary Kleinig (Zephyr Quartet). In 2011 she performed in Take Me There for the Come Out Festival and worked with Sydney-based Guest Director/Choreographer Dean Walsh for the first stage development of the next Touring Company production In-habit – nature versus nurture (working title) during a 3-week Artist in Residency at Bundanon Trust. She also performed in Andrew Pandos’ Operation Bear Trap…Rumbling! with his mentor Philip Channells and guest dancers from AC Arts in Debut 3 – the dancers direct. In 2012 Dana returns to the Touring Company for the 2nd stage development of In-habit and joins the cast of Howling Like a Wolf with guest director Zoë Barry.

Photographer: Sam Oster