Anastasia Retallack

Anastasia Retallack is a woman who has Down Syndrome and was a member of Restless Dance Theatre for eight years before graduating in 2009. During her time as a member of the Youth Ensemble Anastasia performed in numerous productions including, Headlong, In The Blood, Singing with Angels, Vocabulary, the co-production between Restless Dance Theatre and Australian Dance Theatre, Safe From Harm and Bedroom Dancing.

Anastasia was a co-tutor for the company between 2002-2006 and in that final year toured with Restless to Melbourne as part of a creative development with Weave Movement Theatre,

Dancing since the age of four Anastasia, whose original involvement with the company began through Restless Central, continually attends workshops and regular dance classes and has gained confidence and self esteem from performing and working with people of all ages.

Now part of the Restless Dance Theatre’s touring company as a professional artist she will perform in the company’s forthcoming work, Beauty.

James Bull

James Bull joined Restless Dance Theatre in 1999 and has performed with The Youth Ensemble in numerous productions including Proximal, The Days Allotted to Me, Headlong 2, Starry Eyed, The Laminex Man, Sustenance, Vocabulary, Continual Unfolding of Now, Rebel Rebel, The Heart of Another is a Dark Forest and Bedroom Dancing. He also performed in the Precious tour to the 2000 Sydney Paralympics and was a member of the touring company that collaborated with Ingrid Voorendt to create Safe from Harm in 2008.

James works as a co-tutor with the company on projects including Growth Spurt and Restless Central and was on the Restless Board of Management from 2000-2009.

James exits purely in the present, due to a lack of short – term memory, making him an extraordinary performer.

Lorcan Hopper

Lorcan Hopper is a dancer with an intellectual disability and is a member of Restless Dance Theatre. Lorcan started working with Restless in 2004 as a workshop participant. He was invited to join the Youth Ensemble in 2005 and has since performed in Sustenance, Vocabulary (a collaboration with Australian Dance Theatre), Continual Unfolding of Now, Rebel Rebel, The Heart of Another is a Dark Forest (a collaboration with Rawcus), which was winner of Best Performance at the Melbourne Fringe 2008, and Bedroom Dancing. He has recently performed in Necessary Games, an award winning dance film with Closer Productions, which premiered at the 2009 Adelaide Film Festival.

In April 2008 Lorcan made his professional debut with the company in Safe from Harm, the first production by the Restless Touring Company.

In 2009 Lorcan worked with Daisy Brown in the first stage development of Untender an independent work with the theatre company, Misery Children.

Debut 2 at the end of 2009 was Lorcan’s second directorial engagement with Restless Dance Theatre. His first, in 2008 was Binge Drinking a piece he worked on with mentor, Sam Haren and for Debut 2 he worked with Glen McCunley on a piece entitled Time Travelling.

Lorcan has Down Syndrome and is a proud disabled artist bringing enormous energy, enthusiasm and charisma to his work with the company.

Mario Spate

Mario Spate is an actor, singer and sound designer who graduated from Adelaide College of the Arts after studying acting. He has worked with a number of theatre companies including Patch Theatre, Urban Myth, The Bakehouse Theatre and Restless Dance Theatre. He is a co-founder of Little Black Box Theatre who in 2009 won a Green Room Award for their self-devised work, Mutzen Ball.

Steve Noonan

Stephen Noonan is a performance maker. He works across the fields of dance, theatre, puppetry and circus.

His first performance with Restless Dance Theatre in 1991 in their show Fidget and Funk. He went on to perform in Ikons, Love Dances, Sex Juggling, Perfect Match and 2008’s Safe from Harm.

He has performed in Australia, Asia, Europe and America and taught at art institutions in Vietnam, Sweden and at Arts for the Disabled in Hong Kong. As a community arts worker Stephen was involved in the Arts in the Outback project giving remote communities access to dynamic young artists in the form of workshops in dance and music.

Stephen has taught Restless Dance Theatre workshops over many years and credits his association with the company as having a major impact on his own work.

Zoë Barry