Ryan Pearson
Ryan is a proud Aboriginal man with ancestral connections to his mother’s countries of Biripi & Worimi, and to his father’s countries of Minang, Goreng, and Balardung.
His passion for dance came from his family’s love of dance at a very young age. Especially his grandmother, who was the first Aboriginal Ballet dancer in Australia. At the age of 15 he joined the NSW Public Schools’ Aboriginal Dance Company, a program facilitated by Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Youth Program Team in 2012. This experience led him to NAISDA Dance College, where he undertook formal training and learned from a range of esteemed teachers and choreographers.
During his graduating year at NAISDA, Ryan was selected to attend the six-week Professional Division Summer Intensive at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York City—an experience that further shaped his artistic growth.
In 2017, Ryan joined Bangarra Dance Theatre through the Russell Page Graduate Program. Over the next seven years, he performed nationally and internationally under the direction of Stephen Page and Frances Rings. His talent and dedication were recognised in 2020 with a nomination for Most Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer at the Australian Dance Awards for his role in Jiří Kylián’s Stamping Ground (part of Bangarra’s 2019 production 30 years of sixty-five thousand).
In 2024, Ryan took the next step in his career by joining Sydney Dance Company, touring internationally and collaborating with a diverse range of inspiring artists.