Sydney Dance Company’s annual New Breed showcase gives the floor to four exciting new choreographers for four boundary-pushing premieres performed by the company’s dancers at Carriageworks.

Offering a fresh perspective on Australian contemporary dance, this year’s provocative line-up finds inspiration in everything from science fiction and horror to love of the ocean and a Tim Winton classic. Here are five reasons to book your tickets now.

Get a glimpse of future leaders in dance

Rising choreographers Amber McCartney, Siobhan McKenna, Piran Scott and Dean Elliott are debuting works this year, each with their own bold and distinctive style.

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The Melbourne-based McCartney has worked extensively with Chunky Move and Lucy Guerin Inc. Her new work incorporates prosthetics, masks, film and special effects alongside a haunting, horror-inspired score. McKenna’s works, meanwhile, explore the fragility of communication and the interplay between movement, sound and spoken language, and have twice been nominated for Green Room awards.

The New Zealand-born Elliot is a dancer with the company and the recipient of the top prize at the first annual Brisbane International Contemporary Dance Prix. Here, he combines his experience as a dancer and a gymnast, playfully drawing a link between art and athleticism. Scott, a fellow company member and 2022 Tanz magazine Dancer of the Year, sees his practice as a way of reconnecting with his youth. After a decade spent performing overseas, his latest piece is an expression of homecoming and a love letter to the natural environment of his West Australian home town.

See dancers’ bodies transform

Inspired by 1978 sci-fi horror classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, McCartney’s unnerving Leech challenges the boundaries of the human form. Shrouded in eerie black costumes and masks, the dancers merge into alien shapes accompanied by an otherworldly score from sound designers Alisdair Macindoe and Robert Downie, and acclaimed violinist Robert Macindoe. The result is dynamic, disturbing and utterly unforgettable. You’ve never seen Sydney Dance Company’s dancers move quite like this.

Hear a motion-generated soundtrack

Created in collaboration with composer Lena Douglas, McKenna’s piece Say It Again combines live and recorded sounds to create a mesmerising and immersive experience. Designed to explore the act of listening, the soundtrack shifts with the dancers’ movements, the rustling fabric on their sleeves mixing with the rhythmic vocals. In the absence of a traditional score, the audience is invited to stop, listen and consider the nature of human interactions.

Witness the convergence of athleticism and art

In Elliot’s playful FULL IN/HALF OUT, the dancers dress like gymnasts in glittering bodysuits as they twist between rivalry and unity. Blending the precision of gymnastics with the gracefulness of dance, the performance sees the dancers compete with one another in the pursuit of perfection. It’s a visually exhilarating display of physical prowess that reveals intersections in the supposedly contradictory identities of artist and athlete.

Go on an emotional journey

After years living as an expat, Scott returned from Europe with a renewed sense of love and nostalgia for the Australian ocean. Drawing inspiration – and its title – from Tim Winton’s Breath, as well as the rhythms of coastal life, Scott’s work is a moving attempt to reconnect with his youth. The poetic piece sees dancers dressed in loose linens, moving to music by guitarist John Butler interwoven with ocean sounds. Featuring liquid choreography, the atmospheric piece makes for an emotional homecoming.

New Breed runs from December 4–14 at Carraigeworks. Tickets are on sale now.

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