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Hi there, lovely to see you here. Welcome to an intro to the work of movement coach, choreographer and contemporary dancer for screen and stage,
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, collaboration and black tea. Read on more for info.
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Kia TVC • Jan/Feb 2025
Movement coach for ensemble cast of zombies | EP Genevieve Triquet, Division
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Tassal TVC • Dec 2024
Movement coach for ensemble cast of human seagulls | EP Anna Fawcett, Filmgraphics
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Perspective Shift: Jana (2019)
SBS documentary on my career and life so far | DIR Genevieve Clay-Smith, Bus Stop Films
News: Feb 2025
Movement coach for two new commercials:
Zombie-proof / Kia for Division (EP Genevieve Triquet)
Seagull / Tassal for Filmgraphics (EP Anna Fawcett)
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Solo show Castillo performed at Théâtre National
de Chaillot, Paris, 2024
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Jana Castillo: Winner of the 'Best Performer' award
(for all genders) at the Green Room Awards 2023
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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
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Subject of recent SBS documentary series
Perspective Shift (2019, Australia).
Director: Genevieve Clay-Smith.
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Winner of the Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer, 2018. Article here.
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Contemporary dancer with the ADT
(Australian Dance Theatre), 2017-2019.
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Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group member at Sydney Dance Company from 2020
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Gallery
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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 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!
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.
