Angela Hamilton – Primary & Senior Ensembles
From childhood Angela Hamilton had an interest in art and movement. She enrolled in dance classes at Byron School of Dance, and continuing on to Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and Brent Street Studios. Angela received her tertiary dance training from Brent Street, the National Theatre Ballet School and Ev & Bow. Angela has had the privilege of training and working with companies and choreographers in Europe, UK and USA.
In 2010 Angela founded “Twisted Element Dance Company” an immersive and interactive dance theatre company. Angela’s newest immersive work “RITUAL” premiered in 2019 to a sold-out season and rave reviews. In 2014 Angela moved to the UK to further develop her artistic practice, eventually touring nationally and internationally. In London, she was cast in the multimedia symphony “The Infinite Bridge” in its world premiere. During this period, Angela also worked with Hack Ballet under the directorship of “Bird Woman” for Transform Company.
Angela founded her youth company “Wild Hearts Youth Dance Company” in 2018 with the desire to create opportunities for young dancers in Sydney to empower them with the skills and creative tenacity essential for success in the global dance environment. We are thrilled to have Angela for both our Senior and Primary Ensembles.
Charlotte Twitchell – Primary Ensemble
Erie Native, Charlotte Twitchell began her early dance in 1997. She first trained with Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie Ballet and then Erie Dance Conservatory at its startup in 2003 and her training consisted of Classical Ballet, American Modern Dance, Tap, and Jazz. She performed as a student company member with the pre-professional dance company Erie Contemporary Ballet Theatre in 2005 until 2011 and attended many summer programs including Craft of Choreography summer intensive, ABT Detroit Summer Dance Intensive, Dance Italia in Lucca, Italy, and Bates Summer Dance Festival. She received scholarships like the Craft of Choreography Grant, and Hutton Honors Creative Art Grant and International Travel Grant.
From 2011 to 2015 Charlotte attended Indiana University as an undergraduate dance major with a B.S. in Kinesiology. In 2014 she studied a semester abroad in Israel for six months with the Hebrew University Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance where she attended classes with master teachers and performed with the academy, collaborating with peers and professional choreographers.
Charlotte has had major dancing roles in many works, including pieces choreographed by Paul Taylor, Ohad Naharin, Larry Keigwin, Ihsan Rustem, Ella Ben-Aharon, and Rennie Harris. She has worked with various master teachers including Robert Moses, Constance Dinapoli, and Larry Keigwin. She has created several of her own works including Il Nucleo, which was performed in Indianapolis Dance Festival.
In 2016, Charlotte embarked on her move to Sydney, Australia where she subsequently met and befriended Angela Hamilton, Artistic Director, Choreographer, and Founder of Twisted Element (as well as the Primary & Senior Ensembles tutor). Charlotte’s current status in the company is collaborator and has had a big hand in the works made over the last 3 years. She also is an instructor with Angela’s youth company, Wild Hearts, as well as a freelance contemporary and ballet technique teacher, and choreographer in Sydney. Her current mission is to provide a better awareness in performers as well as confidence in their own artistry and movement.
Lexy Panetta – Junior Ensemble
Alexandria Panetta (Lexy) is a Sydney based artist, dancer and choreographer with a strong interest in dance performance, writing and film. She has completed a Bachelor of Arts, BA Dance and BA Education from 2011-2014 at the UNSW. During this time, Lexy performed with the UNSW Dance Company where she able to collaborate as a performer for dance professionals, including Sue Healey, Carlee Mellow, Lisa Griffiths, Jane McKernan and Adrian Van Winklehoff.
Lexy completed higher studies in dance academia throughout her Honours Degree and research in 2015 at UNSW. She produced a thesis on “Composing Flow; Choreographing Dance and the Camera”, and she done extended studies with the SDC Certificate 4 program as a guest of Linda Gamblin.
Lexy has performed and choreographed works around Sydney at locations such as UNSW Creative Practice Lab, FORM Dance Projects, Eternity Playhouse Theatre and 107 Projects, and internationally in Germany. She was awarded an international artistic residency program in Berlin 2016, allowing her to perform and choreograph live work, dance film and collaborations for performances in the Berlin Performance Festival. She has also been the recipient of Ausdance’s DAIR residency at Readymade Works.
Lexy was an assistant choreographer for the UNSW Dance Company 2016 and has choreographed for a Sydney based artist Lupa J's music videos premiered on Rage TV. She has also worked closely with Ausdance NSW on projects such as Big Dance 2018, working as a teaching artist teaching the choreography of Francis Rings and Craig Barry. She has tutored at Tafe NSW teaching HSC dance and Certificate 3, Screen and Media studies. Currently, Lexy is a teaching artist for the Sydney Dance Company, touring seasonal works teaching repertoire around Australia and has been a tutor for The Arts Unit since 2015.
Millie Slennett – Junior Ensemble
Millie is a professional dancer/freelance choreographer/creative director/adjudicator and host of The Dance Pod Podcast. Dancing since the age of 3, Millie is trained in classical ballet (RAD), Lyrical, Contemporary, Broadway/commercial Jazz, Musical Theatre, Hip Hop and ISTD tap/modern. She is a qualified Acrobatic Arts instructor, with over 11 years of teaching experience in most genres with her concentrations being Contemporary/Lyrical & Technical/Broadway/Commercial Jazz.
After graduating from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, Millie completed her full-time dance training in New York City with Broadway Dance Centre at the age of 19. She appeared as a dancer on Good Morning America, featured in a music video for Bray entertainment and took part in various flash mobs, corporate and charity events. She currently travels around Australia teaching workshops, choreographing for various companies and studios as well as adjudicating dance competitions.
Millie’s most recent performance and choreographic credits include: Choreographing for LOcREaDO Dance program, Teaching at Sydney Dance Company, Creative directing/choreographing for NSW Department of Education, performing as a contemporary principal dancer in season 3 of Tracie Stanfield’s Construction Company, Adjudicating GTB 2020, RFPA 2019-2020, ELITE EISTEDDFOD 2020, Teaching Australian/international workshops for Lucy Ellis Dance/Elite Training Extension Program/Ashworks Dance Association.
Some of her notable previous credits include, Fanta/Coca Cola Australia, Dance captain on the DiDi Australia float for Pride WA, Choreographer/performer RQCC charity event, L’Oréal Australia, Matrix Playground, Toni & Guy, Choreographer/performer Chris Rose music video, Pepper Pig’s Play date.
