Australian Dance Theatre
Australian Dance Theatre — Adelaide’s contemporary dance company
Australian Dance Theatre is Australia’s longest continuously operating contemporary dance company, founded in 1965 by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman and based in Adelaide ever since. The company runs a tight ensemble of around twelve dancers and produces a typical year of one or two new full-length contemporary dance works plus extensive national and international touring. The artistic director from 2014 to 2022 was Garry Stewart; the role since 2022 is held by Daniel Riley, who is the first First Nations artistic director of a major Australian contemporary dance company.
Under Stewart and now Riley, the company’s choreographic identity has shifted — Stewart’s tenure produced some of the most physically demanding and internationally toured contemporary dance Australia has produced (the Birdbrain, Worldhood, The Beginning of Nature productions), and Riley’s tenure is reorienting the company toward First Nations choreographic practice and contemporary cultural-narrative work. The company’s smaller scale (relative to Sydney Dance Company or Bangarra) gives it programmatic flexibility that the larger companies don’t have.
Home venue
- Adelaide Festival Centre — Dunstan Playhouse and Space Theatre — the principal mainstage.
- Adelaide Festival each year is a substantial calendar item with festival-only programming.
Useful links
- Official: adt.org.au
- Where we cover them: Companies, Reviews