Electric debut on Australian Ballet dance card for 2024 season

Choreographer Stephanie Lake is to make her first large-scale work on The Australian Ballet, promising high-impact virtuosity and visceral thrills.

Stephanie Lake flanked by Samara Merrick and Maxim Zenin. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Audiences across the country that have witnessed Stephanie Lake’s work know her dance manifesto is more than a paper revolution – it delivers an almighty explosion of rhythm and movement.

The Melbourne-based chore­ographer’s show Manifesto – for nine dancers, nine drummers and nine drum kits – has been a massive hit with festival audiences here and in Germany.

Lake now has the chance to work on a bigger stage, having been commissioned by The Australian Ballet to produce a new work for its main season next year. The piece called Circle Electric will involve up to 50 dancers, her largest project yet with a professional company.

“I said I’ll work with as many dancers as you’ll give me – it’s too good an opportunity to pass up,” Lake said.

“It’s such a thrill to get to work with the biggest and most important ballet company, and to work with so many dancers.”

During the past decade, Lake has emerged as a visionary dance-maker with pieces for her Stephanie Lake Company and other groups, including Sydney Dance Company, Chunky Move and Queensland Ballet.

Last year, The Australian Ballet’s artistic director, David Hallberg, invited her to make a piece for the regional touring company.

That piece, called Circle Electric, will be substantially enlarged as it moves on to the main stage, where it will be paired with Harald Lander’s celebration of classical technique, Etudes.

Announced on Tuesday, The Australian Ballet’s 2024 season has the world premiere of a new work by Britain’s Christopher Wheeldon, Oscar – about the life and writing of Oscar Wilde – and a fresh look at Carmen by Swedish choreographer Johan Inger.

Return seasons of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Nutcracker, and George Balanchine’s Jewels – which the company recently took to the Royal Opera House in London – round out the dance card.

Lake said the performances of Circle Electric at the Sydney Opera House and the Regent Theatre in Melbourne would include a new orchestral score by her partner Robin Fox.

She said the hallmarks of her choreography were high physicality and virtuosity that delivered a visceral impact.

“I like to take audiences on a trip, to be affected and to feel something – not necessarily to understand,” she said.

Hallberg said Lake’s Circle Electric would bring a dynamic fresh energy to the ensemble.

“Stephanie’s revolutionary use of music, pattern and shape is unlike anything our company has performed before and I am delighted to be highlighting the excellence of Australian talent with this commission,” he said.