Australian Dance Theatre appoints First Nations artistic director
A former Bangarra dancer turned choreographer will become Australian Dance Theatre’s first Indigenous artistic director.
Arts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Arts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Contemporary performance will combine with the world’s oldest living culture when Daniel Riley takes over next year as the new artistic director of Adelaide-based Australian Dance Theatre.
Mr Riley, 35, performed with Bangarra for 12 years and is believed to be the first Indigenous artistic director to lead a major non-Indigenous Australian dance company.
“I make work that sits across the broad spectrum of art,” he said from Melbourne on Sunday.
“As a First Nations artist and a Wiradjuri man from western NSW, my culture and my First Nations principles are first and foremost.
“What I’m really looking forward to is having ADT reflect our artistic ecosystem at the moment … exploring and interrogating and telling stories of our Australia now, using multiple and diverse voices.
“We are going to carve new pathways of how we can make work that is not exclusively one or the other.”
ADT executive director Nick Hays said Mr Riley’s vision, energy and “pure passion” set him apart.
“Daniel is an inspired choice, a choreographer who draws upon his history and culture and is renowned for his collaborative approach,” Mr Hays said.
Mr Riley’s ties to ADT go back to the very beginning of his career as a 12-year-old in Canberra, when the company’s founder Elizabeth Cameron Dalman recommended that he join Quantum Leap’s new youth dance ensemble, QL2.
“That’s where I found contemporary dance and I never looked back,” he said.
“I fell in love with the form, with the sharing of ideas and the possibilities of when you have like-minded people in the studio.
“It’s actually through contemporary dance that I have been able to connect to my identity and fully explore who I am.”
Mr Riley will move to Adelaide with his family in December and take over the reins at ADT in January.
“I’ll be spending some time in Adelaide over the next few months as well, because I want to start to get to know the dancers and the staff and the building, and to meet the industry there.”
Plans for Mr Riley to be in Adelaide for the ADT announcement this week were curtailed by the extension of Melbourne’s latest Covid-19 lockdown.
He expects the post-pandemic landscape for Australian performing arts will focus internally, on creating and touring work within our own borders rather than overseas.
“We have stories, we have a huge array – a plethora – of inspiring artists in this country. I believe we will continue to look internally … galvanising a national tour base, as well as through regional South Australia.”
ADT’s current artistic director Garry Stewart previously announced that he will step aside in December after 22 years in the position – three times as long as any of his predecessors, who also include Jonathan Taylor, Leigh Warren and Meryl Tankard.
“Every artistic director at ADT has shifted the landscape of what our Australian contemporary dance looks and feels like, and what that experience is for an audience,” Mr Riley said.
Currently a lecturer in contemporary dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, Mr Riley already has an eye on future performers. He plans to build similar ties with Adelaide College of the Arts and local Kaurna elders.
“As a choreographer, I am always looking at who the next generation is. All artistic directors and choreographers were once students,” he said.
Reviews: The ultimate guide on what to see at Fringe and Festival
Some of the hottest acts are returning to Adelaide for the 2025 Fringe and Festival, we got a sneak peek and here’s what’s looking hot for this year’s event.
Two decades in the making, Cirque’s Corteo on the way
It has taken more than two decades for this Cirque du Soleil show to make it to Australia. This is why.