Choreographing the Club

A promise of sweat, precision, and inherent joy.

Participants are invited inside the world of the rave, unpacking the detail and precision behind its iconic moments. Rooted in Aotearoa New Zealand’s distinct contemporary physicality, the workshop shares the trio’s collective practice as a convergence and melting pot of dance forms. Drawing from rave-informed choreography and social dance settings, movement becomes a vehicle for euphoria, togetherness, and catharsis, driven by club soundscapes.

Through relentless, high-energy phrasework, participants will learn and embody repertoire from the work, breaking choreography down beat by beat. With a strong relationship to time and music, complex patterning and polyrhythms are explored through the body while activating shared spatial relationships and deepening musicality.

The session weaves together repertoire, improvisations, and discussion, offering insight into the construction and compositional thinking behind the work. Participants are encouraged to challenge their intensity, endurance, and atmosphere to build a shared dancefloor experience that is both rigorous and expansive.

This workshop is suitable for participants 16 years and older, with prior dance experience.

Oli Mathiesen (Ngāti Manu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) - Creator, Choreographer, and Performer

Oli Mathiesen is an indigenous choreographer and dancer based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Manu, Ngāpuhi). He is an emerging artist, working nationally and internationally with some of Aotearoa and Australia’s top companies, including Atamira Dance Company, Black Grace, The New Zealand Dance Company, The Farm, Borderline Arts Ensemble, as well as performing Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite’s 10 Duets on a Theme of Rescue (2023). He is an accomplished performer and choreographer whose artistry traverses the dynamic intersections of dance, physical theater, and film, all through the captivating lens of contemporary dance. His work is characterized by an unwavering commitment to discipline and a relentless pursuit of excellence, drawing inspiration from his diverse communities.

Oli is the sole winner of the international call for a new choreographic creation at La Biennale di Venezia. His new commissioned work, Just Between Me and Jesus (2026), will make its world premiere at the Venice Biennale Danza in 2026. Oli’s radical, award-winning show The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave (2024) has been presented globally, including at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, Melbourne’s RISING Festival 2025, Auckland Art Festival 2026, Sydney’s Liveworks Festival 2024, Nelson Arts Festival 2024, Christchurch’s Tiny Fest 2024, Auckland Pride Festival 2024, and Wellington’s New Zealand Fringe Festival 2024. The show performed a smash hit season at the esteemed Summerhall in Edinburgh, selling out their final week, being listed as Theatre Weekly’s Best Dance Performance, and were the inaugural award winners of the Bragi Award for Excellence in Creativity & Performance. Furthermore, he has choreographed works for Atamira Dance Company, Black Grace, Tempo Dance Festival, The Auckland Live Cabaret Festival, and The Performance Arcade. 

Lucy Lynch (Ngāti Kahungunu) - Choreographer and Performer  

Lucy completed her dance training at UNITEC, graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts, majoring in Contemporary Dance. Immediately after graduation, Lucy was offered the role of Professional Dancer with the newly launched New Zealand Dance Company, becoming a founding member and performing for the company for the following eight years. Lucy danced in the majority of the company's major seasons throughout Aotearoa and toured across the globe to some of the world's most prestigious dance festivals.

Lucy works closely with New Zealand choreographer, Mary Jane O'Reilly, and is a performer in her internationally recognised show, In Flagrante, and was a performer in her recent ballet, Ballet Noir. She has also danced for Black Grace Dance Company, World of Wearable Arts, WOMAD, Splore, Tempo Dance Festival, Auckland Cabaret Festival, and The New Zealand Body Art Awards. 

Sharvon Mortimer (Ngāti Porou) - Choreographer and Performer  

Born and raised in Rotorua, Sharvon is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based dance artist. She graduated in 2020 as a senior scholar with a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts - Contemporary Dance from Unitec. Sharvon, Oli Mathiesen, and Bohao Feng received the Judge’s Choice Award (FOSSE) in 2019’s Short+Sweet Dance Festival. Since graduating, she has had the pleasure of collaborating with Miriam Eskildsen, Jacob Reynolds, Jawline Dance Co, Footnote New Zealand Dance, Jessie McCall, Oli Mathiesen, and The New Zealand Dance Company. In 2021 and 2022, she was part of NDN’s Tūrama Choreographic Intensive. Sharvon presented new work with Oli Mathiesen (Night and Mortar) as part of NZ Fringe 2021 and a Tāmaki Makaurau tour in 2022. Sharvon finds joy in being able to exchange movement with other humans and witness others doing so. Engaging with creating, inhabiting, and observing worlds that are specific, nuanced, and challenging.