Izy Nguyen
Izy Nguyen (she/they) is a Vietnamese-Australian emerging multidisciplinary performer, creative producer and community organiser based in Boorloo on Whadjuk Noongar Country. With an 18 year classically trained music background, and 5 years street dance training – particularly, WAACKING – Izy is passionate about working with interdisciplinary collaborators (art makers and art administrators) with the intention of interrogating power dynamics, personal histories, present and emerging cultures. As of recent, Izy dives into this passion by focusing on evoking emotion and imagination in embodied performance works.
In 2024, Izy debuted a 10-min performance work which was self-produced, directed and originally composed score as part of Blue Room Theatre’s Summer Nights’s 2024 programme, 600 Seconds. This work is an initial iteration featuring absolute synchronicity between highly technical audio-visual elements (animation and musically-demanding-Waacking dance, with original music score).
From May – October 2024, Izy’s passion for community art making has seen her take up a residency space with co-organiser Johnny Doan (JD) for their collective, “Moon Hangs” at Midland Junction Art Centre (MJAC). Moon Hangs is a collective of Asian-Australian diaspora based in Boorloo/Perth, providing space for each other to express joy, play and explore the personal fractured histories and tensions of living in so-called Australia. Other independent producer work include programming for Paper Mountain artist-run-initiative, Hidden Treasures Music Festival, speaking at the International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA) Conference in May 2024, and forming her connections further out to 4A Gallery in Sydney.
Part of the Waacking dance community, Izy frequently travels nationally and internationally to compete, share and learn Waacking dance, cypher culture, and even gaining an invitational spot to Ho Chi Minh City to battle as top 8 Waacker for POW in 2023. Waacking is a retro club dance from the 1970’s African-American & Latinx LGQBT+ disco clubs, which is mainly improvised and features strong musicality and performance as stylistic features of the dance. Waacking continues its lineage in Australia through Andy Kuramoto (MELB, International House of Waacking); and in Perth through Renee Russo – the Perth Waacking pioneer from whom Izy has trained with since 2020.
Photo credit: Elizabeth Yong