MEET THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MARGOT POLITIS The exhibition is curated by Margot Politis, and working closley with a varity of Milk Crate Theatre artists, they will faciliate a series of workshops that can be adapted to fit your space.
With over 18 years of practice, Margot has become a recognised leader in NSW inclusive arts practice as a performer, choreographer, film director, and devisor of new dance theatre. Margot was appointed Artistic Director of Milk Crate Theatre in 2018, after two years serving as Associate Director, and designed and directed the company's 2019 major production, Natural Order. Previous to this, she spent 2009-2016 as the Accessibility Director at Shopfront Arts Co-op, where she established the Accessibility Program, directing the Bodylines and Harness Ensembles of young people with disability in various performances and films; including the film Reaching Out Over & Over, which was an official selection of the 2016 NYC Indie Film Festival. She began her career performing with Restless Dance Theatre as a mentee to Kat Worth in 2004, after graduating from the Flinders University Drama Centre 2003. In 2017 Margot choreographed the Shopfront Arts Co-op and ATYP co-pro, Dignity of Risk alongside Natalie Rose, which won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Production for Young People. Independently Margot has worked with Ausdance NSW, Accessible
12
Milk Crate Theatre
Arts NSW, Murmuration, Dirty Feet, The Song Room, Ever After Theatre, and Autism Spectrum Australia. She has been funded to study with various companies and artists in the USA: Axis Dance, The Gabrielle Roth Moving Centre, Tricia Brouk; and in 2013 was awarded a Cultural Leadership Grant from The Australia Council for the Arts to do the same in the UK, working with: Candoco Dance Company, Stopgap Dance, Mind The Gap, Graeae Theatre, and Oily Cart. In May 2015 she was artist in residence at Tasdance, Launceston, to provide skills development in inclusive practice for the company. Also in 2015, Margot established Self Help Arts, a collective of artists with lived experience of mental health support needs. Margot's focus as a practitioner is in making interdisciplinary and immersive performance work that explores social constructs, integrating theatre, film, movement, sound, setting and light. Margot has spoken at many events about disability and mental health, including as a panellist at the MCA Mental Health Awareness Week forum, and has consulted on the development of Arts and Health policy for government and organisations.
