MOVES
Sydney Dance Company has announced that Executive Director Anne Dunn is to step down after almost 12 years in the role. Dunn is to be appointed Executive Director and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Sydney Theatre Company and will leave SDC in January 2022.
Serena Chalker has been appointed Creative Producer of Strut Dance National Choreographic Centre of WA. Chalker is a choreographer, critically acclaimed independent artist, producer and co-director of award-winning Anything Is Valid Dance Theatre. She was a member of the STRUT Dance Board from 2011-2013 and has also produced and co-curated the last three iterations of STRUT's site-specific season In Situ / Situ-8 with Geordie Crawley.
September 21
The Victorian College of Arts has two new lecturers joining the new Master of Dance and revitalised BFA Dance: Cara Hagan and Brenton Surgenor. Hagan is an internationally established artist and scholar from New York. Aotearoa-born Surgenor is a leading specialist in somatic education, choreography and dance science. More here.
Send us your move! Email: dance@yaffa.com.au.
September 13
Grace Carroll, a former pupil of Tanya Pearson Academy (NSW), the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School (UK) has joined The Australian Ballet.
Australian Primrose Kern has joined the Boston Ballet, as company artist.
August 30
Lilian Steiner has been announced at the 2021-22 Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc in Melbourne. Lilian has performed with Lucy Guerin Inc in Weather (2012), Motion Picture (2015), The Dark Chorus (2016), Split (2017), Make Your Own World (2019), Metal (2020) and PENDULUM (2021).
Along with working and touring extensively with Lucy Guerin Inc, Lilian has worked with choreographers Phillip Adams (Balletlab), Melanie Lane, Shelley Lasica, Brooke Stamp, Leah Landau and Rennie McDougall, as well as visual artists Sally Smart, Brook Andrew, Emile Zile, Bridie Lunney, Ash Keating, Mikala Dwyer and Alicia Frankovic, architect Matthew Bird (Studio Bird) and sound artists JLIN, Anna Homler and Richie Cyngler. This breadth of experience has informed the development of Lilian’s own artistic voice.
Her choreographic projects have been presented in both national and international contexts and she was the recipient of the Green Room Award for Best Female Dancer in both 2017 and 2018, as well as the Helpmann Award in 2017. Her work Noise Quartet Meditation received the 2015 Green Room Award for Concept and Realisation.
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Aotearoa-born Brenton Surgenor, a leading specialist in somatic education, choreography and dance science, and Cara Hagan, an internationally established artist and scholar from New York, have joined the faculty of the Master of Dance at the University of Melbourne. Surgenor has come from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts; Hagan is the director of American Dance Festival’s Dancers Make Movies.
Send us your move! Email: dance@yaffa.com.au.
August 23
After more than a decade in the post, Adrian Burnett has left his post as the Head of Arts Practice for Dance at the Australia Council.
“It has been a huge privilege to work alongside such esteemed colleagues, at all levels of the organisation, over the last ten and a half years," he said in his announcement. "I feel the Australia Council is the ‘engine room’ of arts and culture in Australia and we all work in service of a higher purpose – to make Australia’s arts and cultural landscape a place we can all be proud of - one that supports and celebrates humanity in its myriad of complex, messy and brilliant forms.”
August 3
Paul Selwyn Norton is leaving his position as Director of STRUT Dance in Perth to take up a new post as s director of the Junction Arts Festival in Launceston, Tasmania. Selwyn has been the leader of STRUT for eight years, during which time he has built it from a fledgling to a vibrant dance organisation that has fostered partnerships with some of the world's finest choreographers and positioned itself as the National Choreographic Centre of Western Australia.
After an esteemed 20-year professional dance career, including 13 years at West Australian Ballet, Demi-Soloist Melissa McCabe (nee Boniface) is retiring from the stage.
July 5
The Australia Council has appointed Robert Morgan as its new chair, replacing Sam Walsh. Morgan is Clemenger Group's executive chair and a director of BBDO Worldwide, as well as a board member for AFL team, Sydney Swans.
The Australian Ballet School has appointed Kirsty Ritchie as its new Executive Director. Ritchie is currently the Associate Director of Organisational Development and the Arts Wellbeing Collective at Arts Centre Melbourne. She initially trained at The Australian Ballet School and went on to become a professional dancer, performing with the Australian Ballet, The Dancers Company and other companies for several years. Kirsty retrained in organisational development and change management, holding senior roles nationally and internationally with Myer, Telstra and Bupa, before joining Arts Centre Melbourne in 2018.
Send us your move! Email: dance@yaffa.com.au.
June 15
Australian Rachael Ireson is now Resident Director and Choreographer on the new Dreamworks and Stephen Schwartz musical, The Prince of Egypt, in London.
The Queensland Ballet's Joel Woellner has been promoted to Principal Artist.
May 24
The full cast has been announced for Opera Australia and GWB Entertainment’s production of West Side Story, performing in Perth in June and Brisbane in July/August. Go here.
The Australian Ballet's Artistic Director David Hallberg has announced the following promotions: Callum Linnane from Soloist to Senior Artist; Isobelle Dashwood from Corps de Ballet to Soloist; Yuumi Yamada from Coryphée to Soloist; Jacqueline Clark from Coryphée to Soloist; Lucien Xu from Corps de Ballet to Coryphée; Lisa Craig from Corps de Ballet to Coryphée; Riley Lapham from Corps de Ballet to Coryphée.
May 10
David McAllister has received the 2020 JC Williamson Award, which recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the Australian live entertainment and performing arts industry, and helped to shape the future of our industry for the better. The Award is one of the Helpmann Awards presented by Live Performance Australia, which were presented at the Recital Centre in Melbourne. Opera singer and composer Deborah Cheetham also received the award. McAllister's award came on the heels of his Queen the Elizabeth II Coronation Award, the highest honour awarded by the Royal Academy of Dance. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/david-mcallister-honoured
April 27
Emily Flannery, a proud Wiradjuri woman from Forbes in the Central West of NSW, has joined Bangarra Dance Theatre. A NAISDA graduate, Emily was most recently the 2021 First Nations intern with Lucy Guerin.
April 6
The Queensland Ballet's Patricio Revé has been promoted from Soloist to Senior Soloist.
Sydney Dance Company has welcomed Gabrielle Nankivell to its Advanced Training Department as Training Associate.
Nicholas Currie-Inns, a Munaldjali and Bundjalung man from Queensland, is the 2021 recipient of the Russell Page Graduate Program Scholarship. He will enjoy a 10-week study program with Sydney Dance Company’s (SDC) Pre-Professional Year and a four-week internship with Bangarra during the making of the company’s new production - SandSong.
Send us your move! Email: dance@yaffa.com.au.
March 1
Tyrel Dulvarie has moved from Bangarra Dance Theatre to join the Australasian Dance Collective as a company artist.
Australian Ballet principal artists, Kevin Jackson and Andrew Killian, announced their retirement. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/kevin-jackson-and-andrew-killian-announce-retirement
Feb 22
Join Dancenorth ensemble member Felix Sampson are four new dancers: Marlo Benjamin, Nelson Earl, Niharika Senapati and Michael Smith.
Feb 15
Sydney Dance Company has welcomed some new dancers. Sabine Crompton-Ward, a 2020 graduate of the company's Pre-Professional Year 2, has been offered a traineeship for 2021. Telea Jensen, the company’s 2020 trainee, has been offered an extension to her traineeship due to it being disrupted by COVID-19. She will be performing in Impermanence. Isabella Crain, who performed with the company for New Breed 2020, has been offered a short contract with the company and will be performing in Impermanence. Ariella Casu left the company at the end of 2020 and is currently working on an exciting film project.
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A new residency program for Senior First Nations dance artists has been announced by Lucy Guerin Inc and BlakDance, with Narangga and Kaurna artist Jacob Boehme appointed the inaugural First Nations Resident
Feb 9
The Australasian Dance Collective's Jake McLarnon has announced he will retire from dance following the company's season of Aftermath at the Brisbane Powerhouse from February 11-14. McLarnon, 27, joined ADC in 2016, after a one-week secondment became an eight-week contract, and then a full-time role.
Feb 1, 2020
Garry Stewart, the artistic director of Australian Dance Theatre, has decided that he will step down at the end of 2021. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/garry-stewart-to-leave-adt
Australian Ballet School graduates Lilla Harvey and Annabelle Watt have been accepted into the Australian Ballet.
Victor Zarallo has left Sydney Dance Company to pursue a new passion: teaching dance. See our recent article here.
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The 2021 Russell Page Graduates are Daniel Mateo, Maddison Paluch and Mitchell J Nalingu Harrison-Currie. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/bangarra-s-russell-page-graduates-announced
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Qld Ballet's Principal Artist Laura Hidalgo and Company Artist Tonia Looker have retired from the stage. Joining QB in 2021 as First Company Artist is former Australian Ballet and National Ballet of Canada dancer Joe Chapman.
Four West Australian Ballet dancers have been promoted: Nikki Blain, Jesse Homes and Mayume Noguromi have each been promoted to the rank of Demi-Soloist while Julio Blanes has been promoted to Soloist. Blanes, originally from Cuba, joined the company in mid-2018. Both Homes and Blain joined WAB as Young Artists in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Noguromi joined the company’s corps de ballet in 2019. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/moves-at-wa-and-qld-ballet-companies
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The new Artists of Colour Initiative has announced the winner of its inaugural scholarship. Out of more than 60 entries, the 25 member judging panel has chosen Martha Berhane, a Canadian-born Eritrean singer, dancer and actor. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/winner-of-the-first-aoc-initiative-announced
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Shaun Parker has scored a double win for his work on the music video, Tomorrow. The video has received the award for Best Director at the Sweden Film Awards and at the Prague International Film Festival. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/shaun-parker-wins-film-award.
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Melbourne company Chunky Move has announced that Joel Bray is to become its inaugural choreographer in residence, beginning in 2021. http://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/joel-bray-is-chunky-move-s-first-choreographer-in-residence
Send us your move! Email: dance@yaffa.com.au.
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