Kianna Oricci is a performance artist, choreographer and an emerging arts manager based in Naarm, Australia. Kianna’s practice is focused on continuing the growth of the New York Ballroom culture and exploring its intersection with the dance culture and ethnic cultures within Australia. Born in the Philippines and migrated to so called Australia in 2010, Kianna explored various street dance styles since their resettlement leading to their full-time arts venture in Ballroom. Currently, Kianna is the pioneering mother of the House of Oricci’s Aus chapter.

Lay the Mystic is a performance poet, musician and dedicated cubby-fort maker based in Narrm (Melbourne). He blends music, poetry and varying other artistic mediums to create a performance space that is magnetic and utterly unique. Lay’s current works are centred around intimacy, all things close being both a lens to understand societal or cultural issues, and a landscape to enact sustainable change. His recent collaborative works and performance installations have seen him in Next Wave, Arts House, Immigration Museum, Blakdot Gallery and Due West Festival.

Efren Pamilacan is a dance maker and independent producer of Filipino descent, a settler on the unceded lands of the Kulin nations. His work crosses cultural and social spheres intersecting between hip-hop culture, underground dance forms and the contemporary arts sector; and aims to create space for new dance communities to thrive. As a dancer and dance maker, Efren is a member of Jigsaw Sneakers collective, director of 9DIMES dance company, and founder of street dance battle City Sessions. As an independent producer, he is currently supporting independent artists / collectives as a co-founder of Cypher Culture, a Non for Profit organisation empowering street dance and its communities.

GENESIS is the accumulation of three years of community engagement within the ballroom scene in Narrm and across Australia. As artists and facilitators we invited over 20 participants both national and international across two separate labs with the support of Arts House, Creative Victoria and Cypher Culture. Each Lab sought to understand the current context of ballroom culture and ways we can collectively work together towards holistic enrichment.

We believe when community lead dance forms created by black and brown bodies overseas arrive on lands in which it wasn't created on, it's deserving of time outside of its demands in the community to recontextualise (with deep consideration) to properly support the environment it is in. This does not always occur when it is not allowed proper resources to do so. This project is doing just that, allowing time, finance and space for this to happen.

We truly appreciate our time these past three years at Arts House, the support from the team has been genuinely felt by us and the wider community who’ve been involved. We believe as artists and facilitators through the process of community driven art making we can create positive social change. We hope you enjoy GENESIS as much as we loved working on it.

Much love, Kianna, Lay and Ef

Co-Director: Kianna Oricci
Co-Director: Ileini Kabalan
Co-Director: Efren Pamilacan
Producer: Cypher Culture
MC: Mother Kianna Oricci 007
Commentator: Jamaica Moana 007
DJ’s: House of Silky Mother Mirasia and Godfather Shinobi
Judges: Mataya 007, Kilia 007, Xuela 007, Mother Jaycee Iman

GENESIS has been supported by Creative Victoria and Arts House through the City of Melbourne.