People
GENERAL MANAGER
Cassandra Lake
cassandra@stepsyouthdance.com.au
Cassandra has worked extensively in administration through her positions with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the WA Youth Music Association and as a Festival Coordinator.
Cassandra joined STEPS Youth Dance Company in 2008, after eight years at the WASO where she worked in various roles. She worked alongside the Executive Manager, Artistic Planning with some of the world’s finest soloists and conductors to coordinate the annual program of Subscription concerts as well as the Chamber Music series, Family Concerts and programs with Pop Music Artists. She also managed the WASO’s commissioning and Composer-In-Residence program.
A graduate of the University of Western Australia, Cassandra studied Musicology and Flute performance to graduate with a Bachelor of Music (Hons). She trained in Arts Administration through the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp Words About Music program and on Scholarship with the WAYMA (then WAYO).
In 2008, Cassandra was awarded an Australia Business Arts Foundation Margaret Lawrence Bequest Scholarship to study at the Mt Eliza Campus of the Melbourne Business School.
Cassandra regularly presents pre-concert talks for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian String Quartet.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Alice Lee Holland
alice@stepsyouthdance.com.au
Alice is an independent choreographer based in Perth, as well as the Artistic Director of Western Australia’s STEPS Youth Dance Company. Her movement practice stems from her work in Safety Release Technique, studied with creator B.J. Sullivan (USA) as well as early training in Bodenwieser technique with Ruth Osborne (Australia).
In 2008 Alice created and presented her first full-length work titled Preparing to be Beautiful, which held its premiere, sell-out season in October 2008 at the Moores Building in Fremantle as part of the Silver Artrage Festival. Described by Nina Levy as "a triumph", Preparing to be Beautiful was extremely well-received in Perth, and nominated in Dance Australia's 2008 Critics' Survey as Best New Work (Levy), while Rita Clarke named Director Alice Lee Holland as "Most Interesting Australian Artist" on the strength of the production.
Earlier in 2008 Alice travelled to New York on invitation to create Pillars for Labor Force Dance Company, which premiered in June at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Alice maintains a strong professional network in the USA since living there between 2001-2004. During this time, Alice performed with the John Gamble Dance Theater (North Carolina) and at The Yard (Massachusetts) where she returned on invitation to present work in 2005, as well as completed her Master of Fine Arts in Choreography and Performance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Alice completed her Bachelor of Arts (Dance) at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in 1999. In 2000 Alice was the winner for dance of the Golden Key International Honour Society’s Performing Arts Showcase, for which she was flown to Los Angeles to perform.
Alice has been building her practice as an independent dance artist since her return to Australia in 2004. She has presented a number of short works in Strut Dance seasons, developing her style and repertoire with a talented group of young West Australian dancers who continue to work alongside her today. Alice strives to make work that is authentic and magnetic in its portrayal of the human condition, through the use of an evocative physicality that is both intense and intimate, rigorously explored, developed and refined to reveal a rich, vivid, relevant product.
Locally, Alice has created works for Strut Dance, WAAPA, Buzz Dance Theatre, Artrage and STEPS Youth Dance Company. In July 2009 Alice created the “entertaining and imaginative” Genie(us) for Buzz Dance Theatre’s annual primary-school season, which premiered at the Subiaco Arts Centre and went on to tour regionally. She has worked on a number of STEPS’ productions including Kissxx (2006), Powdermonkey Kalgoorlie (2007) and the Boys Can Dance 10 year Anniversary production Dash, which won the 2007 West Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography.
Since her appointment as the Artistic Director of STEPS in 2009, Alice has made three works for the company including critically acclaimed works PHOENIX (2010) and moonwebs & scorched thongs (2009), described by the West Australian newspaper as “an engaging, comical and insightful examination of gender… a highly entertaining… very sophisticated work”. Her passion for youth dance has also taken her to Canberra to work with Quantum Leap Youth Dance Ensemble as a commissioned choreographer for the company’s 2007 and 2008 Playhouse seasons, Unspeakable and My sister, my brother.
Alice first performed with Steps in 1992 and vividly recalls auditioning for the project with a broken elbow. In 1997 she was one of Steps’ young choreographers in the Nexus Season, which coincided with the first Boys Can Dance performance.
MARKETING & FUNDS DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR
Clare Goodridge
clare@stepsyouthdance.com.au