The People & Purpose Behind CoExist
Who we are and why we are.
Our Founders
CoExist was co-founded in 2021 by Tenae Smith & Kristen Cafari after they discovered a lack of accessible opportunities for recent graduates.
Since its founding, CoExist has grown from presenting independent work to a producing, mentoring & community-hosting organisation.
Tenae Smith
Co-Founder & Creative Producer
Tenae is a contemporary dancer, teacher and producer based in Naarm, who has worked across Australia, New Zealand, Wales and Europe. As CoExist’s producer, Tenae leads the management and production of the collective’s work. Completing a Bachelor of Business (Event Management), Tenae is building a producing platform that promotes recent graduates and artists who might not otherwise find creative opportunities.
Kristen Cafari
Co-Founder & Creative Curator
Kristen is an artist and creative director based in Naarm/Melbourne, whose practice centres on curating spaces for artistic freedom and collaboration. Through CoExist, Kristen curates and creatively develops performances, events and learning opportunities with a multidisciplinary range of artists, building authentic connection and growth. Kristen's practice centres on holding space for process and supporting the organic unfolding of ideas while maintaining clarity of intention.
An inclusive creative community where everyone is supported in making, sharing and experiencing dance, and where independent artists can build practices that last.
CoExist Collective creates, produces and presents contemporary dance, and builds the spaces, programs and relationships that let artists gather, learn and grow. We tend community, nurture new voices and look after the people who make the work, embedding access and inclusion into every stage of a project, from planning through to performance.
The four guiding principles which guide how we make, facilitate & grow.
Tending Community
We make room for people to gather around the work.
We launched Tended Ground in 2026, bringing classes, workshops, co-working and scratch nights together every week. We teach with institutions including Transit Dance, connecting with emerging artists early. And we prioritise spaces that are accessible to all.
Nurturing New Voices
We back artists at the start of their practice.
Give Me a Microphone & Some Warm Bodies mentors recent graduates through making their first professional works (2023, 2025 and 2026), with support from Interconnect Studios and Transit Dance. We produce work by emerging artists including Aimee Raitman, Jack Birdseye, Jel Menta and Byron Lewis, and offer open-access developments such as Somewhere, Everywhere, Nowhere (development 2026, premiere 2027).
Building Creative Practice to Last
We’re building a way of working that looks after its people.
We’re consolidating CoExist into a practice that is sustainable for the people within it, and embedding access and inclusion into every part of a project, from planning through to performance.
Soft Hands
We hold space with care.
We approach creative developments with patience and empathy. We cultivate kindness, reciprocity and care within arts communities, and hold space with softness and maternity. And we always prioritise the safeguarding of every practitioner and collaborator.