Amber McCartney is a Naarm/Melbourne-based dancer and choreographer. Her practice incorporates prosthetics, mask-making, film and practical special effects to create new augmented bodies. Amber has worked extensively with Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc. and is a creative associate of Tasdance. She has collaborated with independent artists such as Jo Lloyd, Jenni Large, Prue Lang, James Batchelor, Antony Hamilton Projects, Alisdair Macindoe and Stephanie Lake.
Amber received the John Truscott Artists Award for her solo Tiny Infinite Deaths, performed in RISING 2023, originally commissioned by Lucy Guerin Inc and The Substation. In 2023 Amber premiered her solo Baby Girl, commissioned by Tasdance, for MONA FOMA.
In 2022 she was honoured to receive a Chloe Munro Fellowship from Lucy Guerin Inc. She won a Green Room Award for Best Performer in Prue Langβs Project F and was a finalist for Telstra Emerging Choreographer Award. Her film Tiny Passenger was screened in dance(lens), Dancehouse. In 2020 Amber was a recipient of Chunky Moveβs Solitude 1 and created her film Softtrap for the 2021 Activators program.
BABY GIRL
Photographed by Jesse Hunniford at MONA FOMA 23
Performed & choreographed by Amber McCartney // Sound by Makeda Zucco // Costume by Geoffrey Watson // Artistic Director Adam Wheeler // Producer Emma Porteus
TINY INFINITE DEATHS
Photographed by Gregory Lorenzutti
Choreographed & Performed by Amber McCartney // Sound by Makeda Zucco // Costume by Andrew Treloar // Produced by Estelle Conely // Created for βPiecesβ 22 // Lucy Guerin Inc & The Substation
TINY PASSENGER
Choreographed & Performed by Amber McCartney // Cinematography by Ella Sowinska
Created for The Australian Ballet / Telstra Emerging Choreographer Initiative
SOFTTRAP
SOUND // MORGAN HICKINBOTHAM
PROSTHETICS // KIANA JONES
Commissioned by CHUNKY MOVE for ACTIVATORS 2021
Initial development SOLITUDE 1 supported by CHUNKY MOVE & THE TANJA LIEDTKE FOUNDATION