BETHANY HA

Bethany Ha (she/her) is an emerging Eurasian (English/Australian and Chinese) dance artist based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her dance artistry and creativity is imbedded in improvisational practices, community based work and interdisciplinary collaboration. As a dancer and choreographer, Bethany chooses to focus on the now and how the present moment choreographs the body. To react in real time demonstrates a lack of preparedness and removes the idea of mistakes. This is evident in her collaboration with Anastasia Lonsdale and Emilia Kyprianou, ‘Digital Life Tracker’ 2022 employing Isadora software and Xbox Kinect to produce a live and interactive performance.

She has a background in youth dance developments and is completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). As part of her studies, Bethany has performed remounted repertoire and original performances which include ‘HOME’ by Alleyne Dance and ‘Gesturing, Weaving, Unfolding’ by James Batchelor. She is currently in development with Joel Bray for her graduating season. Alongside this, Bethany performed in ‘Us And All Of This’ by Liesel Zink as part of FRAME Dance Festival 2023.

A long-standing relationship with Frankie Snowdon, Madeleine Krenek and GUTS Dance provided Bethany with the opportunity to work in Mparntwe/Alice Springs on the ‘Alice Can Dance 10 Year Anniversary’ and Brave Bodies projects. This saw her lead warm ups and dance based games as well as assisting in choreographing movement. Here, she could both invest and observe the power and success of dance on young people. Engaging with children through dance enhanced her ability to enable storytelling through movement. By working on Arrernte Country, Bethany further developed her communication and collaboration skills within the marginalised community. Here, she furthered her investigations into the relationships between minorities and post colonialism societies, more specifically Caucasian-appearing privilege in Australia.