Paulina Quinteros: Artistic Director & Choreographer
Chilean born Paulina Quinteros graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in Perth, the place where she developed her passion for Choreography. After graduation she danced in WA Ballet company's Romeo and Juliet then moved to Sydney where she joined Paul Mercurio’s Australian Choreographic Ensemble (ACE). Paulina chose to concentrate her artistic passion in choreography, creating works for festivals and choreographic competitions. To this end she has won both The Peggy van Praagh award for choreography and The Sir Robert Helpmann award for Professional Choreography, awarded by the Australian Institute for Classical Dance (AICD). She has been the recipient of an Emerging Artists award and two Choreographic Fellowships from The Choreographic Centre in Canberra.
She has created works for companies including The Australian Ballet, Queensland Ballet Company, NAISDA, Bondi Ballet, The Australian Dance Awards, Carnivale, Victorian College for the Arts, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and the University of New South Wales.
Paulina has collaborated on several occasions with Australian composer Ross Edwards, choreographing a movement of Edward’s violin concerto Maninyas for Bondi Ballet, his Madagascan Song for the conferring of The Sydney Peace Prize on Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Premiere of Edward’s Oboe Concerto performed at The Sydney Opera House by The Sydney Symphony Orchestra the subsequently, The New York Philharmonic Orchestra to great success.
In 2014 Paulina won the NSW AICD Dance Creation Choreographic competition culminating with an exciting public presentation of 'Golijov's Yearning at Melbourne’s Malt House Theatre.
The success of this work led to invitations from Queensland Ballet to choreograph two new works for their Dance Dialogues 2016 season and, WAAPA in Perth where she created the lyrical 'Circus of Dreams'.
In 2017, Paulina created two new dance works, "One Glass" and "Illuminae" for The Dancer's Directive Concert in Sydney NSW.
Daniel Savetta
Daniel Savetta studied under the direction of Hilary Kaplan and Archibald McKenzie, from where he was awarded a full scholarship at the Miami City Ballet School. From there Daniel joined The Washington Ballet were he performed featured roles by George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Trey McIntyre and many other renowned choreographers. Notable Awards include:
Gold at the 2010 Cecchetti Medals in Sydney Australia,
Gold medal in Men’s contemporary at the Youth American Grand Prix in 2012,
Two-time recipient of the Estelle Dennis Scholarship
Two-time Helen Hayes Awards winner for his portrayal of Edmund in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In 2016, Savetta performed with Paulina Quinteros Sydney dance company “Danza del Arte” in the premiere performance of “ La Choreografia” which won the 2016 Sydney Fringe Festival Award for Dance.
Veronica Mahon
Veronica trained at the Australian Ballet School and was Dux of the school in 1998. She subsequently joined the Australian Ballet Company in 1999 where she performed both Soloist and Principal roles. In 2003 joined The Atlantic Southeast Ballet Company in South Carolina, USA and in 2007 returned to Australia joining Sydney Dance Company. Veronica has won many Awards including:
Gold Medal, Adeline Genée Awards, London (Royal Academy of Dance)
Graeme Murphy Award for Excellence in Contemporary Dance
The Australian Ballet Society Award for Excellence in Classical Dance
Victorian Rotary Award for Excellence in Classical Ballet
and she featured in Valerie Lawson’s book: “Beyond 40: the Australian Ballet Celebrating 40 Years of Dreams”.
Veronica performed in Danza del Arte’s premiere season of La Choreografia in 2016, and collaborated with Paulina Quinteros in realizing a new work “Just one Glass” for The Dancers’s Directive 2017.
Daryl Brandwood
Daryl’s professional dance career spans over 20 years, including performances with The Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet and Australian Dance Theatre. Awards include the Helsinki International Ballet Competition, a Green Room Award, a Helpmann Award, and Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer for HELIX, created with Barry Moreland. EDC performances include where the heart is (2012), R&J (Tour 2013), Carmen Sweet, 4Seasons (Singapore Dance Theatre), When Time Stops, SOLO Festival ofDance, The Red Shoes and The Host. Daryl joined Expressions Dance Company in 2012, performing in many contemporary works and was nominated for a Helpmann award in 2016.
Simone Smiles
Simonne Smiles graduated from the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts. Her dancing career begun with Queensland Ballet company, and continued with the Singapore Dance Theatre dancing an extensive and varied repertoire and touring internationally. Highlights include tours to Mexico and France. In 2007 she joined the Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Centre in China. Simonne performed in Paulina Quinteros’s works for Short & Sweet Festival in 2009 & 2010 , and recently danced in the premiere performance of “La Coreografia” with Danza del Arte.
Damien Grima
Damien commenced his dance training in Queensland before moving on to the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne. He has extensive and varied experience as a professional dancer, including Opera Australia, cruise ships, performing “Copacabana” in England, and for the Potters Theatre Company. He has choreographed pieces for the Short Sweet & Dance Festival and taught Jazz, Contemporary and Ballroom. Damien has performed both Adagio and Duo Lyra at the Edinburgh Festival, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe Festival with his dancing partner Simonne Smiles.
Damien has been a regular collaborator with Paulina Quinteros over a number of years including the Premiere Season of 'La Choreografia' with Danza del Arte.
Rebecca Nastasi
Rebecca is an exciting young performer. She graduated from Urban Dance Centre in 2009 and from Ev & Bow Dance Training Centre in 2013. She performed throughout Australia with Lorcreado Dance Company from 2010-2012 and was part of the Mont Blanc Metamorphosis launch in Beijing.
She first collaborated with Quinteros in the creation of the work 'Golijov's Yearning' which saw her travel to Melbourne to perform in the Malthouse Theatre.
Rebecca most recently performed in Paulina Quinteros’ latest production of “La Choreografia“ with Danza del Arte.