Calling all dancers aged 12 and above in South Australia – you are invited to work with world famous choreographer Stephanie Lake, director of the acclaimed Stephanie Lake Company to dance in the opening night event of the 2025 Adelaide Festival. This will be the world premiere of an outdoor dance piece showcasing the talent of South Australian dancers.
Jointly commissioned by Adelaide Festival and The Australian Ballet, where Stephanie is currently Resident Choreographer, the show needs 1000 dancers who enjoy and participate in dance classes of any style to take part – think contemporary, ballet, hip hop, street Latin, swing, tap, ballroom, Bharatanatyam, jazz and more – whatever their skill level or experience.
Adelaide Festival invites dance classes or schools interested in teaching the choreography to their students, as well as individuals, to take part. All registrations can be made here.
Stephanie Lake has a track record of creating large-scale participatory dance works such as 2020’s Multiply. Conceived during the pandemic to promote connections to people living in one of the world’s most locked-down cities, Multiply featured 400 Melbourne dancers who learned the choreography online and performed it in socially distanced settings.
Stephanie’s most recent Adelaide Festival appearance was with her critically-acclaimed work Manifesto in 2022. Commissioned by Adelaide Festival, it has since toured nationally to Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth and premiered at Germany’s Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen festival in June 2023. It has also been featured at the Auckland Festival and more recently in Madrid, Spain and Châlons-en-Champagne, France.
Stephanie Lake said: “Dance has the ability to foster a deep and powerful connection between people like nothing else I know – it’s a shared, unspoken moment in time that’s never forgotten. I’m thrilled to be commissioned by Adelaide Festival and The Australian Ballet to create such a big statement piece with the dance communities of South Australia. It promises to be an epic, beautiful moment in Adelaide and I can’t wait to share the experience with everyone who takes part.”
Adelaide Festival Artistic Director Ruth Mackenzie CBE said: “Large-scale participatory works in which everyone is welcome are among my favourite festival events. Create4Adelaide invites new visual art works, and The Citizens’ Orchestra included musicians of all genres, but dance is also very close to my heart, having previously experienced the joy of working in Paris with over 900 amateur dancers on a large-scale work by Akram Khan. I know that this new work led by Stephanie Lake will be the perfect opening for the 2025 festival program and will create a lifelong memory for everyone who participates.”
The Australian Ballet Artistic Director David Hallberg said: “We are honoured to co-commission this opening performance for the 2025 Adelaide Festival bringing this celebratory work to life by our resident choreographer Stephanie Lake. Stephanie’s arrival at The Australian Ballet has been a revelation for our audiences and dancers alike. I can’t wait to join forces with the talented dance community across South Australia to mark the start of the festival in Adelaide.”
Interested dance schools and individuals can register here, with more information to be sent in July 2024.
