PHLUXUS2 - 20 years of BOUNDARY BASHING DANCE
WHO ARE WE
Phluxus2 Dance Collective is an award-winning and boundary bashing Brisbane based dance theatre company founded in 2006 and led by choreographer Nerida Matthaei. Our work explores beautifully abstract movement landscapes that turn paradigms of performance on its head. The collective boasts some of Queensland’s best dance artists and seeks to challenge concepts of best practice, creating cutting-edge performance work that is relevant to artists and audiences.
The companies’ major works include: the machine that carries the soul, The Opposite of Prompt, chinese whispers/broken telephone, Boiling Point, de-generator, The Paratrooper Project, Angel Monster, 10, The Next 14 Seconds and the flagship annual new work seeding initiative the indepenDANCE project. The company has been nominated and awarded numerous accolades including Best Dance Film at New Wave Film Festival Munich, People's Choice Award for Best Dance Film 2022 Choc Top Dance Fest, Critics Choice for Best Choreography 2007 Short and Sweet Dance Festival, Runner Up for Best Performance In Dance and Movement 2006 The Age Melbourne Fringe Festival and many nominations include over 13 long list nominations in the Australian Dance Awards.
The company moving into its 20th year has collaborated with many outstanding artists and companies including Sadari Movement Lab, Jack Morton Worldwide, Brisbane Festival, Theatre Works, Belloo Creative, Queensland Theatre, Fortitude Valley Music Hall, QAG/GOMA, Brisbane Broncos and numerous excellent partners. The company has held artist residencies with The Firkin Crane (Ireland), Cairns Centre of Contemporary Arts, Dancenorth, The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Backbone Arts, The Tivoli, Metro Arts and Thomas Dickson Centre. The company has performed across Australia and internationally at the World Dance Alliance Global Summit (South Korea), the American Dance Guild Festival (New York), T2 Versatility Dance Festival (USA) and Edinburgh Fringe (UK) to name a few. The company has strong and important ties with the Queensland community delivering inspired and inspiring activities and activations.
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Founder & Artistic Director & CEO
Nerida has over 20 years experience as a multi-award winning choreographer, movement director, artistic director, performer and intimacy coordinator for stage and screen globally. The underlying pulse of her work comes from an ingrained passion for contemporary choreographic practice as a beautifully planned anarchy of mind-body collaboration. Driven by challenging socio-political orthodoxy and breaking conventions through physical performance, she is a much sought-after collaborator across artistic sectors internationally. She is extremely generous with her skills and time, not only collaborating and leading arts projects around the world, but investing in grassroots programs benefiting the local independent and community sectors. With over 400 credits Nerida has worked with many artists and companies and prides herself on collaboration and interdisciplinarity. Recent highlights include the premier of her new dance-theatre work The Next 14 Seconds, choreography, intimacy and movement director of Queensland Theatre’s Pride and Prejudice, choreography, movement and intimacy on Trent Dalton’s Love Stories, collaborating South Korean company Sadari Movement Lab on Bottari, as guest choreographer for 2024 Motion Mongolia Contemporary Dance Festival and direction of the multi-award winning short film Proximal. Nerida is an accredited Intimacy Coordinator and has a Doctorate of Creative Industries (research) specialising in choreographic practice.
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Core Artist & Artist Coorindator
Born in Taiwan and a Queensland University of Technology graduate, Hsin-Ju is a much sought after performer and a long time member of the Phluxus2 team. Raw, in her early, career joined Dancenorth in 2006 under the direction of Gavin Webber. Then, as an independent artist, she worked with companies including Stalker Theatre Company, The Farm, Lisa Wilson Projects, Seeing Place Productions and Opera Australia. For Phluxus2 Hsin-Ju has performed/toured Angel-Monster at Edinburgh Fringe in 2022 and 2023; featured in The Woman Remembers (collaboration with Belloo Creative) and performed in the premier of The Next 14 Seconds. Recently she performed/toured Trent Dalton's Boy Swallows Universe and Love Stories, Shock Therapy Arts' Locked In, La Boite Theatre’s The Poison of Polygamy.
In 2025 Hsin-Ju has began working with Phluxus2 behind the scenes managing artist engagement and the administration of IndepenDANCE.
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Core Artist & Communications Manager
Chiu-Ju Wang is a contemporary dancer based between Australia and Taiwan, originally from Taichung. With roots in Indigenous cultural and Taiwanese ritual dance, and influences from Indonesian movement traditions, Jill’s practice weaves diverse cultural lineages into a distinctive contemporary voice.
After training through Taiwan’s specialist dance programs, Jill completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance Performance) at QUT and spent 13 years working in Australia as an independent artist, including two years with Disney’s Mickey and the Wondrous Book. Jill has been an integral Phluxus2 artist for many years, performing in Angel Monster, The Woman Remembers, Mort, contributing to the development of The Next 14 Seconds, and dancing and choreographing across numerous indepenDANCE seasons. Jill is also an active teaching artist within the company’s training programs.
In 2022, Jill returned to Taiwan to join Tjimur Dance Theatre as a full-time dancer, continuing to perform nationally and internationally. Their current practice explores relationships between identity, culture, land, and embodied language.
In late 2025 Chiu-Ju returned to Australia began working with Phluxus2 again on stage, and behind the scenes managing communications and digital marketing.
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The Phluxus2 Artist Council sits at the heart of our collective. Made up of current and alumni artists, it ensures our programs, ideas, and big-picture decisions are shaped by the people who make the work. The Council provides an active sector strong voice in guiding opportunities, creative direction, and keeping our programs genuinely responsive to the needs of Brisbane’s independent dance community.
It’s a space for shared advocacy, open conversation, and collective imagination - where artists influence our future and the wider sector. The Artist Council keeps us grounded, connected, and driven by the creative force that has defined Phluxus2 for two decades.
Council Members - Jade Brider, Hsin-Ju Ely, Leigh-Anne Vizer & Jacob Watton.
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The Phluxus2 Collective is a dynamic constellation of artists from Brisbane, Queensland and beyond - makers, movers, dreamers and disruptors who ignite ideas and expand dance practice. Dance artists enter through projects, collaborations, residencies and training, and many go on to carve extraordinary careers across Australia, Europe, the UK, Asia and the US. Yet no matter where they travel or perform, they remain part of the Phluxus2 community - returning to create, share, mentor and fuel the ecosystem that helped shaped them. Phluxus2 is, and always has been, about artists, ideas and collective support.
Collective Current and Alumni Artists
Stiliana Alfred, Alexander Baden Bryce, Charles Ball, Ainsley Barker, Gareth Belling, Jade Brider, Jess Briskie, Chafia Brooks, Margi Brown Ash, Gil Blustein, Asher Bowen‑Saunders, Grace Campbell, Caitlin Comerford, Gabe Comerford, Isabella Cort, Keith Clark, Clare Dark, Shane Dechavez, Kelsey Dell, Ben Ely, Hsin‑Ju Ely, Lisa Fa’alafi, Bridget Fiske, Bella Gilligan, Bryna Glass, Clare Glassock, Lauren Graham, Jayden Grogan, Soleil Harvey, Esmee Henry, Brendan Hodder, Bella Hood, Essie Horn, Makira Horner, Chloe Jarvela, Anna Johnston, Jenni Large, Margo Low, Brian Lucas, Nerida Matthaei, Nadia Milford , Andrew Milz, Jeannie Mok, Caitlin Murphy, Yenenesh Nigusse, Brianna Palmer, Georgia Peirce, Eliza Quinlan, Katie Salcole‑Bradshaw, Mia Raeli, Bruna Ribeiro, Louise Rodrigues, Amanda Santos Sales, Courtney Scheu, Skye Sewell, Leah Shelton, Lauren Sherlock, Isabella Shute, Kim Smit, Scotia Taylor, Amelia Stokes, Haami Te Kuru, Kate Utting, Leigh-Anne Vizer, Anastasia Vogelsang, El Waddingham, Arabella Walker, Chiu-Ju Wang, Jacob Watton, Sammie Williams, Liesel Zink