I Am Carisma

Meet the Artists

• Jonathan Homsey

  

  Jonathan Homsey is a Green Room award winning choreographer and curator working from the positionality of as a Queer Person of Colour based on Wurundjeri country. Originally an award winning dancer for crews during the naughties in Southern California, he is humbled to be a community leader in so called Australia for the past decade galvanising people together to dance. From Footscray Community Arts, Dancehouse to Melbourne Museum, he specalises in platforming Street and Queer dance forms to cultivate empowerment for sexually and ethnically diverse young people. Working across theatre, public and gallery spaces, he is passionate about getting people to feel good from the inside out, whether through witnessing or participating.

• MaggZ

  

  MaggZ is a Naarm-based (Melbourne, Australia) queer Chinese movement artist, creative director and producer, specialised in waacking – a freestyle dance originated in 1970s LA from the latinix and African American queer community, predominantly involving arm movements. Traversing amongst street dance battles, live performances, installations, creative direction and producing, MaggZ’s practice centres aliveness, stillness, persistence and agency and aspires to honour the authentic self and living experience through transdisciplinary explorations. MaggZ’s recent achievements are – the recipient of the Young Creative Awards in 2020, nominated four times by the Green Room Awards, and the winner of Destructive Steps allstyle 2v2 dance battle in 2022.

• Marnie Newton

  

  Marnie Newton (aka. Milk) is a multi-disciplinary practitioner in both the architectural and dance fields as well as a cofounder of Melbourne’s largest female dance community, Sister Sessions. Trained in classical dance (jazz and tap) for 10 years, Marnie made her transition to Street and Freestyle Dance in the early 2010’s, learning and practicing in multiple styles (Hip hop, locking, breaking and house) before discovering the LGBTQIA dance style and culture of Waacking in mid 2012. Mentored by the only waacker in Melbourne at the time, Andy Kuramoto, Marnie co-founded Melbourne’s first Waacking community, Burn City Waack, which focused on sharing and educating people on Waacking, which has been running for over 8 years.

• Kerttu Luik

  

  Coming proudly from Estonia, Kerttu Luik is one of the leading street dancers and dance teachers in the Nordic and Baltic countries). She has travelled the world performing on big stages and competing in world renowned dance competitions. Kerttu has facilitated numerous inspiring and engaging workshops utilising her key skills in different street dance styles. Since 2010, Kerttu has been teaching street dance at the biggest dance schools in the Baltics, JJ-Street Dance Company. She taught over 350 students weekly and has taught 17 new street dance teachers between the years 2010 – 2020. Since 2012 she has been the managing partner in JJ-Street Dance Company, mentoring over 45 teachers and over 1800 students until she moved to Australia in 2020 March.