INDance 2027 | Expression of Interest

INDance is Sydney Dance Company’s annual program of independent contemporary dance, presenting four distinctive Australian works that reflect contemporary dance practice happening now.

We’re seeking four existing full-length works that are fresh, thought-provoking and artistically ambitious. We welcome Expressions of Interest from independent choreographers, dance makers, artists and small organisations at any stage of their career whose work reflects the originality, breadth and diversity of Australia’s independent contemporary dance sector.

Selected works will be presented in the Neilson Studio at the Wharf as part of the 2027 season, with producing, marketing and technical support from Sydney Dance Company.

Following a sold-out 2026 season, we’re proud to continue presenting INDance and sharing some of the most distinctive independent contemporary dance being created acorss Australia.

Each selected artist or company will receive:

— A fully supported presentation season in the Neilson Studio at Sydney Dance Company
— Access to Sydney Dance Company’s technical, production and venue operations teams
— Ticketing, box office and front of house services
— Marketing and audience development support
— Inclusion in the INDance marketing campaign
— Producing support from Sydney Dance Company’s Producing team
— Access to rehearsal and technical periods within the venue during production week
— Presentation Fees (details provided during contracting)
— Industry engagement opportunities
— Access to Sydney Dance Company’s artistic and professional networks

INDance presents a curated season of contemporary dance works annually in the Neilson Studio at Sydney Dance Company.

Four (4) works will be selected and perform 4 performances, including a 2-show day each week. Selected works will each share the venue with one other production.

The 2027 season will take place between 11 – 20 March 2027. 

INDance is open to Australian independent dance artists, choreographers, collectives and companies who:

— Have a demonstrated contemporary dance practice
— Are seeking to present an existing contemporary dance work
— Have a clear artistic vision and strong choreographic practice
— Can demonstrate the artistic and logistical viability of their proposal
— Have a work ready to present in a professional performance environment
— Are committed to engaging audiences and contributing to the wider dance sector

We encourage applications from:

— Emerging, mid-career and established artists
— First Nations artists and companies
— Artists from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
— d/Deaf and Disabled artists
— LGBTQIA+ artists
— Regional and remote artists
— Independent artists working across contemporary dance and interdisciplinary practice

Applicants must:

— Be Australian citizens or permanent residents
— Be the lead artist, choreographer, producer or authorised representative of the proposed work
— Hold all relevant rights and permissions required to present the work
— Be available for all required planning, production and presentation periods

Works may be:

— Existing works ONLY
— Interdisciplinary contemporary performance works where dance or movement is a primary artistic driver

Works created solely for screen or need to be presented outside of a conventional theatre setting are not eligible.

Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

1. Artistic Merit
— Strength and originality of the artistic vision
— Choreographic quality and innovation
— Artistic ambition and excellence

2. Impact
— Potential impact on audiences
— Relevance and contribution to contemporary dance practice
— Potential contribution to the broader cultural conversation

3. Viability
— Realistic and achievable production requirements
— Capacity of the artist/team to deliver the project
— Suitability for presentation within the Neilson Studio

4. Strategic Fit
— Alignment with the aims and values of INDance
— Contribution to a diverse and balanced program
— Potential benefit to the artist’s career development

Applications will be assessed by a panel convened by Sydney Dance Company.

The panel will include:
— Sydney Dance Company Artistic Leadership
— Sydney Dance Company Producing representatives
— Independent dance artists and arts professionals
— Additional industry specialists as required

The panel seeks to ensure a diversity of artistic perspectives are represented throughout the assessment process.

Applications must be submitted via the online EOI form.

Applicants will be asked to provide:

1. Written Materials
— Production description
— Adaptability statement
— Lead artist biography
— Creative team information
— Presentation history

2. Support Material
— Video documentation
— Production photography
— Reviews, testimonials or audience feedback

3. Production Information
— Technical requirements
— Venue and staging requirements

Applications will open on 13 July 2026 and close 7 August 2026.

EOIs Open: Monday 13 July 2026
Applicant Information Session: Tuesday 28 July 2026
EOIs Close: Friday 7 August 2026
Panel Decisions: Late-August 2026
Artists Notification & Contracting: Mid-September 2026
INDance Dates: 11 – 20 March 2027

Tuesday 28 July 2026
2pm AEDST (ACT, NSW, VIC, QLD, TAS)
1:30pm ACDT / ACST (NT, SA)
11am AWST (WA)

— All work MUST have had a professional public presentation by the EOI closing date of 7 August 2026
— All works must be a minimum of 35 minutes in duration
— All works must be able to perform a two (2) show day.
— The Lead Artist / Choreographer must be an Australian Citizen or permanent resident; creative teams and performers can be made up of Australian and international artists with the right to work in Australia.
— This opportunity is for professional dancers or choreographers with an established practice working within dance
— Each EOI must be submitted by an individual contact person who may represent groups or collectives
— Only one (1) Expression of Interest may be submitted per lead artist, choreographer, collective, or company. Multiple applications will not be accepted.
— Works should be the original creation of the lead artist / Choreographer and their creative team
— All works must be suitable and adaptable to be performed live in Neilson Studio at Sydney Dance Company. All applicants to familiarise themselves with the equipment and technical specifications of this venue prior to submitting an EOI (please see venue technical specifications)
— All works must be able to safely present two performances in one day, including consideration of performer stamina and technical requirements.
— All works must comply with modifications requested by Sydney Dance Company to create a sustainable presentation.
— All creative teams and performers must be available for the full INDance season dates. (please see key dates)
— While film, video, animation and new technologies may be elements within the live work, choreographic works created solely for the screen are ineligible
— All works must be achievable within the limits of the INDance budget
— All Artist must supply original production elements including but not limited to, costumes, music and set materials
— “Presenter to Supply” production elements are not permitted in your technical specifications
— All works submitted must have full detailed technical specifications including Lighting and sound plans and show files from the original production in QLab.
— The Lead Artists / Choreographer must have all appropriate permissions, licenses and rights in place prior to submitting an application to perform this work, if successful, Sydney Dance Company will seek evidence of these items.

Sydney Dance Company reserve the right to require reasonable modification to the production elements or content of a selected work. These changes must be implemented within a reasonable timeframe. Reasons for change include but are not limited to; safety or risk; impracticality; adaptability for the venue and format of presentation with quick changeover etc.

There should not be any significant changes to the technical requirements of the work, from the date your EOI is submitted onwards i.e. lighting and sound cues, props, set and costume designs should remain consistent.

Artists must submit requested paperwork in detail to Sydney Dance Company on or before the requested due date. This includes but not limited to:

— Technical Rider (including full equipment list)
— Cue lists (Audio, Video, Lighting)
— Music licensing
— Risk Assessment
— Audio/Video files in cueing order and in requested format.
— Any audience warnings that must accompany the work.

Any significant changes, additions, or requests to the submitted technical requirements of a work after the stated submission dates may not be accepted.

Equipment
Any equipment required that is not comparable in both type and/or quantity offered by the venue must be provided by the Artist (with the approval of Sydney Dance Company). This includes all design elements as well as any additional specific technical equipment.

All design and technical elements and equipment used in the performance of the work are subject to the approval by Sydney Dance Company. This includes but is not limited to all electrical equipment, large set items, items requiring rigging, use of potentially hazardous elements such as fire, smoke, liquids, heavy or hazardous objects.

All electrical equipment must be tested and tagged and deemed safe to use in the venue by SDC Production Manager.

Lighting
All selected works will have access to the same fixed general lighting rig, which once agreed to and installed, cannot be moved or refocused.

Selected works may request specialty lighting fixtures/special effects that are to be used exclusively for their work subject to budget and availability.

Sound
Standard fixed PA set-up will be provided to in the venue, please refer to the venue technical specifications

Microphones, additional speakers, subs and other miscellaneous audio equipment may be available on request subject to budget and availability.

Audio Visual
Projectors and other Audio-Visual equipment may be available on request subject to budget and availability.

Staging
Flooring
Sydney Dance Company will consult with selected artists to determine whether the Tarkett is black or white. It is vital that all works can be performed on both colours.

Other Staging Elements
Additional Drapes or a Cyclorama may be available on request; Sydney Dance Company will consult with selected artists to determine whether they are available and within budget. It is vital that all works can be adapted to be performed without these elements if required.

For all Enquiries:
Michael Sieders (INDance Producer & Associate Producer, Sydney Dance Company)
michaels@sydneydancecompany.com

Exploring success, capitalism, class, and material wealth, High Octane takes a visceral look at how these forces shape our identities and bodies. Hailing from Regional Queensland and New South Wales, Harrison alongside an epic line-up of performers and creatives, delves into the hypermasculine world of V8 racing, channeling her personal experiences into a provocative interrogation of ambition and its price.

With an explosive blend of movement, rev heads, burnouts, rhinestones, music, and early 2000s-inspired visuals, High Octane takes the stage by force. A raw and electrifying reflection on the forces that drive us, High Octane challenges audiences to reconsider their relationship with success, power, and the relentless pursuit of more.

Bending innuendo and oozing feminine resilience a-top 8-inch heels.

Wet Hard Long exhibits the enduring femme body under scrutiny of a patriarchal society.

Edging the audience towards the promise of relief, two dancers undertake exacting physical feats. Their bodies contend with obstacles, objects and elements – each, more impossible than the last.

Extended from Jenni Large’s 2022 KCA audience prize-winning work (Wet Hard), Wet Hard Long is an epic display of grit, glamour, and glistening jaw-clenching stamina. A slippery endurance piece demanding perseverance from performers and viewers in a tribute to the strenuous expectations which femme bodies continue to overcome.

Subverting narratives around sex and power, performing perfection, and avoiding failure, Wet Hard Long provokes questions about identity, desire, ownership, consent and the holy and arduous qualities of the feminine.

5 Arrows fuses Bharathanatyam with Christopher’s biracial queer perspective, recontextualising and creating a dance work that speaks of love, lust and longing.

Based on ‘Mohamana’, an iconic Carnatic (South Indian) art music piece that comes from Bharathanatyam’s rich history, Christopher plays with the structure of the composition – using himself and his lived history to fill the cracks.

Oscillating between lyrical dance and abstract embodied movement of face, body and gesture, woven together with Christopher’s contemporary sensibilities, the work is equally based on ancient philosophy as it is the lyrics of pop music.

Christopher critically questions his practice in Bharathanatyam, asking how he can create and re-contextualise compositions from the rich history of dance in a meaningful way using himself as the catalyst to create a future for this form in Australia. This is not a work of finding oneself, it is a celebration of what has been found.

From Aotearoa New Zealand, Oli Mathiesen with Lucy Lynch and Sharvon Mortimer present the award-winning The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave, an endurance-based dance work to the booming techno album Nocturbulous Behaviour by Suburban Knight.

Exploring the movement vocabulary used in techno and rave culture, a contemporary nightclub between 3 bodies emerges. Relentless movement, seamless without pause, detailed down to every beat.

The atmosphere and culture of a 3-day rave condensed into a high art, streamlined performance where you watch the destruction of 3 human beings commence in front of you.

Indulge in the pain, the sweat, the cathartic mess; a display of pure endurance to achieve a goal. A spectacle of the human body as a victim to music, as a victim to passion, as a victim to our endless desire to achieve more. To win and win again.

In Slip, dance and sound interconnect in a duet between dancer Rebecca Jensen and musician Aviva Endean.

Central to Slip is Foley art, a sound-effect technique used in film, where sounds on screen are recreated in post-production using unlikely objects and body movements in a practice of substitution.

Slip connects the illusion of Foley to the complexity of our present moment. Layers of data mediate our daily experiences, and invisible processes stretch the spaces between what we consume, and what goes on behind the scenes. Pairings are pulled apart and abstracted, entanglements are simplified, severed, and rewired to the point of absurdity.

Slip urges us to refocus our attention, as we unwittingly fall out of sync.

[ gameboy ], a dance theatre work that fuses street styles and contemporary, drops two avatars into the game of life.

Created by Amy Zhang, and featuring two of Australia’s most sought-after dancers William ‘Billy’ Keohavong and Ko Yamada, the work questions what is the secret to winning at life.

Inspired by Japanese game shows, video games and internet culture, two avatars are put through the ringer and tested on their ability to stay in the game.

Through a series of increasingly difficult levels, [ gameboy ] challenges players to truly consider the consequences of their actions. Will they win?

Progress Report critiques and unravels our relationship to consumerism and waste, exemplifying the imperative need to transform the value of garbage.

Plunging into the psychology of the performer as they attempt to traverse an increasingly overwhelming world of industrial plastic waste, Progress Report puts our everyday decisions under the microscope to reveal contradictory, at times hilarious, and often unbearable truths.

Progress Report brings together long-time collaborators, dancemakers and multidisciplinary artists Alison Currie and Alisdair Macindoe, and their mutual interest in the place of objects and subjects in performance. Progress Report mirrors a dynamic state of change where objects, performer, text and choreography are in flux. Upcycled objects become friends, strangers, clothing, scientific specimens, and stunning yet unruly and daunting landscapes, that reduce back to packaging and rubbish in an instant.

Progress Report questions the forces that shape our cultural norms and ideologies. Capricious and profound, this performance compels us to confront our complicity in an era defined by wastefulness, offering a potent vision for transformation.

<em>FM Air</em> appears and disappears –  like a scent. The three performers move in a continuous bind, oscillating in a transparent tulle bag, highlighting their physical proximity and personal histories. As the work progresses the dancers shed the bag, becoming progressively clearer to the viewer.<em> FM Air</em> utilises dance to simultaneously disappear and remain permanent through the vehicle of live performance. We watch as they attempt to suspend thought through motion.

<em>FM Air</em> is a palimpsest of earlier works, examining behaviour of gendered roles and movements that may have belonged to ancestors or ghosts past. The dancers seek to infiltrate the collusion of mind and motion, to conjure up configurations, a limitless, continuous loop, appearing and disappearing at speed. The work questions the ephemeral, what remains when the dance is finished and what is captured by the gaze of the viewer.

Make Your Life Count is an ambitious dance work that shifts scale in a heartbeat and moves from the microscopic to the universal and back again. Choreographer and dancer Sarah Aiken encounters her own self – expanded to infinite proportions and shrunken to painful insignificance, stretched into new dimensions and flattened into mute landscapes. This powerful work of imagination is a serious attempt to grapple with the paradoxes of modern life in which the individual is swollen to grotesque importance while simultaneously reduced to ineffectual and invisible impotence.

Make Your Life Count looks for ways to soften society’s focus on the individual – to lose oneself in the patterns of community, ecology and history. Whether monstrous and destructive or lost in the crushing scale of humanity, ecology, time and the universe, this perspective-shifting work is a chance to lose yourself and maybe find something better.

Partners in crime raise the stakes and go all out on a dance heist. The window is short and the road is dangerous — will they make it out alive?

In CUDDLE, two of Melbourne’s contemporary dance artists on the rise, Harrison Ritchie-Jones and Michaela Tancheff, engage in a difficult and dynamic duel filled with surreal sonic and visual surprises.

Weaving contemporary dance with elements from martial arts, figure skating, rodeo barnyard dance and a host of more abstract inspirations, CUDDLE ebbs and flows from the joyful and absurd to the inventive and technically brilliant.

With the audience gathered around the space as though at a wrestling match, CUDDLE is a unique and unpredictable press into a strange and wondrous intimacy.

An enchanting duet, Brightness is an invocation to our universal ties with nature.

Concluding choreographer Kristina Chan’s trilogy (A Faint Existence 2016; MOUNTAIN 2018), Brightness moves through ecological timelines contemplating microorganisms, decomposition, transformation and emergence.

With striking choreography, a haunting psychedelic soundscore and nuanced conceptual design elements, Brightness draws us into a deep state of listening, into our inherent connection with nature.

★★★★★ “Kristina Chan blows audience away…turn(s) a vast and challenging subject into a thought-provoking theatrical experience.”  – Jill Sykes, SMH (A Faint Existence)

Traversing fractured earth.

Escaping a surface world littered with crises, we burrow into soil and stone to seek shelter within layers of debris, tunneling and surrendering to its contradictions.

Deepening towards the tectonic pulse of the earth, time shifts and defies what we know about living in relationship with the underground. Digging closer to the polyrhythms of the core, SUB entangles natural symphonies with industrialised extraction processes, cracking through our resistance to hope.

A soft defiance is portrayed through the endurance of SUB’s inhabitants as they come into confluence with precious materials below the surface.

In this place that both attracts and scares us – this wet, restless and difficult place – we engage with the terror and volatility of the living natural world.

Western Australian choreographer Rachel Arianne Ogle wields her technical and extremely physical style to draw immense unseen forces in the bodies of four dancers. Inspired by tectonic shifts, gravitational torsion and states of emotional rupture, precipice is a dance of abandon and precarious control.

Ogle has assembled leading performance designers to create a multi-sensory experience where choreography unfolds within an electrifying light and sound installation. Contrasting precision and strength with mounting tension and fragility, this is a bold and unique work of contemporary dance from one of Australia’s rising choreographic artists.

‘A knockout production… Rapid high-tech triggers transport us into an expansive universe through light, sound and dance… A ticket to another dimension.” – The West Australian

Been missing your lust for life lately? Well, you’re in luck, Rock & Roll is back baby and our hearts are aching for it. You’re invited to witness a raw and edgy interpretation of youth culture through the decades, featuring an all-female Rock & Roll triplet commanding and reinventing this space.

Inspired by bona fide music icons like Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner & Iggy Pop, Cry Baby dissects such character idiosyncrasies to produce an electric performance. Be immersed in a choreographic playground that resembles a 1970’s rock-show spectacular or your own bedroom. Head banging, hip thrusting content guaranteed.

Don’t forget to leave your ego at the door…

Go on and cry, cry baby

“Seriously, if you love rock and roll, you must see this show. Even if you hate that genre of music, Cry Baby is packed with so much insight and nuance that it will make you laugh while it tugs at your entire being.” – Review by Scott-Patrick Mitchell

Fall! Falter!! Dance!!! and How Did I Get Here?
Choreographer, Writer and Performed by Ryuichi Fujimara

When recognition is limited and reward is small, why perform?

This program is made of two chapters from Here Now Trilogy written, choreographed and performed solo by Ryuichi Fujimura as a double bill.

Fall! Falter!! Dance!!!
I have often wondered about the desire to perform. What keeps bringing me back to the stage? Is it the applause from the audience? The lure of the bright spotlight? The brief and torrid moment of connection with an audience reminiscent of a one-night stand? Fall! Falter!! Dance!!! is a reflection on a contemporary dancer’s life, in which recognition is limited and the reward is small. Through this solo, self-devised performance work, I ask myself the fundamental question: ‘Why perform?’.

How Did I Get Here?
This short work investigates how one’s perception of time changes over time and how we recognize and accept our mortality as we enter the autumn phase of life.

The Complication of Lyrebirds is a contemporary dance work designed to break away from the social expectations of what it means to look or sound Aboriginal.

Re-contextualising historical documents, such as ‘The White Australia Policy’ and ‘The Exemption Form’, as choreographic tools. The Complication of Lyrebirds investigates societal and cultural sources of expectations and pressures to create a unique and powerful choreographic narrative.

The lyrebird adopts the calls of other birds to appear attractive, however, there is an authentic identity to the bird that is no mimic. In the same way, Indigenous people are faced with external pressures to prove their ‘blackness’ and adopt different ways of talking and appearing. If your family was denied their culture by the impact of colonisation, then what really makes you Aboriginal?

The Siren calls her onlooker into her alluring arms. Is this an innocent gesture born from desire for true connection, or a cunning tactic and peacockish display of power? Honesty is slippery and situations transform before they can be fully grasped. What might appear as truth can so easily reveal itself as fiction.

The Dance wants to seduce her audience. She wants them to fall deeply infatuated with details and her logic. The Dance will shape-shift for eternity, in an attempt to attain the power of The Siren. As new embodiments materialise, old skins dissolve into memory.

In Siren Dance, classicism collides with contemporary visions of truth, magnetism and deception to question what seduction looks like and for how long disguise can endure.

CASTILLO explores the taxonomy of touch and texture through the lens of choreography and neurodiversity. It is a solo created with and for award-winning performer Jana Castillo.

The work is described and danced via Pointe Shoes, Socks & Sneakers, exploring friction and texture to generate diverse and nuanced choreographic modalities. Each choreographic investigation is framed by a film, giving the spectator further insight into the complex art of dance making and sensory embodiment. The film and live elements are interwoven to a score by renowned composer Chiara Costanza.

Julia is a powerful and gripping solo dance theatre work by one of Australia’s leading contemporary dancers, Natalie Allen, co-created with Sally Richardson.

On the eve of the ten-year anniversary of her iconic misogyny speech in parliament, Julia is our response to Julia Gillard’s time as Prime Minister and her legacy, to the wider culture of #MeToo, and the experience of sexism and misogyny, discrimination and violence directed towards women in Australia.

Julia is a force for action in raising awareness, calling for change, recognising we are “all entitled to a better standard than this”, and we are all part of making it happen.

The edge of the body has disappeared; the environment has seeped inside and come to live amongst body parts; the nervous system feels its way far beyond the skin.

Explicit Contents is an evocative new work by Sydney-based choreographer Rhiannon Newton. In a sensuous exploration of our inextricable human connection with the earth, the work follows two bodies as they are made and remade by the forces and materials of their earthly surroundings. Burning and cooling, hungering and satiating, incorporating and expelling, the body emerges as a hyper-real site of more-than-human action and exchange.

Featuring Sydney-based dancers Ivey Wawn and David Huggins and composition by Peter Lenaerts (Brussels/Sydney), Explicit Contents is a visceral journey through the body’s enmeshment with the environment. Reimagining bodies as watery vessels, techno-chemical conglomerates and thermo-dynamic machines, the work questions how we can sense ourselves as a part of—and constituted by—the ecologies of the world.