Carclew Youth Arts has announced the appointment of creative producer Katrina Lazaroff to deliver a program of youth performing arts activity in Adelaide’s southern suburbs.

The appointment of Katrina, an independent artist, follows a call out for expressions of interest to offer youth performing arts activity in this area. Katrina has devised Expressway Arts which is a pilot project supported by Carclew Youth Arts and will be engaged as a project artist for a period of 18 months.

“Through ExpressWay Arts I aim to open creative opportunities for young people by highlighting career pathways for young South Australian performers and by giving children more access to the performing arts and other art forms,” said Lazaroff.

“I am looking forward to providing open and creative experiences to develop confident, creative, active and informed young people”

“ExpressWay Arts will aim to provide experiences and outcomes that are relevant to young people in their community and to attract others from surrounding communities together for artistic and social exchange”.

Katrina has worked extensively as a performer, choreographer, rehearsal director and performing arts educator since 1994. She graduated with a BA in Dance at the University of Adelaide in 1996, studied at the Hooger Instituit Voor Danse in Belgium in 1997 and graduated with Honours in Dance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2001.

Most recently, Katrina directed, choreographed and produced the full-length work Pomona Road as part of Adelaide Festival Centre's 2010 inSPACE season. Katrina is the founder of new dance theatre company Onepoint618 producing main stage theatre work, educational programs and in school performances.

Katrina also mentors emerging dance performer and choreographer Erin Fowler in the JUMP National Mentoring Program for Young and Emerging Artists. JUMP is a national project which is delivered in South Australia by Carclew.

Carclews Chief Executive Tricia Walton said,

"Not only is Katrina excited at the prospect of making work with and by young people she is also expecting to integrate her professional arts practise within the community to provide young people with the hands-on experience of working with innovative arts processes and a range of professionals in the performing arts".

Carclew will review the Expressway Arts pilot project in September 2012 to inform future delivery options.