PIECES 2025
UMAC acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we work. We pay respect to their Elders past and present, and their enduring traditions of knowledge sharing, performing and storytelling on this land.
Actors name
Chars name
Lucy Guerin Inc and UMAC present
PIECES 2025
Featuring works by Jenni Large, Jo Lloyd and Siobhan McKenna
Union Theatre , Arts and Cultural Building
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When
7pm
Where
Union Theatre
Arts and Cultural Building
The University of Melbourne
15 Monash Road, Parkville VIC 3010
PIECES returns with another thrilling triple bill of innovative dance works.
In 2024, Lucy Guerin Inc's long-running commissioning program took to its biggest stage yet in a major new collaboration with UMAC. Now, this beloved program returns with three new choreographers presenting three distinctive artistic visions.
Showcasing exceptional artists at the forefront of dance in Naarm, PIECES 2025 sees Jenni Large, Jo Lloyd and Siobhan McKenna each unveil a 20-minute performance commissioned by LGI and UMAC.
Playing for a strictly limited season, don’t miss three world premieres in one audacious evening of dance.
Event Information
PIECES is recommended for mature audiences. This presentation may contain nudity, sexual references, adult themes, loud noises and use of theatrical haze.
Running Time
Approx. 60 minutes with no interval. Latecomers may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance.
Image
'Seven dances for two people' by Tra Mi Dinh (PIECES 2024). Image by Gregory Lorenzutti.
Accessibility
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Accessible toilets available
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Infrared Hearing Assist System
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Wheelchair Accessible
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The post-show Q&A at 7pm on Friday 29 Nov will be Auslan interpreted.
PIECES would not have been possible without the support of The Eirene Lucas Foundation and WXYZ Studios.
LGI is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body; by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria; and by the City of Melbourne.
Meet the Choreographers
Jenni Large
Choreographer
Jenni Large is an independent dancer, teacher, and award-winning choreographer/director based in Kanamaluka/Launceston, Lutruwita/Tasmania. Driven by the personal, political, and transformative forces of embodiment, Jenni’s multi-limbed practice spans 15 years of dynamic experiences in independent and company environments across Australia. As a dancer, she has performed extensively throughout metropolitan, regional and remote Australia as well as Europe, the UK, NZ, the Americas, Japan and Singapore with artists and companies including Dancenorth, Tasdance, Dance Nucleus, Legs On The Wall, GUTS Dance, SA Opera/Leigh Warren and Ashleigh Musk.
Heavily influenced by aesthetics and cinematic tropes, her choreographic work is flamboyant and restrained, thematically analysing patriarchal systems, celebrating women and attempting to expose societal assumptions of stigmatised subjects. She has presented her work both as an independent artist and through commissions Australia-wide at festivals and institutions including; Mona Foma, Ten Days On The Island, Ohm Festival Brisbane Powerhouse, Dancehouse, Carriage Works, Desert Festival, ADT:Raw, Sound + Fury, Sydney Dance Company, WAAPA, Stompin, Australasian Dance Collective and Tasdance.
In 2022, Jenni won the People’s Choice Award for her Keir Choreographic work Wet Hard and was honoured to receive a Chloe Munro Fellowship. Recently, she participated in an Asia Link Singapore Arts Now exchange, performed in the UK and EU in THAW (Legs On The Wall) and premiered her newest independent work Wet Hard Long at Dancehouse in Naarm/Melbourne, which received a Green Room nomination for Outstanding Visual Design.
Jo Lloyd
Choreographer
Jo Lloyd is a dance artist based in Naarm, Melbourne working with choreography as a social encounter, revealing behaviour over various durations and contexts. Her practice seeks to find a language that refuses the limits of history, form and aesthetic. She has presented and performed her work in galleries, museums and theatres both nationally and internationally including commissions with Nibroll Japan, New Zealand Dance Company, Rising, Bundanon Museum of Art, Tasdance, Dancenorth, Chunky Move and ACCA. After graduating from the VCA, Jo worked with Chunky Move/ Gideon Obarzanek, Shelley Lasica and Sandra Parker. She has received several Green Room nominations and awards, including three for her work Overture, Arts House 2018 and Melbourne Festival 2019.
Recent works include; Out of Theatre for Melbourne Now at the Nation Gallery of Victoria and FM Air for The National 4 in 2023, Handsome at The Substation 2022, Archive the archive for National Gallery of Australia's Know My Name exhibition 2020 and DOUBLE DOUBLE created and performed with Deanne Butterworth, Tina Havelock Stevens and Evelyn Morris. Jo was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc. in 2016 and recipient of a Chloe Munro Fellowship 2022. Jo creates and presents work out of Studio 24, Abbotsford Convent with producer Michaela Coventry.
Siobhan McKenna
Choreographer
Siobhan McKenna is a Melbourne/Naarm based dance artist originally from the Bega Valley in NSW. Her experience in dance spans working as a collaborating performer, choreographer, rehearsal director and both teacher or participant in various workshops, classes and residency programs. Her choreographic work and practice has been supported by organisations and venues such as Sydney Dance Company, Dancehouse, Temperance Hall, Lucy Guerin Inc., The Substation, Dance Massive, Darebin Arts, The Gunpowder Trading Post and Critical Path, Australian Dance Theatre and the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, and ImpulsTanz (Vienna).
Both of Siobhan's work's Utterance and Rhythmic Fictions were nominated for Best Choreography in the 2019 and 2022 Green Room Awards and, in 2022, Siobhan was incredibly grateful to receive an independent artist fellowship from the late Chloe Munro AO and Lucy Guerin Inc. Siobhan's work often centers around exploring playful ways of integrating vocal sound, movement and language together to consider the fragility of communication and interpretation.
PIECES returns with another thrilling triple bill of innovative dance works.
In 2024, Lucy Guerin Inc's long-running commissioning program took to its biggest stage yet in a major new collaboration with UMAC. Now, this beloved program returns with three new choreographers presenting three distinctive artistic visions.
Showcasing exceptional artists at the forefront of dance in Naarm, PIECES 2025 sees Jenni Large, Jo Lloyd and Siobhan McKenna each unveil a 20-minute performance commissioned by LGI and UMAC.
Playing for a strictly limited season, don’t miss three world premieres in one audacious evening of dance.
Meet the Choreographers
Jenni Large
Choreographer
Jenni Large is an independent dancer, teacher, and award-winning choreographer/director based in Kanamaluka/Launceston, Lutruwita/Tasmania. Driven by the personal, political, and transformative forces of embodiment, Jenni’s multi-limbed practice spans 15 years of dynamic experiences in independent and company environments across Australia. As a dancer, she has performed extensively throughout metropolitan, regional and remote Australia as well as Europe, the UK, NZ, the Americas, Japan and Singapore with artists and companies including Dancenorth, Tasdance, Dance Nucleus, Legs On The Wall, GUTS Dance, SA Opera/Leigh Warren and Ashleigh Musk.
Heavily influenced by aesthetics and cinematic tropes, her choreographic work is flamboyant and restrained, thematically analysing patriarchal systems, celebrating women and attempting to expose societal assumptions of stigmatised subjects. She has presented her work both as an independent artist and through commissions Australia-wide at festivals and institutions including; Mona Foma, Ten Days On The Island, Ohm Festival Brisbane Powerhouse, Dancehouse, Carriage Works, Desert Festival, ADT:Raw, Sound + Fury, Sydney Dance Company, WAAPA, Stompin, Australasian Dance Collective and Tasdance.
In 2022, Jenni won the People’s Choice Award for her Keir Choreographic work Wet Hard and was honoured to receive a Chloe Munro Fellowship. Recently, she participated in an Asia Link Singapore Arts Now exchange, performed in the UK and EU in THAW (Legs On The Wall) and premiered her newest independent work Wet Hard Long at Dancehouse in Naarm/Melbourne, which received a Green Room nomination for Outstanding Visual Design.
Jo Lloyd
Choreographer
Jo Lloyd is a dance artist based in Naarm, Melbourne working with choreography as a social encounter, revealing behaviour over various durations and contexts. Her practice seeks to find a language that refuses the limits of history, form and aesthetic. She has presented and performed her work in galleries, museums and theatres both nationally and internationally including commissions with Nibroll Japan, New Zealand Dance Company, Rising, Bundanon Museum of Art, Tasdance, Dancenorth, Chunky Move and ACCA. After graduating from the VCA, Jo worked with Chunky Move/ Gideon Obarzanek, Shelley Lasica and Sandra Parker. She has received several Green Room nominations and awards, including three for her work Overture, Arts House 2018 and Melbourne Festival 2019.
Recent works include; Out of Theatre for Melbourne Now at the Nation Gallery of Victoria and FM Air for The National 4 in 2023, Handsome at The Substation 2022, Archive the archive for National Gallery of Australia's Know My Name exhibition 2020 and DOUBLE DOUBLE created and performed with Deanne Butterworth, Tina Havelock Stevens and Evelyn Morris. Jo was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc. in 2016 and recipient of a Chloe Munro Fellowship 2022. Jo creates and presents work out of Studio 24, Abbotsford Convent with producer Michaela Coventry.
Siobhan McKenna
Choreographer
Siobhan McKenna is a Melbourne/Naarm based dance artist originally from the Bega Valley in NSW. Her experience in dance spans working as a collaborating performer, choreographer, rehearsal director and both teacher or participant in various workshops, classes and residency programs. Her choreographic work and practice has been supported by organisations and venues such as Sydney Dance Company, Dancehouse, Temperance Hall, Lucy Guerin Inc., The Substation, Dance Massive, Darebin Arts, The Gunpowder Trading Post and Critical Path, Australian Dance Theatre and the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, and ImpulsTanz (Vienna).
Both of Siobhan's work's Utterance and Rhythmic Fictions were nominated for Best Choreography in the 2019 and 2022 Green Room Awards and, in 2022, Siobhan was incredibly grateful to receive an independent artist fellowship from the late Chloe Munro AO and Lucy Guerin Inc. Siobhan's work often centers around exploring playful ways of integrating vocal sound, movement and language together to consider the fragility of communication and interpretation.