The Seesaw Team
Meet the people behind WA’s award-winning arts magazine
Seesaw – your WA arts playground – is an award-winning digital arts magazine co-edited by respected arts journalists Rosalind Appleby and Nina Levy.
Drawing on decades of experience in the arts, Nina and Rosalind lead a team of diverse and authoritative arts writers to provide the most dedicated and comprehensive arts coverage in the State.
Nina Levy – Co-founder and Managing Editor
Nina Levy has worked as an arts writer and critic since 2007. In May 2017 she co-founded Seesaw Magazine with Varnya Bromilow and has been co-editing the platform since it went live in August 2017.
Nina began her career as an arts journalist as editor of Ausdance WA’s dancewest magazine (2007- 2011). She started working as a freelance dance critic shortly after, writing reviews and features for Dance Australia, from 2007. In 2012 she became editor of online content for Dance Australia. Nina was co-editor of Dance Australia from July 2016 to June 2019. Nina was also dance critic for The West Australian newspaper from 2009-2018.
Nina has worked extensively in arts education and advocacy. She taught dance history and analysis at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts from 2011 to 2020. Between 2007 and 2011 she was Communications Manager at Ausdance WA and she has worked casually in education at the West Australian Museum, the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (2007). Nina taught dance and drama at Applecross Senior High School from 2003-2006. From 2000-2018, Nina was co-owner, manager and principal of Classical Dance Studio, a private dance school.
Nina loves the swings because they take her closer to the sky.
Gabrielle Sullivan – Business and Marketing Manager
Gabrielle Sullivan has been a manager of performing arts projects and companies, working primarily in the areas of contemporary music and contemporary dance, for thirty years. She has extensive experience in the management and promotion of performing arts organisations, companies and projects, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. She is currently Director at Ausdance WA and a member of the Management Committee of Decibel New Music Ensemble. Joining the Seesaw Team has her collaborating with colleagues from the arts sector, many of whom, over the years, have become good friends. And it’s called work! Favourite playground equipment is the swing, of course: rhythm and movement!
Julie Hosking – Senior Editor
A journalist with more words to her name than she can count, Julie has worked for newspapers, magazines and online publications in Melbourne and Perth. She has been a news editor, travel editor, features editor, arts editor and, for one terrifying year, business editor, before sanity prevailed and she landed in her happy place – magazines. If pushed (literally), she favours the swing.
Craig McKeough – Sub-editor
Craig is a writer and visual artist with a lifetime’s experience in journalism, covering everything from the arts to horse racing, politics and agriculture. Craig has always favoured the swing; an egalitarian, grounding piece of equipment where you can go as high as you want, but you’ll always return to where you started.
Amanda Scoble – Finance Manager
Amanda worked for over ten years in sport and corporate accounting before deciding to change it up in 2014 when she went behind the scenes with the State Theatre Centre of WA. Needless to say, she fell in love with arts management and hasn’t looked back. Amanda now specialises in the Not For Profit arts industry in WA and her portfolio includes Seesaw Magazine Inc, Awesome Arts Australia LTD and The Contemporary Dance Company WA Inc. Her favourite playground item back in the day was the whizzy dizzy.
Contributors
Rosalind Appleby – former Co-Managing Editor
Rosalind is an arts journalist, author and speaker. She was co-managing editor and founding board member of Seesaw Magazine 2018 – 2023, is author of Women of Note, and has written for The West Australian, The Guardian, The Australian, Limelight magazine and Opera magazine (UK). She loves park percussion instruments.
Kim Balfour is a writer and former professional dancer. Kim has worked as a freelance writer for over 15 years, including the role of dance writer for The West Australian. She is currently writing a creative nonfiction work on gender identity and expression in dance. Her favourite piece of playground equipment is the spinning playground carousel.
Stephen Bevis is a former Arts Editor at The West Australian from 2006 to 2016. His career at The West Australian included previous roles as Editor of the West Magazine, Deputy Foreign Editor, Night Editor, Canberra correspondent and state political reporter. He is often found warming the playground bench these days.
Danish emerging writer Kristian Borring arrived in Perth via London and Amsterdam. His international career as a touring jazz artist and composer has seen him release several acclaimed albums. He is currently in the final stages of finishing his PhD research at WAAPA. He prefers to watch his hyperactive kids barefoot in the sandpit.
Sandra Bowdler is an archaeologist who has been writing about music for some twenty years, most recently for Opera magazine, Bachtrack and Handel News. She is also the author of Handel’s Operas in Australia, a performance history. Her favourite piece of playground equipment is the picnic bench with smoked salmon sandwiches and champagne.
Varnya Bromilow – Co-founder of Seesaw Magazine
Varnya is a happy dilettante who has worked as a journalist, advocate, oral historian, teacher and train driver. She spent 15 years with the ABC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The West Australian and enjoys writing fiction. She loves guinea pigs and the thrill of a good slide.
At university, Rita Clarke found herself working at Radio 6UVSfm presenting the breakfast and art shows and writing and producing various programs for ABC’s Radio National. She also began writing features and reviews on theatre, film and dance for The Australian, The Financial Review, The West Australian, Scooby and other magazines. Favourite playground equipment? The slide — the taller the better.
Dr Claire Coleman is a pop musicologist, choral conductor and musician. She trained classically in piano, but wrote her doctorate on nostalgia in indie folk, and continues to lecture remotely in pop music studies in Berlin and London. Her favourite equipment on the playground is the flying fox – wheeeee!
Emerging writer Eduardo Cossio is a musician active in the Perth experimental music scene. He presents Difficult Listening on RTRFM, his music reviews appear on Realtime Arts and Cool Perth Nights and he runs Outcome Unknown, a concert series of exploratory music. At the playground, he tries to get some percussive sounds happening.
Lydia Edwards is a fashion historian and author. Her first book How to Read a Dress was published in 2017 and its follow up, How to Read a Suit, in February 2020. She lectures at ECU and WAAPA, and her favourite piece of playground equipment is the expression swing!
Emerging critic Bruce Denny’s heritage is Yamatji down his mother’s side and native American down his father’s. Beginning his acting career in the late 1980s, he has appeared in numerous Australian film, television and stage productions, most recently The Sum of Us in 2021. Bruce’s most recent directorial credit is Desert Wirla’s Kangaroo Stew.
Award-winning journalist, broadcaster and podcast producer Meri Fatin is a graduate of WAAPA and has been a volunteer presenter at RTRFM for over twenty years. She is the founder of WA Climate Leaders, driving a vision to inspire bold leadership on climate action. Meri likes hanging upside down, so her favourite playground attraction is the monkey bars.
Rania Ghandour has worked as a media and communications manager at the Perth International Arts Festival, a features writer at The West Australian, a secondary and tertiary teacher in Australia and France, and is now a director at Black Iris Consulting. Her favourite item of playground equipment is the swings.
Patrick Gunasekera (he/him) is an emerging writer, performer and dramatist based in Whadjuk Noongar boodjar. After reading a poorly-written review of a show by disabled artists, he went into arts journalism to improve criticism and media representation of marginalised cultural work. He really loves monkey bars, but not being judged for playing on them.
Emerging writer Tiffany Ha is a pianist, composer, arranger, music educator and vocalist. She has degrees in Music (Composition) and Arts (English) from UWA and works as a freelance musician. Her favourite playground equipment is anything that involves climbing and balance: monkey bars, rope towers, trees, human pyramids!
Jan Hallam has been watching theatre for a living for the past 30 years. Working for both The West Australian and The Sunday Times, she has been lucky to have experienced just how diverse and talented the Perth arts scene is. She’s the queen of the sandpit castle.
Belinda Hermawan is a Pushcart-nominated writer whose short fiction has been published in Australia and the United States. She has served on the Australian Short Story Festival committee and was formerly at Writing WA and Paper Mountain. Favourite piece of playground equipment: playground car on springs!
Barbara Hostalek is an independent First Nations playwright proud to be living with Noongar Boodjar and an emerging arts critic. She began writing plays at Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company’s Writers group in 2015. Her work has been produced by Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, Black Swan Theatre Company and Mudskipper Productions. Favourite part of the playground? Hands down, the sandpit.
Emerging writer Erin Hutchinson is an actor, singer, theatre-maker and teacher who is passionate about local arts. Whilst she wishes she could still be a ninja on the monkey bars, she’s content to enjoy a turn on the swings… easier to still hold a glass of wine.
Ara Jansen is a freelance journalist. Words, bright colour, books, music, art, fountain pens, good conversation, interesting people and languages make her happy. A long-time music journalist and critic, she’s the former music editor of The West Australian. Being in the pool next to the playground is one of her favourite places, ever.
Emma Jayakumar is an Australian composer and librettist whose recent major works include commissions for West Australian Opera, the ABC, Darwin Symphony Orchestra, Awesome Arts,West Australian Ballet and Music Book. Emma is also the mum of two energetic boys, and loves taking turns on the flying fox with them.
Miranda Johnson is a curator and writer who has worked for various contemporary art institutions, co-founded Cool Change Contemporary and co-hosts Fem Book Club at the Centre for Stories. Miranda’s favourite aspect of the playground is getting the chance to meet as many dogs as possible.
Kim Kirkman studied journalism and community development and has worked across the state as a reporter and story gatherer. She loves food, fiction writing and hearing other people’s stories. Always up for a challenge, the monkey bars are her favourite part of the playground.
Garry Lee has played jazz vibraphone and guitar for over 50 years. He was a founding jazz teacher at WAAPA has also been a jazz writer, jazz composer/leader, Churchill Fellow and artistic director. Born in Essex soon after WW2, his favourite playground equipment was dismantled tanks and cannons.
Leon Levy‘s career was spent in commerce, but in retirement continues a lifetime’s interest in the arts generally, and choral singing in particular. He enjoys occasional reviewing with its challenge of giving total focus to each performance. Leon remains attracted to playground slides under the cover of supervising his grandchildren.
Victoria Laurie is an award-winning journalist who has written extensively for national publications, including The Australian. Covering cultural matters and interviewing artists of all kinds has been one of her greatest privileges, and their contribution to Australian cultural life deserves far more recognition. As a fan of Seesaw, she nominates her playground favourite as… the seesaw.
Emerging writer Ilona McGuire is a proud Noongar (Whadjuk, Ballardong, Yuat) and Kungarakan woman. Her ancestry extends from Whadjuk Boodja to the Fitzmaurice region of the Northern Territory. A mixed-media contemporary artist, Ilona’s drone light show, Moombaki, headlined the 2021 Fremantle Biennale. Ilona’s favourite playground equipment is the flying fox.
Associate Professor Jonathan W. Marshall is postgraduate coordinator at WAAPA. Jonathan has written for RealTime Australia, Big Issue, The Age, Theatreview NZ, IN Press, and presented on radio since 1992. He grew up beside the Yarra River, near a long metal slide, set into the side of a rocky slope.
Emerging writer Kobi Morrison is a 27-year-old Bibbulmun Noongar who was born and raised in Perth. Outside of work, Kobi spends his spare time playing music, being involved in various music projects such as Moombaki, Koondarm, Koorlong, Madjitil Moorna and Endeavourous. These projects earned him the 2018 Perth NAIDOC Youth of the Year award.
Mark Naglazas has interviewed many of the world’s most significant producers, writers, directors and actors while working as film editor for The West Australian. He now writes for STM, reviews films on 6PR and hosts the Luna Palace Q&A series ‘Movies with Mark’. Favourite playground equipment: monkey bars.
Emerging writer Penny Shaw is an opera singer/cabaret artist/MC/podcaster/writer/director — a self-confessed ‘slashie’ — with a degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University. As a child she loved the heady terror of a fast roundabout, but as a mother of four children, she hates swings.
Stewart Smith is a specialist in historical performance practice at the WA Academy of Performing Arts and he has performed, recorded and published widely in the field. At the park he enjoys the seesaw though, sadly, does not always find it easy to find a suitable counterbalance.
Young writer Bethany Stopher is a high school student who has a passion for ballet and creative writing. She is drawn to shiny things, pretty words, and big hugs. Her favourite piece of playground equipment is the swings because it feels like flying.
Claire Trolio completed a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) at UWA. She writes about Western Australia for various digital and print media and owns a shop with her sister. For her, the spider swing is the ultimate in playground fun.
Bourby Webster is the director of North Street Music – a creative production and artist development company. She is also the founder of Perth Symphony Orchestra. She is a graduate of Oxford University, the Royal College of Music and has an MBA from UWA. She is a professional violist, entrepreneur, concert promoter and producer. She can’t even look at a playground as she suffers chronic motion sickness.
Michelle White is a Yamatji storyteller with more than 30 years’ experience writing and producing for television, radio, print and online. She has extensive experience working in the arts and currently serves as Partnerships and Platforming Manager for Community Arts Network. Favourite part of the playground? The flying fox or wherever the food is!
Jaimi Wright is a Development Coordinator for ARTRAGE and your friendly neighbourhood arts writer. She also writes for Art Almanac and ArtsHub as she cannot keep still. Her favourite piece of play equipment is the roundabout even though her stomach should know better.
David Zampatti has been a student politician, a band manager, the Freo Dockers’ events guy, a bar owner in California, The West Australian’s theatre critic and lots of other crazy stuff. He goes to every show he’s reviewing with the confident expectation it will be the best thing he’s ever seen.
The Seesaw board
Natalie Jenkins (Chair), Stephen Bevis (Deputy Chair), Michael Jones (Treasurer), Michelle White (Secretary), Scott Dennis, Julia Dobson and Stuart Shepherd.