Weird Nest

30/04/2025

Hi all, especially Sydney friends. I'm posting this 5-minute promo video of our 2024 end of year performance (a 30-minute structured improvisation), in the hope of attracting a few more kids/young people living with disability who may want to join our seasonal 2-day intensives in 2025.

There's also a shorter 1-min promo version in the comments below. The intensives are during school holidays, the next one being on 15th and 16th July.

This will be led by me using my 'Found In Translation' (FIT) multi-artform accessible and inclusive creative practices that I've been deepening the past 17 years. The wonderful Carolyn Eccles will be in support mode, as well as leading aspects of the 2-days in her own experienced practices.

FIT comprises dance/movement techniques, choreographic composition, a wide range of improvisation methods, character/persona explorations, vocal/sound accompany work, 'page-to-stage' (visual and/or written ideas to physical and/or vocal translations), 'setting the scene (large scale sculptures we inhabit and discuss in terms of design and content), yoga and breath and mulit-sensory and sense-making awareness work and movement responses to storytelling.

If you know of any children / young people who may be interested to join in something like this (it's substantial capacity building and a dynamic, sensitive and respectful community engagement), I'd so appreciate you sharing this with them and/or their parents/carers. Ages 14 - 22 are most welcome. We have a wonderful core group who've been with us for 5 years, with a few now also taking leadership roles in some aspects of the 2-days.

We're also now opening up our Term-based weekly Saturdays (the morning session) between 9:30 and 12:30 if they can't make those intensive dates. We work from a hall in Nth Bondi. Our other wonderful and highly experienced supporting artists are James Penny, Vashti Hughes and Lucy Watson.

For further info, I can be initially reached at [email protected]
If you can share this onto folks I'd be thrilled.

This is "CAP EOY full" by Dean Walsh on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

16/01/2025

We have just delivered our annual Summer Intensive with 9 children / young adults living with neurodivergent disability. Most of these young people have been with our Weird Nest youth program for five years. This year, a few will be trained up in our director, Dean Walsh's, dynamic and diverse methods that promote creative and living agency for neurospicy people of all ages. Looking towards their own creative leadership roles in 2026.

Such a pleasure to be in the room with these diverse thinkers and creative people. A big thank you to Vashti Hughes, for coming on board as supporting artist for this years' January start up. We're looking forward to having you join us this year, Vashti.

30/03/2024

I just had the best day in the studio with Dean preparing for a couple of upcoming workshops in Dean's methodology "PrimeOrderly"... I was inspired so I made a new instrument from midi thingos... I wish we did these types of workshops when I was at Uni. It's a hands-on workshop in a creative method developed outside an institutional environment by a Australian neurodiverse artist with proven skills and a professional practice... and specifically, Dean's Primeorderly is an awakening of embodied cognition, or at least, deep sensitivity, or if anything, can become a gateway to expression of primeordial self and realisation of cellular interconnectedness between ourselves and our environment.

Sure, this is an ad. I have vested interest, he's my partner and we are charging for the workshop (very reasonably), and this is how I also develop and maintain my practice... But it's also an invitation to deepen into embodied cognition in a unique way that would benefit any performance artist, from music all the way to lightly performative pedestrianism, I reckon. if you'd like to know more, PM me.

26/01/2024

And we're back! The beautiful and talented youngsters of our youth ensemble and creative agency program (CAP) just completed our 2 day Summer Intensive over in Hugh Bamford Hall in Nth Bondi.

We said farewell to Trish Wood and thank her so much for 3 years of wonderful support and collaboration xox

We welcome our new supporting artist Carolyn Eccles who has nearly 20 years of diverse experience in her own and other artists practices and wider community outreach.

We commence Term 1 weekly Saturdays on Feb 3rd. This year we're opening up the morning sessions (9:30 to 12:30 - including morning tea). Our afternoon sessions are now only for our core youth ensemble to nut away at our first full-length show that will premiere later in the year.

If you know of any youngster living with disability who might like to join the morning session, please pass this on and/or DM us.

Dean and Andrew xx

04/12/2023

Our ever-wonderful costume designer, Kate Shanahan / Designed By Kate gets her long overdue wider recognition. We are a resourceful bunch of creative folk! Congrats to you Kate. X

17/11/2023

Our friends over at Milk Crate Theatre have a new major work about to make its world premiere. SOLACE is a co-production with Box of Birds / Stalker Theatre and a cast and crew of very diverse people. Milk Crate make vital work that reaches, and provides agency for, people who have lived experience of homelessness and "living it rough".

We're going. See you there! You can get your tickets here:

A co-production between Milk Crate Theatre and Box of Birds / Stalker Theatre

05/11/2023

check out link in bio for more info. Photo featuring , and . The next Weirding Ways features Nikki Heywood, , .sass and

05/11/2023

The next Weirding Ways is this Thursday. It’s going to be wonderful and features Nikki Heywood, .sass, and . Photo features , and .

05/11/2023

For friends and colleagues who had already bought tickets, or those expressing interest to get along to support our in-theatre, final stage development showing, on Nov 24th, of our first full-length work, True To Nature, with the youth ensemble side of our company (16 to 20 y.o super dedicated and creative living with disability), two weeks ago we had to make the very difficult decision to postpone it until sometime next year. 😞

This was due to several reasons, some unforeseen and others we were holding our breath on (funds related and hold up in announcements etc). So difficult, this getting work on stage game...with very limited resources...

Bondi Pavilion and Waverley council remain very supportive and have assured us that this won't change in 2024. So we're onto plan C now.

If you had already bought tickets, the Pav is sending out notices for reimbursement.

Images below from last years' 2nd stage development showing in our little-hall-on-the-hill. The work has come so far since these shots were captured and it is gorgeous. We've all put so much into it across 4 years (stuck together through thick n thin), so here's hoping we can finally present it next year.

With Andrew Batt-Rawden, James Penny and Patricia Wood

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Image description:

Image 1:
9 people sitting on chairs wearing head dresses made from natural foliage. They're immersed in a video projection of colourful textures and they are all holding bottles with paper rolled up in them.

Image 2:
9 people (performers) are sitting on chairs watching a 10th person (young female) walking down stage to place a piece of a puzzle (a large tile) on the floor where there are about 30 other tiles already in place. The projection on the back screen and people is of a drawing, in brown, of an abstract shape.

Photographer: Jorge Bachara

31/10/2023

Next weirding ways artist lineup

25/10/2023

Can’t wait for our next journey into wild q***r creative expressions by some weird artists on 9 Nov facilitated by Nikki Heywood, artists will be announced in the next few days. Pictured are , and performing at last month’s event. Check out linktr.ee/weird.nest for more info.

25/10/2023

Our Next Weirding Ways takes place 9 Nov and is being facilitated by Nikki Heywood… check out linktr.ee/weird.nest for more info ***r ***rartists. Pictured is Bianca Rivermoon, Andrew Batt-Rawden and Paul Walker performing at our October event.