Margrete Helgeby Chaney
With a career focussed on performance, Margrete’s experience also extends to advocacy, project management, audience and membership engagement, strategy and policy development in the arts.
Margrete danced with West Australian Ballet, Chrissie Parrott Dance Company (Perth) and Rambert Dance Company (London) and, with Stefan Karlsson, founded loaded and co.loaded. In 2005, she was awarded Most Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer at the Australian Dance Awards. Margrete was named in the best individual performer category by Dance Australia Critic’s Choice in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2005 and nominated for several Green Room Awards and Australian Dance Awards.
Other roles have included lecturing in both Contemporary and Classical Dance at WAAPA, Assistant Director at Opera Queensland, State Opera of South Australia and West Australian Opera, Director at West Australian Opera, Rehearsal Director at Buzz Dance Theatre (of which she became Patron), Associate Producer at Performing Lines WA, Project Manager at Nova Ensemble and the Future Moves Project Facilitator.
She is passionate about dancer wellbeing and career transition pathways.
Over the course of her career, Margrete has served at the national, state and local level on funding, awards and strategic panels and boards, and, in the 80’s, as a dancer representative for the West Australian MEAA. She was the Chair of West Australian Ballet’s Artistic Review Panel from 2015 to 2018. She is currently a member of the Helpmann Awards Dance and Physical Theatre Panel. Here at Co3 Contemporary Dance Margrete was previously Chair of the Artistic Advisory Committee and, most recently, our Deputy Chair. She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD).
Holding two Bachelor of Arts degrees (WAAPA at Edith Cowan University and the University of Western Australia), Margrete is MBA candidate at UWA.