Dance Quarter Competitors

Dance changes you. More than simply witnessing something beautiful, or engaging with culture, to experience dance is to be positively altered. From performances at the Joyce Theatre in New York, to the Grand in Shanghai, the Stanislavsky in Moscow and the Sydney Opera House at home, Sydney Dance Company has proven that there are no passive observers in a contemporary dance audience. The reward of truly moving audiences, and the raw pride of sharing Australian art with the world has driven our ensemble of 16 dancers, led by Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela, to become one of the world’s strongest forces in contemporary dance. Alongside Bonachela’s original works, our programs have featured guest choreographers like Jacopo Godani, Alexander Ekman, Gideon Obarzanek and Cheng Tsung-Lung as well as collaborations with the Sydney Festival, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, David Jones and composers Bryce Dessner, Nick Wales, 48nord and Ezio Bosso. Sydney Dance Company has a broad community beyond the practice and performance of our lead dancers. We believe in the universality of dance, and with the largest public dance class program in Australia, we help over 80,000 people a year connect with the grace, strength and creativity that lives within all of us. Our nation-wide education program offers a strategic curriculum targeting primary and secondary students through to career focused study for pre-professional dancers and university graduates.

Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) is one of Australia’s leading contemporary dance company, enthralling audiences locally, nationally and internationally since 1965. Based in Adelaide, ADT has developed a body of artistically innovative work that reflects Australia’s ingenuity and vibrancy. The company is renowned for pushing the boundaries of dance and its collaborations with artists from a wide range of cultural and scientific domains, including robotics, photography, neuroscience, architecture, 3D graphics, video and virtual reality technology. ADT tours extensively across Australia and around the world, and has, since 2001, performed to over 250,000 people in Europe, Asia and North America at some of the most prestigious theatres in the world including the Sydney Opera House, Sadler’s Wells (London), Southbank Centre (London), Théatre de la Ville (Paris) and The Joyce Theater (New York). For the past 20 years, ADT has been under the artistic direction of Garry Stewart, recipient of the inaugural Australia Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance and named as one of the world’s fifty most influential choreographers. With its repertoire extending beyond the stage to include film, interactive installations, gallery exhibitions and works for public spaces, ADT has been the recipient of numerous Helpmann, Green Room, Export and Australian Dance Awards.

The Australian Ballet School is Australia’s national centre for elite vocational classical dance training. Since 1964, The Australian Ballet School has transformed hundreds of young and aspiring dancers and produced artists of the highest calibre for The Australian Ballet and other significant dance companies around Australia and the world.