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Hi there, lovely to see you here. Welcome to an introduction to the work of Australian contemporary dancer and emerging writer/actor for film, Jana Castillo. Currently based in Sydney, Jana has performed worldwide with ADT and other companies on stages, film sets, mountain tops and hillsides. She's won the highest award for a female dancer in Australia and worked closely as a mo-cap actor with Sir Richard Taylor on The Hobbit among other adventures. Underpinning everything is a lifelong passion for storytelling, movement and collaboration (and tea). Read on more for info.

Strong Grace
Leap
SBS documentary – Still
North/South – Australian Dance Theatre
Beginning of Nature – Australian Dance Theatre
Contruct Award – Australian Dance Theatre
Trestle – April 2021

News – Solo show Castillo invited for performance at 
Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris, Jan 2024

News – Jana Castillo: Winner of the 'Best Performer' award
(for all genders) at the Green Room Awards 2023



Motion-capture actor in feature films for WETA (NZ):
The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies. Director: Sir Peter Jackson 
and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Director: Matt Reeves


Subject of recent SBS documentary series
Perspective Shift (2019, Australia).
Director: Genevieve Clay-Smith.



Winner of the Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer, 2018. Article here



Contemporary dancer with the ADT
(Australian Dance Theatre), 2017-2019.


Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group member at Sydney Dance Company from 2020

Documentary Perspective Shift: Jana (SBS, Dec 2019).
Watch in full by tapping play above.

Gallery

I believe Jana is one of Australia’s top female dancers at the moment.
She is absolutely powerful, yet she has this beautiful subtlety
about her. She is really exciting. She is fearless. 

Craig Bary, independent choreographer and dancer, Dec 2019

Strength, flexibility and the ability to illustrate raw and empathic emotions – in ways which left audiences and critics in awe.

The Australian Dance Awards judging panel, describing Jana's award-winning performance in the ADT’s revival of the late Tanja Liedtke’s Construct 

Contact

Interested in connecting with Jana? Drop her assistant April a line here. Jana is always open to discussing collectively-impactful
new projects and collaborations, so long as there's a pot of black
tea involved. She also welcomes the opportunity to contribute
to deeper understanding on disability and inclusivity in the arts,
as a guest-panelist or interviewee. To share details or enquire
about Jana's availability, please don't hesitate to get in touch
with April. Have a lovely day.

Thanks for submitting!

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She has this ability to be quite asynchronous, which is really delightful for a choreographer – to be able to work with someone who can naturally take their body into an interesting disco-ordinated place.

Gary Stewart, Artistic Director, ADT

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