Amanda Betlehem is an Australian artist working with choreography, dance and performance. Her practice operates beyond the consolidation of the known and is primarily concerned with the conceptual, perceptual and experiential expansion of the body. Her work employs processes and choreographic materials that are generative; that do not ask anything of the performer and audience except to be with, be together with, and be available for, aesthetic experience. These interests materialise as form without function that encourages speculation and meandering attention as modes of production with the potential to bring about unfamiliar experiences for the performer and audience that problematise conventional understandings of subjectivity and corporeality.

Amanda’s live work has been presented in various contexts in Melbourne, most recently the full-length Endless Crush at Artshouse for Melbourne Fringe Festival 2017, and Speculative Subject as part of Metanoia’s 2016 Live Works program. She has also choreographed for screen: Anyway, for Melbourne band Slum Sociable in 2015.

Her works CONSTRUCT (2014) and The Crisis of the Object (2014) were outcomes of postgraduate research and presented in a theatre context at the Victorian College of the Arts. Medium Rare (2013) was developed in and for a commercial gallery context, and was presented at [MARS] Gallery.

Amanda has performed in the work of Atlanta Eke at Dance Massive 2013 and Next Wave 2012 (Monster Body) and Pieces for Small Spaces at Lucy Guerin Inc, Olivia Millard (From Score To Work?), Rebecca Jensen at Dance Massive 2017 (Deep Sea Dances) and Melbourne Fringe Festival 2015 (Pose Band), and Chloe Chignell “Soft Reality”.

In 2014 Amanda completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Performance Creation at the Victorian College of the Arts and was the recipient of an Arts Victoria Creative Scholarship. She completed her undergraduate studies in Creative Arts (Dance) at Deakin University (2011).

Recently Amanda has undertaken residencies at Tasdance in Launceston (2018), Dancehouse (2018) and Testing Grounds (2019) in Melbourne.