• Larissa Kiyoto-Ward and Mason Lovegrove perform Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante with The Australian Ballet, capturing grace and classic virtuosity. Photo by Jonathan van der Knaap
    Larissa Kiyoto-Ward and Mason Lovegrove perform Balanchine’s Allegro Brillante with The Australian Ballet, capturing grace and classic virtuosity. Photo by Jonathan van der Knaap
  • Wet Hard Long by Jenni Large pushes the body to its limits, confronting power, endurance and femininity through raw physicality. Photo by Gianna Rizzo
    Wet Hard Long by Jenni Large pushes the body to its limits, confronting power, endurance and femininity through raw physicality. Photo by Gianna Rizzo
  • Royal New Zealand Ballet in Te Ao Mārama by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, blending haka-inspired strength with contemporary storytelling. Photo by Stephen A’Court
    Royal New Zealand Ballet in Te Ao Mārama by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, blending haka-inspired strength with contemporary storytelling. Photo by Stephen A’Court
  • The Other Side of Me by Gary Lang NT Dance Company tells a story of spirit, memory and return through deeply grounded movement. Photo by Paz Tassone
    The Other Side of Me by Gary Lang NT Dance Company tells a story of spirit, memory and return through deeply grounded movement. Photo by Paz Tassone
  • A powerful lift from Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Yuldea, choreographed by Frances Rings, honouring ancestral knowledge and connection to Country. Photo by Kate Longley
    A powerful lift from Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Yuldea, choreographed by Frances Rings, honouring ancestral knowledge and connection to Country. Photo by Kate Longley
  • Dancenorth’s Wayfinder bursts with colour, rhythm and joy in a tribute to human connection and collective energy. Photo by Amber Haines
    Dancenorth’s Wayfinder bursts with colour, rhythm and joy in a tribute to human connection and collective energy. Photo by Amber Haines
  • West Australian Ballet in George Williamson’s Extension to Boom, a bold exploration of movement, musicality and momentum. Photo by Bradbury Photography
    West Australian Ballet in George Williamson’s Extension to Boom, a bold exploration of movement, musicality and momentum. Photo by Bradbury Photography
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DanceX Returns: A Thrilling Celebration of Dance Across Australia and New Zealand

12 June 2025
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Fourteen of the most exciting dance companies and choreographers from across Australia and New Zealand will gather in Melbourne this October for the return of DanceX, a bold and expansive festival that celebrates the rich diversity of dance in the region. Curated by David Hallberg, Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet, DanceX 2025 will run from 8 to 19 October at Arts Centre Melbourne, with performances across the Playhouse, Fairfax Studio and The Show Room.

Launched in 2022 as a one-time post-pandemic initiative to reunite the dance community, DanceX quickly proved itself an essential platform for showcasing the full breadth of Australasian dance. Its overwhelming success demonstrated the appetite for a curated festival that brings together classical and contemporary companies, independent choreographers, and artists working across traditional and experimental forms. Its highly anticipated return in 2025 will once again offer audiences a rare opportunity to witness the depth, vitality and creative vision of the region’s most dynamic dance voices, all within one festival program.

“DanceX is a bold celebration of the extraordinary creativity that defines our dance community,” said Hallberg. “It brings together a broad spectrum of dance across Australia and New Zealand, from First Nations to contemporary, classical, independent and institutional. The companies and artists represented this year are only a small example of the rich community that defines the dance world around us. It’s a rare opportunity for audiences to experience the diversity, power and artistic vitality of the many cultures and creative voices that shape our stages in this part of the world.”

Over two weeks, DanceX will present works that range from emotionally charged solos and duets, to powerful ensemble pieces, to highly theatrical and interdisciplinary performances. Companies and artists featured in this year’s program include The Australian Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Bangarra Dance Theatre, West Australian Ballet, Stephanie Lake Company, Restless Dance Theatre, Dancenorth, NT Dance Company, Jenni Large, Lucy Guerin, Timothy Harbour, Melanie Lane, Jayden Lewis Wall and Melissa Pham.

Highlights of the program include:

  • Bangarra Dance Theatre will present excerpts from Yuldea, a powerful work choreographed by Artistic Director Frances Rings. The piece honours the Anangu people of the Great Victorian Desert and their spiritual connection to land and sky. This deeply moving work is Rings’ first creation as Artistic Director, reflecting her strong commitment to the preservation and evolution of Indigenous stories through dance.

  • NT Dance Company, under the direction of Gary Lang, presents The Other Side of Me, a haunting and poetic duet exploring themes of death, return and transformation. The work follows the spirit journey of an Aboriginal man who died in custody, conveyed through an intimate and physically charged duet. A co-production with Northumbria University, the piece is presented by BlakDance.

  • Restless Dance Theatre, whose company comprises neurodiverse dancers and dancers with disability, will perform Seeing Through Darkness. Originally commissioned by the Art Gallery of South Australia in response to the work of artist Georges Rouault, this acclaimed production explores perception, vulnerability and the beauty of imperfection. Restless continues to be a leader in inclusive and innovative contemporary practice, creating new opportunities and redefining what dance can be.

  • Stephanie Lake Company brings the blistering Auto Cannibal, a high-octane work that celebrates re-use, transformation and creative survival. Lake’s razor-sharp choreography, combined with driving music and relentless physicality, results in a performance that feels urgent, fearless and exhilarating.

  • Jenni Large presents Wet Hard Long, a searing feminist work that subverts traditional narratives of power, endurance and femininity. This uncompromising and visually striking piece pushes physical and emotional limits, offering an unflinching portrayal of resilience in the face of patriarchal constructs.

  • Royal New Zealand Ballet returns to DanceX with Te Ao Mārama, a bold work by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson, CEO and Artistic Director of the New Zealand Dance Company. Drawing from haka and grounded in Māori cultural identity, the piece showcases the formidable strength of the company’s male dancers and connects deeply to both tradition and contemporary expression.

  • The Australian Ballet will perform Lucy Guerin’s Ground Control, a compelling investigation into the relationship between gravity and air. With a choreographic language that contrasts the fluidity and weightlessness of ballet with its underlying physical tension, this piece highlights Guerin’s ability to interrogate form with rigour and grace. The company will also perform a new commission by long-time collaborator Timothy Harbour, alongside George Balanchine’s exuberant Allegro Brillante, danced in collaboration with The Australian Ballet School.

  • Dancenorth contributes Wayfinder, an excerpt from its recent full-length production. This vibrant, joy-filled work celebrates the strength of human connection through the synergy of dance, music and visual design.

  • West Australian Ballet will present Extension to Boom, choreographed by George Williamson. This work for six couples is expansive and musically intricate, using precise geometry and sweeping movement to explore physical tension and release.

  • Melanie Lane’s Dream Swamp is an imaginative work for younger audiences, combining dance, theatre and fantasy to create a surreal world of shape-shifting, spell-casting and time travel. The work invites young viewers to imagine their own bodies as powerful, transformative spaces.

  • Jayden Lewis Wall and Melissa Pham’s Flesh Vessel, performed with Ashley McLellan, explores the body as a site of relational presence. Through tightly structured partnering and continuous physical negotiation, the trio investigates the communicative potential of movement and mutual awareness.

Week One (8 to 11 October) will feature performances by Royal New Zealand Ballet, The Australian Ballet and Lucy Guerin, Restless Dance Theatre, Dancenorth, The Australian Ballet School, Jenni Large, and the collaborative work Flesh Vessel.

Week Two (15 to 19 October) continues with Bangarra Dance Theatre, West Australian Ballet, NT Dance Company, Stephanie Lake Company, Melanie Lane, and a new work by Timothy Harbour for The Australian Ballet.

DanceX is presented by The Australian Ballet with the generous support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, Lady Potter AC CMRI, The David Hallberg Fund for Artistic Aspiration, The Hansen-Little Foundation, Linda Herd & The Linda Herd Fund for Contemporary Work, and Creative Australia, the Australian Government’s principal arts investment and advisory body.

“I’m incredibly proud to be bringing DanceX back in 2025,” said Hallberg. “It is both a showcase and a statement, reaffirming the importance of dance in our cultural landscape and celebrating the artists who are shaping its future.”

Tickets go on sale Monday 16 June.
Full program and ticket information can be found here.

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