Opening remarks

Shona McCarthy

CEO Fringe Society

Shona McCarthy joined the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society as Chief Executive in March 2016. From 2011-2014 she was Chief Executive of the Culture Company, leading on Derry - Londonderry’s transformational year as UK City of Culture. Prior to that she was Director of the British Council Northern Ireland. She also spent many years as Chief Executive of Cinemagic Film Festival for young people, Belfast; and the Foyle Film Festival, Derry; and was Head of Exhibition at the Northern Ireland Film Council. Shona has 25 years’ experience of working in senior leadership positions and was awarded a prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship for Innovation in 2014 and a NESTA cultural leadership award which took her to live and work in India.

Laura Kriefman
CEO of Barbican Theatre Plymouth

Laura Kriefman is an award-winning choreographer and artist with over 15 years’ experience as a creative, a producer and commissioner across theatre, dance and interactive technology. Through her company Hellion Trace Ltd (formerly Guerilla Dance Project) she has delivered interdisciplinary projects world-wide that fuse performing arts and creative technology. Recent work includes the Smart Oxford Playable City Commission (2017), Kicking The Mic (tour 2017-20) and Crane Dance Bristol (2015). She has been selected as a QuestLab artist in residence at Studio Wayne McGregor, Mozilla XR Studio Fellow 2018, UK Innovator in Music 2017 (Keychange.eu), a 2016 INK Fellow, 2015 WIRED Magazine/The Space Creative Fellow and a 2011-2012 Fellow of the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme. Additionally, Laura has spoken at arts and science events globally been an arts and leadership advocate and an expert facilitator in the digital/dance crossover.

Wei Chia Su
Director & Choreographer of HORSE

Wei-Chia Su was born in 1981 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and trained at National Taiwan University of Arts. In 2004 he established HORSE for which he both performs and creates. In 2013 he initiated FreeSteps, a ten-year project pursuing the ultimate delicacy of a dancer’s body to provide spectators with various connections to emotion and imagination.

Tung-Yen Chou
Artistic Director of Very Theatre & Very Mainstream Studio

Tung-Yen Chou holds an MA in Scenography with distinction from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and a BFA in Theatre Directing from Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). Engaging with both theatre and the moving image, he works across performance, installation and music video platforms. He is the founding director of Very Theatre and Very Mainstream Studio (www.vmstudio.tw). Latest productions include Chronicle of Lightyear –Taipei, Copenhagen, a co-production with Culture Yard in Denmark which premiered at the Taipei Arts Festival and was presented at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, in 2018. 2020 premieres were Virtual Intimacy, a co-production with ActNow theatre at Asia TOPA in Australia, and the VR film In the Mist at Kaohsiung Film Festival.

Rebecca Evans
Artistic Director of Pell Ensemble

As choreographer and artistic director of Pell Ensemble since 2012, Rebecca has developed and delivered digital dance performance, installations and engagement work in the UK & abroad. In 2018 she was one of ten choreographers selected by Studio Wayne McGregor to take part in QuestLab Network, a national programme developing cross-disciplinary digital/dance practices. Combining movement with live coding, generative projection, 360 sound, walking apps and interactive lighting and sound, Rebecca’s work examines the shift in digital culture and its effect on our souls and society. The experience of the body for audience and performer is central to her work, Meanwhile, she looks to the possibilities of digital interaction to create deeper connection, engagement and intimacy. She has been commissioned by 2Faced Dance for The BENCH 2015-16, Wilton’s Strike, Spontaneous Combustion Festival, The Vaults, Athens Digital Arts Festival and London Borough of Culture.