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Andrea Lam is the Director and Founder of Dance Masala Bollywood Dance Company, the largest independent Bollywood Dance Company in Australia, founded in 2012.

Prior to her work with Dance Masala, she studied Visual Art at QUT focusing on video work, projection and performance. As a dancer, she is trained in Kathak, Hip Hop, Bhangra, Waacking, Lavni and many other Indian and non-Indian dance forms. As a dance artist, she creates modern Indian fusion and is interested in using a combination of dance & video to tell stories.

To Andrea, dance is a means of emotive storytelling – the power of dance can transcend language, and a means of finding a connection with her Indian heritage and sharing it. She is interested in warping form, playing in the intersections of cultural, commercial and contemporary dance

Samoan Australian Lisa Fa’alafi is a multidimensional artist and teine toa. The heart of her process makes space for indigenised feminine processes, pushing cultural and gender boundaries as well as Decolonising western theatrical spaces. Her work is visually stunning, highly entertaining, conceptual, political and uses theatre as an instrument to create change. Lisa is Co-Director of artist collective Polytoxic who have created diverse platforms and landmark intersectional works for the past 20 years. She is also Director and co-writer of the cult work Hot Brown Honey, touring consistently for 5 years, performing across six countries and has received numerous national awards including a Helpmann, Sydney Theatre Award, Green Room Award, Adelaide and Perth Fringe Awards, international nominations and awards in the UK and Canada

Freshly landed from Film City, Mumbai – Angela Nair Skinner has been an active creative force in the Bollywood industry for 8 years. Her experience has extended from dance to modeling; film; music and video games. Since moving to Brisbane in 2022, she has brought her experience as a dance educator to Australian audiences, and began to build a career in early education.

Angela’s key career highlights include being a choreographer and dancer on Ubisoft’s Just Dance Video Game Series, a contestant on India’s Got Talent, a contestant on reality television show Nach Baliye (Dance Partner), assistant choreographer for Netflix’s House Arrest, performer for Netflix’s Kama 25: Divine and Assistant Choreographer and performer on Rajakumari’s ‘Bindis and Bangles.’

Angela has taught alongside Karishma Chavan, Mayuresh Wadkar, Alistair Dance Academy, Ruel Varindani, Ranju Varghese, Uma Shankar Nair, Dance with Madhuri, Shiamak Davar Dance Academy and Dance Masala Bollywood Dance School.

Ashwin Singh is an Occupational Therapist by day and pursues her passion for dancing by night. She has trained in the multimodal form of Bollywood dance for more than 10 years. Ashwin competed in an Indian Australian Dance Competition in 2015 and was first runner up. She has attended a variety of workshops and classes within the Brisbane dance community and performed alongside Bollywood celebrities with the Dance Masala Team. She officially joined Dance Masala Bollywood Company’s Nakhre Crew in 2020 as a performer.

Dancing to Ashwin is a form of meditation and a way of expressing her emotions, imagination and personality. It is also her way to escape reality. Bollywood dancing especially provides a sense of belonging to her Indian background. This is her very first time being a part of a theater show and she is very excited!

Janaki Gerard is a multi disciplinary artist from Brisbane who has worked in London and New York City. Janaki was a top twenty finalist in the Stellar South Asian Women of 2022 Australia. Her mission for the future is to develop more platforms & projects for South Asian creatives in Australia.

Her performance credits include: “Proof” Ad Astra Theatre. “When Love Springs” Steve Jaggi Company. “A Wedding and a Murder” Fever Immersive Theatre. “Honour” Queensland Theatre Play club series and Laboite Theatre’s Assembly Program. She has an MFA in acting from East 15 acting school  (UK). A BA in Journalism from Griffith University (AUS) and received her yoga certification from the Rishikesh Yoga teacher training center (India).

‘Janaki Gerard stands out … unflinching.’ – The Stage UK

Mugdha Khatavkar is an Indian classical dancer trained in Bharatanatyam but unafraid to warp form, and experiments with fusion including hip hop and other forms of Western dance. Mugdha has won many titles and prizes including ‘Shri Zankaar’ at the age of 9 years old, a well-known classical dance show on Doordarshan.

Mugdha moved to Australia to complete a Master’s Degree in Computer Science Engineering, pursuing her dance career in her free hours. She joined Dance Masala’s Nakhre Crew in 2021 as a teacher and performer. Mugdha’s love for dance knows no bounds!

Psycho-siren Leah Shelton creates stylized, guttural, renegade feminist performance art soaked in cult references and dark humour. Her work has taken her from the glamour of Las Vegas to the back streets of Kings Cross, from rigorous training in Japan to live art festivals in New York. 

With Lisa Fa’alafi, Leah is Co-Director of artist collective Polytoxic, with whom she creates hyper-visual works underpinned by intersectionality, diversity and collaboration. 

As a solo artist, Leah has played on and off London’s West End and graced the cabaret stages of La Clique, Little Death Club and Vegas Nocturne. Her triptych of solo works interrogating gender and identity have received critical acclaim: ‘Terror Australis’ received numerous awards and toured Australia and France; ‘Bitch On Heat’, directed by UK Performance Art luminary Ursula Martinez, toured major festivals in Australia and SOHO Theatre London; and her most recent work ‘Batshit’ premiered to sell-out audiences and 5-star reviews at Brisbane Festival and Melbourne’s Darebin Arts Speakeasy in 2022.

Steven May is a lighting designer and audio-visual technician and has worked technician and designer roles in many spheres of live events, including theatre, dance, circus and burlesque. This has led to providing lighting services within Meanjin for unique events and driving a larger focus on technical elements and integration to advance aesthetics and storytelling.

Recently his attention has turned to found-space theatre and fringe arts, building a production business with focus on smaller shows and unconventional arts projects. This has included lighting designs with a focus on site-specific design language and flexibility, as well as automation to allow for retooling with future touring and multiple venues in mind as a core element.

As a multifaceted individual, Gautam possesses a remarkable blend of technical expertise and artistic passion. Alongside Professional life as a software engineer and an MBA graduate, Gautam harbors an unwavering love for acting, dance, and drama.

Past experiences, including engaging in enthralling dramatic performances and starring in music videos, have nurtured his artistic spirit. Notably, the transformative drama classes at Perform Australia have played a pivotal role in shaping his voice and acting techniques.

With an insatiable drive for performing arts, Gautam is thrilled at the opportunity to merge my diverse skill set and creative talents in captivating new endeavours.