- Aquadance - a dance with nature

TONI HOUSTON is AQUA’s writer, director and editor. Toni has a Masters of Arts in Documentary from the prestigious Australian Film, TV & Radio School, and has worked for over 20 years in the film and television industry. She has written, directed, edited and researched for many independent documentary companies, as well as various Australian broadcasters including the Nine Network and the ABC Natural History Unit. For 5 years Toni travelled to some of the planet’s most remote and wild places, working as onboard film-maker on the expedition vessel The National Geographic Lindblad Explorer. She wrote and directed a 1 hour special for Channel 7’s World Around Us prime-time slot, entitled Atlanta’s Child. She also wrote, directed and edited the first High Definition feature length documentary about Antarctica, entitled Antarctica Dreaming, which is now being distributed worldwide.

Most recently she was engaged as a scriptwriter and editor on Underwater Edens, a series produced by the Smithsonian Channel, USA. She is also the director, editor and cinematographer of a feature length DVD accompanying the release of the jazz album Melt by singer/songwriter Corinne Gibbons, for international performance and screenings. She has just completed work as a script writer for the High Definition re-make of the multi award-winning Coral Sea Dreaming, the original of which is the highest grossing underwater film in Australian history.

BETTINA RICHTER is AQUA’s producer. Bettina is a freelance producer, writer and publicist. For 8 years she worked for ABC television on documentaries, arts, and factual programs including Dynasties, Compass, Dimensions with George Negus, and Sunday Afternoon with Andrea Stretton. She has also written and produced radio documentaries for Radio National’s Life Matters, Hindsight and Street Stories. In 2007 Bettina was the researcher and production manager on the AFI award winning documentary Global Haywire. Bettina also works as a publicist and specialises in promoting arts organisations, exhibitions and film events. She brings this experience of marketing and the PR world, and a host of contacts in all the major press to her work as a producer. Bettina has promoted the AWGIE Awards, the Candelo Village Festival, the Snowy Mountains Festival of Music and acclaimed new music ensembles such as Halcyon.

Bettina is currently producing a documentary about one of Australia’s most celebrated cartoonists and is also Associate Producer on an innovative documentary which looks at the future of mankind.

Bettina & Toni have a film production company, Wish Bone Films, on the far south coast of NSW Australia where they live.

DAVID HANNAN is AQUA’s cinematographer and Associate Producer. As both cinematographer and producer, David has won international acclaim for his tropical and temperate marine images, and is an Emmy-award winner. His now classic underwater music video Coral Sea Dreaming released in 1992 has screened in over 60 countries and remains the best-selling Natural History program every produced and marketed from Australia. David has produced and filmed many other TV documentaries, including Discovery Channel, National Geographic and the BBC. His footage of the Great Barrier Reef is renowned as the best, and most comprehensive, in the world.

TINA DALTON is the Executive Producer of AQUA and one of Australia’s most prolific wildlife filmmakers and has produced many award-winning programs. For 10 years she has been the Managing Director of international Stock Footage Company Absolutely Wild Visuals (AWV) and Production Company Content Mint.

She has produced and directed more than 70 hours of internationally distributed television. Tina directed a one-hour special about the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef for NOVA, USA and Channel Seven, Australia. She was co-producer and co-director of the award winning films such as Flight of the Rhino, King Koala and The Art of Tracking. Tina was also the Director of the Ron and Valerie Taylor biography series Shadows of the Shark.

In 2004 Tina was awarded the University of Queensland – Gatton, Gold Medal for her distinguished career in documentary production and as an environmental educator. Today Tina and Content Mint are continuing to produce quality and innovative programming and content for a variety of media platforms.

OVE HOEGH-GULDBERG is AQUA’s official scientist and the Professor and Director of the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland. He completed his BSc. Hons at the University of Sydney and PhD at UCLA in 1989, and was recognized in 1999 with the Eureka Prize for Research into the physiological mechanisms of coral bleaching.

Specialising in the impact of climate change on biological systems, Professor Hoegh-Guldberg has worked in polar, temperate and tropical regions, and is well-known for his work on the impacts of ocean warming and acidification on coral reefs.

He is currently a Queensland Smart State Premier’s fellow, and holds positions as reviewing editor at Science Magazine and chair of the World Bank/GEF working group on coral reefs and climate change.

ENDORPHIN is an AQUA composer. Endorphin – (aka Eric Chapus) – is an internationally recognised music phenomenon, and one of Australia’s most successful exports. Specialising in the dance/trance/ambient genre, Endorphin has released 6 albums to critical acclaim. He has won numerous industry awards, and supported some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Massive Attack, St Germaine and Moby. He is renowned for his emotive scores, and is now focusing his career on composing soundscapes for film and television. He continues to work as a live performer, and intends touring AQUA, with an aim to showcase it at the World Expo 2010 in Japan where he has been invited to represent Australia.

SAFRI DUO is an AQUA composer. Since 2000 Safri Duo have been one of the biggest names in the dance scene bringing their particular brand of tribal-infused pop/trance techno to the world. Safri Duo is made up of classically-trained percussion players, composers and programmers Morten Friis and Uffe Savery of Denmark, whose first dance single Played-A-Live (‘The Bongo Song’) and album Episode 11 becoming major international hits. Their next two follow-up albums sold 1.5 million albums and 2 million singles with the singles also appearing on more than 30 million compilations. Safri Duo continue to embrace the world with their music, and have collaborated with the likes of Mexican Tenor Star Rolando Villazón, Youssou N’Dour and the Soweto Gospel Choir (South Africa) to great acclaim for their latest album Origins (2008). Safri Duo are performing live to accompany the exclusive United Nations Climate Change Conference COP15 Special Preview Edition of AQUA in Denmark on 16 December 2009.

AQUA - a dance with nature picture

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