Who is Lee Serle?
A contemporary dance choreographer and performer born in Melbourne, now based in New York.
What would you do differently to what you do now?
Pursue a career that has better financial stability, as long as it’s not sitting at a desk.
Who inspires you and why?
The incredible humanitarians doing the hard, and mostly thankless work, helping people in need. They inspire me to be a better person, and help out whenever and wherever I can.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
Find a cure for bigotry.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
I love Mexico. The people are wonderful, the landscapes are beautiful, It’s affordable, I love mescal and tequila.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take them to, and why?
As many bars as we could handle. I think Melbourne has some excellent bars, and I love catching up with friends over a few well-made martinis.
What are you currently reading?
EMAILS! I’m in need of a good book.
What are you currently listening to?
There’s a Texas based music blog GORILLA VS. BEAR that is my go to for what’s up to date.
Happiness is?
A good work/life balance
What does the future hold for you?
I’ve recently relocated to New York as a permanent resident. I may need to wait until the Presidential election in November before I can answer that!
Lee is a New York and Melbourne based choreographer, performer and teacher. He creates work in varied contexts and forms; including dances for the stage, site-specific, interactive performance installations, and intimate solo works. He has been commissioned to create new works for the Lyon Opera Ballet, Sydney Dance Company, Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, Lucy Guerin Inc., Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Dancenorth, Next Wave, and the Victorian College of the Arts presenting new work in Australia, USA, France and Lebanon.
Lee was Protégé in Dance for the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative 2010-11; mentored by seminal American choreographer Trisha Brown in New York. Through this initiative he created and performed new work with the company, and toured within the USA and internationally. It was through this initiative Lee’s first major work P.O.V. was commissioned and presented at the New York Public Library.
An inaugural recipient of the Australia Council for the Arts, Creative Australia Fellowship in 2012, Lee embarked on a research and development period for 2 years of solo choreographic practice in Melbourne, New York and Beirut; Mentored by Tere O’Connor (New York). Following this he was an artist in residence at ACCA, culminating in his solo work, 60 Second Dances, for the Framed Movements exhibition for the 2014 Melbourne Festival.
Blurring the lines between performer and audience, Lee’s latest work, Multimodal will be presented at The Substation, Newport: 30 August – 4 September 2016. For more information, visit: www.thesubstation.org.au for details.
Image: Lee Serle