Artistic Director

Rafael Bonachela is a globally celebrated choreographer, artistic director, and curator, recognised for his transformative impact on contemporary dance.

With a career spanning over three decades and crossing international borders—from London and Sydney to the global stage—his work has revolutionised both high art and popular culture. Bonachela seamlessly integrates contemporary dance with diverse art forms, including art installations, pop concerts, musicals, films, commercials, and fashion. 

Bonachela’s appointment as Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company in 2009 propelled the Company into a new era of creative ambition and innovation. Central to his directorship has been a sustained and strategic commitment to the commissioning and development of new work, underpinned by significant long-term investment in original choreography and the active support of Australian and international artists through ambitious commissioning and development programs.

Early Career

Born in La Garriga, near Barcelona, in 1972, Bonachela began his early dance training in Spain before moving to London to join the renowned Rambert Dance Company where he danced from 1992 to 2004. He performed works by some of the world’s most iconic choreographers, including Merce Cunningham, Christopher Bruce, Jiří Kylián, Twyla Tharp, Mats Ek, Sue Davies, Wayne McGregor, Ohad Naharin, Karole Armitage, Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor, among others. His choreographic debut, Three Gone, Four Left Standing (1999), premiered at Sadler’s Wells, and in 2003 he was appointed Associate Choreographer at Rambert, a role he held until 2005.

In 2002 Bonachela was commissioned to choreograph Kylie Minogue’s performance at the Brit Awards of Can’t Get You Out of My Head. His innovative approach, blending contemporary dance with a mainstream pop context, was met with widespread acclaim. This led to an ongoing creative partnership, contributing movement direction for her world tours and music videos. His ability to merge high-art dance aesthetics with popular culture attracted collaborations with renowned artists and brands, including Tina Turner, The Kills, Primal Scream, as well as high-profile commercial clients such as Jaguar, Siemens Mobile and Hugo Boss.

In 2006 Bonachela was invited to become one of the first Artists in Residence at the Southbank Centre, a prestigious position that allowed him to further hone his choreographic craft while developing new and innovative works. It was during this time that he also established the Bonachela Dance Company, focusing on his rising career as a choreographer.

Sydney Dance Company Repertoire

In 2008 Rafael premiered his first full-length production 360° for Sydney Dance Company and less than six months later was appointed Artistic Director.

Since then, Rafael has created numerous critically-acclaimed works for the Sydney Dance Company including we unfold (2009), 6 Breaths (2010),  LANDforms (2011), 2 One Another (2012), Project Rameau (2012), Emergence (2013), Les Illuminations (2013) Simple Symphony with Australian Chamber Orchestra (2013), 2 in D Minor (2014), Scattered Rhymes (2014), Frame of Mind (2015), Lux Tenebris (2016),  Anima (2016), Ocho (2017), ab [intra] (2018), Cinco (2019) and Cuatro with Sydney Symphony Orchestra (2020).

In addition, he has remounted outstanding repertoire from Bonachela Dance Company such as Soledad and Irony of Fate (2010) and The Land of Yes & The Land of No (2011).

In 2021 Bonachela’s full-length work Impermanence, co-commissioned with the Australian String Quartet, had its world premiere in Sydney, featuring the music of Grammy Award winning Bryce Dessner. During the 2021 pandemic lockdown, Bonachela choreographed a new online work Years, which was performed live for the first time in February 2022 at MPavilion in Melbourne.

More recent works from Bonachela include Summer (2022), SOMOS (2023), I Am-ness (2023), momenta (2024), Tres for Cartier (2024), Silence & Rapture in collaboration with Australian Chamber Orchestra (2024), and Spell (2025).

Bonachela has actively commissioned Australian and international chorographers to make work on the Sydney Dance Company, as well as licensing world-acclaimed choreographers to share their work with national audiences. These have included original commissions by Kenneth Kvarnström, Adam Linder, Emanuel Gat, Jacopo Godani, Larissa McGowan, Emily Amisano, Stephanie Lake, Lisa Wilson, Andonis Foniadakis, Gideon Obarzanek, Gabrielle Nankivell, Melanie Lane, Cheng Tsung-lung, Antony Hamilton, Marina Mascarell, and Tra Mi Dinh, plus re-staged works from William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin and Alexander Ekman. In 2012 he curated the international festival Spring Dance for the Sydney Opera House.

Bonachela has created and collaborated with companies worldwide including Staatstheater Nürnberg, Wrocław Opera Ballet, Acosta Danza, Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, the BalleBoyz and Candoco among others. In September 2019, a duet from Bonachela’s full length work ab [intra] was performed by Etoiles of the Paris Opéra Ballet for their prestigious 350th Anniversary Fundraising Gala at Palais Garnier. The evening also included works from Ben Stevenson, Serge Lifar, George Balanchine and William Forsythe.

Collaborations

Bonachela has championed enduring collaborations with composers, designers, visual artists, and creatives, embedding these partnerships at the core of Sydney Dance Company’s artistic practice.

New works are developed through close creative dialogue with some of today’s most distinctive musical and design voices, resulting in productions in which choreography, sound, lighting, costume, and spatial design are conceived as an integrated, interdependent whole. 

His career has seen him collaborate with many artists in different fields such as composers and musicians (Ezio Bosso, Nick Wales, Tarik O’Regan, Matthew Herbert, Marius de Vries, Benjamine Wallfisch, Sarah Blasco, Katie Noonan, Kylie Minogue, Tina Turner, The Sixteen, Bryce Dessner), orchestras (London Sinfonietta, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra), visual artists (Mira Calix, Angela de la Cruz, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Lenka Clayton), designers (Alan Macdonald, Ralph Myers, Tony Assness, David Fleisher, Kelsey Lee, Damien Cooper, Elizabeth Gadsby), fashion (Toni Maticevsky, Dion Lee, Romance Was Born, Josh Goot, Jordan Askill), filmmakers (Daniel Askill, Tim Richardson, Dimitri Basil, Dawn Shadforth, Johan Renck, Clemens Habitch), poets (Sam Webster) and photographers (Pedro Greig, Jez Smith, Hugh Stewart, Justin Ridler).

Through this collaborative ethos, Sydney Dance Company has been redefined as a dynamic centre for contemporary artistic practice—positioning dance not as an isolated form, but as a meeting point for ideas, disciplines, and innovation—and reinforcing the Company’s reputation as a leading force in the international contemporary dance landscape. 

Sydney Dance Company Sector Development and Education

Bonachela has consistently championed new pathways for artists throughout his time as Artistic Director, including through New Breed – whose support of 47 emerging choreographers was made possible by the extraordinary partnership of The Balnaves Foundation; INDance, commencing in 2022 through the generosity of the Neilson Foundation; and The Balnaves Foundation Artist in Residence, now it its third year. 2026 also introduces ORBIT, a pilot touring circuit, delivered with Australian Dance Theatre and Dancehouse.

Under Bonachela’s guidance, the Company launched the Pre-Professional Year program (2014) and developed a robust Education Program to allow young audiences the opportunity to viscerally connect with contemporary dance. Bonachela’s work Cinco is also on the prescribed list of dance works for the VCE Dance curriculum (Australia).

Awards and Recognition

Bonachela and his ensembles are the recipient of multiple awards, most notably in 2013, Bonachela was honored with an Officer’s Cross of the Order of Civil Merit by His Majesty the King of Spain, the inaugural The Place Prize in London (2004), Bloomberg New York Choice Award (2004), Choo San Goh Award, USA (2005), 19th International competition for Choreographers Hannover (2005), Guglielmo Ebreo prize and the Critics’ Prize, Biennale Danza e Italia (2006), Critics Award Villanueva Cuba (2007), Australian Dance Award (2011, 2013), Dance Australia Critics Survey (2012, 2013), Helpmann Awards (2015), Green Room Award (2012, 2016), and The New York Festival Awards (2023). in 2022 he was announced as a Friend of the Maison de Cartier, and Bonachela’s outstanding efforts in popularising dance were recognised in 2012 when Sydney magazine named him one of the Top 100 Most Influential People for his contributions to the cultural landscape as Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company.

Bonachela’s work has also been presented in major international galleries, reflecting his growing influence across art forms. He was invited to curate and present his work at Art Plus Dance at Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (2005). His short film Muse was featured as part of the 40 Artists 40 Days exhibition at Tate Online in London (2012), and his creation of Nude Live, a dance installation, was performed as part of the Art Gallery of NSW’s Nude – Art from the Tate Collection exhibition in Sydney (2017), garnering critical acclaim and the IMAGinE Excellence Award. His international collaborations include work with Acosta Danza, Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, and Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, among others. In 2009, Bonachela curated 62C at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Now in his 18th year as Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company, Rafael Bonachela’s work continues to push the boundaries of contemporary dance, blending artistry with emotional intensity and offering audiences a glimpse into the future of this ever-evolving art form.