Judges
Through the Australian Classical Challenge artists present their talents to an esteemed panel of globally recognised judges, who are celebrated for their groundbreaking work and influential contributions to the dance world. The judges for the 2024 Australian Classical Challenge Events are listed below along with their biographies.
Paul Boyd
Senior Classical Division
Born and raised in Wagga Wagga NSW, Paul trained with Beverley Waters, Robert O’Kell, The Bryan Lawrence School of Ballet in Canberra, The Australian Ballet School and Marika Besobrasova in Monte Carlo.
Paul’s professional dance career spanned over 25 years dancing as a Principal Artist in 3 German Opera Houses, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf/Duisburg, Oper der Stadt Bonn, Stadtische Buhnen Dortmund, Basel Ballet in Switzerland and Queensland Ballet.
Paul received the German Critics Award for ‘Best Up and Coming Artist in Europe’ and ‘Best Established Artist in Europe’ while as a dancer in Dusseldorf. In 1993 Paul danced the title role of ‘Spartacus’ at the Summer Arts Festival at the famous Arena di Verona in Italy and was a Guest Artist throughout Europe during those years.
His extensive repertoire as a Principal Artist included all the major classics and works from Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, John Neumeier, Erich Walter, William Forsythe, Roland Petit, Youri Vamos, Peter Breuer, Natalie Weir, Francois Klaus, Judith Jamison amongst
others.
As a choreographer his ballets have been in the repertoires Queensland Ballet & Queensland Ballet Academy, Australian Ballets Bodytorque season, Basel Ballet, Oper der Stadt Bonn and the Royal Ballet School in London performed ‘Uneven Ground’ at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2005 and 2012 and toured that work to Japan and New
York. At the invitation of John Neumeier, Paul was invited to create a new work, ‘Songs of the Auvergne’ for his Bundesjugendballett in Hamburg which was presented in Hamburg, Heidelberg and Berlin in 2013.
Paul has been a Guest Teacher and Choreographer at the Royal Ballet School in London, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Hong Kong Ballet, Suzhou Ballet Theatre in China, Semper Oper in Dresden, Architanz in Tokyo, Dresden International Ballet Summer School,
Ballet Connection Tokyo.
Paul is currently Ballet Master & Resident Choreographer at Queensland Ballet Academy, Character Artist for Queensland Ballet and in October 2023 was Guest Character Artist with The Australian Ballet during their Brisbane Swan Lake season.
Fleur Conlon
Senior Contemporary Division
Fleur Conlon is a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Beginning as a child her journey in dance led her to Europe at age seventeen, where she first participated in the 1999 Prix de Lausanne and then went on to study at the Vienna State Opera Ballet school, from which sprung a 14-year-long professional career as a dancer and performer in Europe.
Under the direction of Liz King, she performed for three years as a company member of Tanztheater Wien (Dance Theater Vienna), showcasing works at the company's theatre of residence the Volksopera and participating in Europe's prestigious dance festival Impulztanz. In Germany’s independent contemporary dance scene, she collaborated with renowned artists and choreographers including Christoph Winkler, Benoit Lachambre, Georg Reischl, Milli Bitterli, Michael Klien, and Esther Balfe.
Fleur was a founding member of the cast of Gaunod’s opera FAUST, choreographed by Michael Keegan-Dolan, which premiered in 2005 at London's Royal Opera House, where she performed the solo role of “Giselle”. The production toured to Monaco, France, and Italy. In 2013 FAUST came to Australia, and Fleur performed with Opera Australia, touring to Sydney Opera House, South Australia, and Western Australia.
From 2008-2010 Fleur was a dancer for the Berlin-based contemporary dance company Toula Liminaos cie, contributing creatively to six major works. They performed on numerous contemporary dance stages including Künstlerhaus Mousonturm - Frankfurt, Tafelhalle - Nuremberg and Bregenzer Festspiele Haus - Austria, and toured internationally to Brazil, Senegal, and Ecuador.
As part of her professional development, Fleur was a regular guest with William Forsythe’s company where she participated in classes and repertoire rehearsals and was chosen to take part in an intensive intimate learning experience with Contemporary dance luminary Deborah Hay.
Returning to Australia in 2011, Fleur obtained her Master's degree in Choreography at the Victorian College of the Arts with first-class honours. She danced in Alice Will Caroline's acclaimed work "Lady Example," -nominated for a Greenroom Award - and performed at the Dance Massive Festival in 2019. Currently, she collaborates with choreographer Caroline Meaden, engaging in research and development through residencies at Lucy Guerin Inc., Melbourne, Temperance Hall, and Geelong Arts Centre.
Since 2010, Fleur has taught and mentored young dancers in the disciplines of contemporary, ballet, and improvisation, conducting classes and workshops in various dance institutions in Europe and Australia, including as a guest teacher at The Victorian College of the Arts.
Chimene Steele-Prior
Intermediate and Senior Contemporary Division
Originally from Darkinjung country Chimene has worked as a performer with an array or independent artists and companies, Chimene is passionate about creating respectful, inspiring and playful dance environments. Her practice is concerned with expressivity, nuance and capacity of the human body to hold, endure and transform.
Most recently, Chimene worked on the Australian Premiere of Future Cargo by Requardt and Rosenberg (UK), Chimene joined Australiasian Dance Collective in 2023 for Lucie In The Sky, by Amy Hollingsworth and in 2022, Chimene performed in Project Animo's inaugral Season in Works by Alice Topp, Cass Mortimer-Eipper, Izzac Thomas and in solo throughout Australia and China.
Chimene's choreographic work has been presented at the National Gallery of Australia, The National Gallery Victoria, The Lawler Theatre, Dancehouse, Melbourne Fringe Festival Hub and The Winter in Banyule Festival. Her solo presented "The Presence of the Past" with M Collective at Dancehouse.
In recent years, Chimene has been exploring larger scale choreographies on stage at transit dance, NICA and Albert Park College. Chimene is a certified counter technique teacher and is passionate about facilitating dancers' connection to joy and trust in their own bodies.
Lana Jones
Intermediate Classical Division
Former Principal Ballerina with the Australian Ballet who had an accomplished 17 year career with 8 years being principal. Dancing the lead roles in Sleeping Beauty, Don Quioxte, Cinderella, Giselle, Swan Lake, Manon, Coppelia, Merry Widow, La Sylphide, onegin, Ballet Imperial, Firebird, Romeo and Juliet. Alongside contemporary works by Graeme Murphy, Jiri Kylian, Wayne Mcgregor and Nacho Duato to name a few.
Career highlights for Lana was the creation of David McAllister’s Sleeping Beauty as Aurora, and Graeme Murphy’s Firebird in the title role. During her career Lana received recognition through Australian Dance Awards such as, two Helpman awards a Green Room award and Australian Dance award. Lana has performed on international tours to Paris, New York, London, San Francisco, Japan, China and New Zealand. Additionally, Guesting with Hong Kong Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, Northern Ballet and Western Australian Ballet providing Lana with extensive exposure and knowledge about the world of Dance.
Now living in Brisbane with her Husband and son and enjoys sharing her experience and Knowledge to dancers who are passionate about Dance. Lana has recently completed her Bachelor of Midwifery and is currently working as a registered Midwife alongside coaching ballet which remains her first love.
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Paul Malek
Intermediate Contemporary Division
Paul Malek is one of the most highly regarded Directors and Choreographers in Australia. With a passion for education, self-empowerment and artistic innovation; he inspires many individuals, businesses and communities to strive towards becoming the greatest version of themselves possible whilst nurturing artistic development and professional growth. Trained in Classical Ballet and Contemporary Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, his performing career saw him tour the world through all 5 continents as dancer, dance captain, rehearsal director and company manager all before the age of 25. Returning to Australia in 2006, he became an avid entrepreneur, creating businesses such as Collaboration the Project (2008 – 2014), responsible for events such as UNDRGRND Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, Immersed Melbourne Dance Industry Night, DANCE CHAT and DANCE CHAT LIVE, Project Y (youth dance company) and over 16 professional production seasons and tours. Paul Malek is the original Founder and Director of popular Melbourne Dance Institute MAPA Australia (2006 – 2011), and was also the co-director of BOOM Media, a Marketing and Media Company, For Dancers by Dancers from (2011 – 2016). Currently a choreographic regular on television, credits include Dancing with the Stars (2012 ongoing) and So You Think You Can Dance Australia (SE 3 & 4). Paul has been the choreographic brains of well over a hundred corporate events, award ceremonies, television commercials, music videos and dance festivals over the last two decades. In 2015, Malek founded Transit Dance, and currently resides as Artistic Director of Transit Dance Company and oversees the immense output of performance platforms and educational opportunities created from within their state-of-the-art dance and performance precinct in Brunswick, Victoria. During his day to day commitments at Transit Dance, he is also a highly sought-after Host and Inspirational Speaker, speaking at many corporate events, conventions and festivals not only in Australia but across the globe.
Daniel Gaudiello
Junior + Pre-Intermediate Classical Divisions
Brisbane-born Daniel Gaudiello strapped on his first pair of dancing shoes at the age of six at the Johnny Young Talent School, then at Promenade Dance Academy. Later he completed the Queensland Dance School of Excellence and Queensland Ballet professional year before being accepted into The Australian Ballet School, where he participated as an exchange student with The National Ballet School of Canada and the School of American Ballet in New York. Daniel joined The Australian Ballet first seconded out of his last year of the ballet school in 2003 and then formally in 2004 and in early 2007, on scholarship, participated in classes with some of the world's finest ballet companies in London, Amsterdam, Munich and Paris. Daniel made his choreographic debut with a piece called “Notte in Bianco” for Bodytorque. To the Pointe in 2009, then “South of Eden” and “Tristan and Isolde”. Daniel was promoted to principal artist in 2010. He has recently left the Australian Ballet to pursue other ventures including acting on film.
Daniel’s principal roles with The Australian Ballet include both Des Grieux and Lescaut in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon, Basilio in Rudolf Nureyev’s production of Don Quixote (2010), Petrouchka in Petrouchka (2009), the Prince in Alexei Ratmansky’s Cinderella(2013), Siegfried in Stephen Baynes’ Swan Lake (2012), Franz in Peggy van Praagh’s Coppélia (2010) and works by Christopher Wheeldon and Jiří Kylián. As a guest artist he has appeared with Houston Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, New Zealand Ballet, Queensland Ballet, West Australian Ballet and English National Ballet. He was the recipient of the 2011 Australian Dance Award for outstanding performance by a male dancer in Coppélia, a Green Room Award and was nominated for three Helpmann Awards for most outstanding male dancer. Recently Daniel has Co produced and choreographed his first feature film “The red shoes- The next step” premiering this year.
Jareen Wee
Junior + Pre-Intermediate Contemporary Divisions
Naarm based contemporary dance artist Jareen Wee has been performing, choreographing and teaching in Australia and Aotearoa (NZ) since her graduation from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2018.
Jareen has performed in programs presented by Stephanie Lake Company (ESCALATOR), Latrobe Regional Gallery (Spectral Seas exhibition), Chunky Move (‘Δ: Archipelago (Change from Aotearoa))’,
Dancehouse (Now Pieces) and Inspired by Breathing (Shadows Dancing). She has also danced and collaborated with InPlay Projects, Liz Lea Dance Company, Jennifer Ma & Collaborators, House of Sand and James O’Hara. Jareen’s own works have received recognition in both the New Zealand Fringe Festival (Flying Down
Sand Dunes – Parkin development award) and the Melbourne Fringe Festival (Let Fall - ShowSupport grant and best Dance nominee).
Other credits include dancing in Melbourne’s RISING festival, Tempo Dance Festival (NZ), the International Youth Dance Festival (Macau, China), World of Wearable Art (NZ), Melbourne Design Week and in multiple dance films and music videos.
She also enjoys teaching at various institutions including Transit Dance, Jason Coleman’s Ministry of Dance and The Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.
Jareen’s interests lie in collaborating with musicians, filmmakers and other specialists to create meaningful connections and multisensorial experiences. She seeks to unlock the healing powers of movement, and her art often touches on what it means to be human and to welcome the natural rhythms of life. Jareen is also a poet and certified yoga teacher.