Lena John Gomez
Creative Producer
Lena has trained in Perth, Coimbatore, Thiruvanathapuram, London, New York, and Philadelphia in many diverse styles (ballet, contemporary, tap, jazz, hip hop, Indian classical Bharata Natyam folk forms and Bollywood). Her modern choreography is often a fusion of all of the above.
Her arts management experience includes working for Ausdance, the peak body for dance in Australia, and as General Manager of Propelarts, the peak youth arts body. She was a performer for Rakini and the Kalika Dance Company and Make Your Move Dance Project. She has choreographed for many Australian theater companies and organizations, including Deckchair Theatre, Kulcha, Ausdance, Swerve, Theatre Kimberley, Big Mama (Making Arts More Accessible) Productions, National Dance Week, APAN, John Curtin College of the Arts, as well as for professional events. Highlights include ‘Worn Art Broome’ Wearable Art Festival and opening and closing ceremonies of National Australia Day Oz concerts 2004-2008 broadcast on SBS Television. Her short dance film Oru Divasum, shot in Chennai, India, toured international film festival circuits and was shortlisted for an Australian National Dance Award.
Lena has a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Curtin University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Maths and Dance Education from ECU. She has taught dance, working in community cultural development for over 20 years, specializing in remote First Nations Aboriginal communities.
Lena is committed to young people finding their identity and sense of place through the arts. She is now a Creative Producer for Jukstapoz Physical Theatre Company, based in Athens, and for children’s contemporary dance company Cie-Felicette Chazerand, based in Brussels. Most recently she worked for Song for the Mardoowarra, a puppetry theater show about the creation and preservation of the Mardoowarra River, a sacred place for Nyikina people, which toured from Australia to Belgium and France for Festival Mondial des Theatre de Marionettes in 2019. She has a keen interest in painting, the tabla and 90s hip hop.