The international festival Dance Reflections, sponsored by the French jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels, is arriving in the southern hemisphere for the first time. The programme features 11 international works from France, Belgium, South Africa and other countries that will receive their Australian premiere, with a total of 173 performers and crew members arriving in Sydney.
The programme tripled the scope of the dance offering compared to the previous edition of the festival in Sydney. The crown jewel of the programme is the acclaimed work Outsiders by French choreographer Rachid Ouramdane, created in 2024. In it, 21 dancers from the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Genève perform, alongside four athletes, moving through a 'cat's cradle' of high wires and slacklines, set to music by the composer Julius Eastman.
Outsiders will be performed in a purpose-built theatre with 720 seats in the recently renovated space of Cutaway in Barangaroo. This is the first time that this space has been activated for a theatrical performance. The same space will also host Christos Papadopoulos's My Fierce Ignorant Step, a dual programme by the Chinese choreographer Tao Ye with his company TAO Dance Theatre, and a new work by the collective (La)Horde, known for its collaborations with pop stars such as Madonna, Sam Smith and Rosalía.
The festival director in Sydney, Kris Nelson, stated that Dance Reflections was a game-changer in the creation and dissemination of dance of this scale. Nelson witnessed the impact of the inaugural edition of the festival in London, where he worked, and for Sydney he says it will be 'the opportunity of a lifetime' for dance lovers. The programme includes Australian debuts by Our 2000, the collective (La)Horde and choreographer Leila Ka, who has worked with Beyoncé.
The Belgian master Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will return to Australia with her company Rosas, while a completely new work by the Australian indigenous and intercultural dance company Marrugeku will be presented. The festival offers 10,000 A-class tickets at a price of $49, while two works are free: Roof Piece by Trisha Brown in the gallery spaces of the Art Gallery of NSW, and Soirée d'études by the Belgian choreographer Cassiel, a tribute to house music in the public space of Carriageworks.
Nelson says they are presenting a vast collection of different types of dance, from super-classical to acrobatic, club and queer, dance led by personality with large figures on stage, and works in which the audience watches incredible bodies performing stunning geometry. The festival in Sydney will announce the full programme on 19 October.
It is worth noting that more than a decade has passed since the last major dance festival in Sydney, Spring Dance. That festival was launched by the Sydney Opera House in 2009 and lasted for four years, hosting stars such as Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. It was discontinued in 2013 for financial reasons, with the then director of the Sydney Opera House, Louise Herron, describing the city's dance audience as 'relatively small but passionate'.
