Australasian Dance Collective acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their deep connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
As an ensemble, our year so far has been one of courage and growth as we dove into new creation processes. Our artists began the year with openness and quickly formed strong connections with one another—connections that can be deeply felt in the works presented.
Echo is the ADC Youth Ensemble’s signature season. This year’s program features two brand-new works by Kate Harman and me, along with five short dance films created by our Youth Ensemble in collaboration with the dancers of AUSTI. Dance & Physical Theatre— a continuation of the rich relationship between our two companies.
Echo positions us as a dynamic force in performative youth arts. Kate brings a bold, wild work giving a nod to the ‘90s rock era with snakeskin, exploring themes of power. Drawing from my interdisciplinary practice, Ripple is visually mesmerising, offering a space for reflection and meditation on the collective body. These works are united by their exploration of both the individual and the collective.
This year, the Youth Ensemble and AUSTI. artists created dance films guided by the theme Inside Out, Outside In. These beautiful films were made entirely by the Youth Ensemble and AUSTI. dancers under the expert mentorship of Claire Marshall, whose dance films have received extensive recognition both locally and internationally. Claire encouraged the artists to never settle—to persist in finding the right locations, sounds, and the perfect cuts in editing. We are incredibly grateful for her generosity and expertise.
Our ensemble thrives in an environment where creativity, collaboration, and open dialogue are prioritised. Each dancer continually gives from the heart, pouring their creativity and skill into everything they do.
I am so excited to share this vibrant program with you. It is a true honour to witness the dancers grow, both as artists and as a collective. Their loyalty to each other and their authenticity as emerging voices in the arts are a constant source of inspiration.
Courtney Scheu ADC Youth Ensemble Director
2025 marks our third Echo season presented in connection with AUSTI. Dance & Physical Theatre—this year through the creation of student-led short films.
Thank you to AUSTI. Artistic Director Michelle Maxwell for her continued support in nurturing this special interstate relationship once again.
A ripple is a small wave or series of waves on the surface of water—formed by wind, disturbance, or the simple drop of a stone.
Ripple is a cryptocurrency—a digital force reshaping value and exchange across borders.
Ripple is a dessert—sweet, swirled, and marbled with contrast. Ripple is the aftermath of a data breach—lasting over 300 days, unseen yet enduring.
Ripple is a surge of electrical activity in the hippocampus —marking memory, decision, and the shaping of self.
Ripple is a contemporary dance work for 20 dancers. It is a meditation on impact.
On how we are moved, shaped, and sometimes undone by forces beyond our control—natural, technological, societal, political, neural.
On the collective body, and the silent echoes that bind us.
CONCEPT & DIRECTION
LIGHTING DESIGN
COSTUME DESIGN
MUSIC ARRANGEMENT
MUSIC
PERFORMED BY
Courtney Scheu
Claire Browning
Courtney Scheu
Harel Tsemah
Last Life by ori lichtik
Struße by ori lichtik
(feat. Gidon Schocken)
ADC Youth Ensemble
Presenting a series of short films by ADC Youth Ensemble and AUSTI. Dance & Physical Theatre Artists
Convergent Evolution is the creation of similar features in different species, despite them sharing no recent ancestor, due to similar evolutionary pressures. It’s why the bones of a bird’s wing resemble that of a human arm, or a tree root system resembles the human nervous system. Metamorphoses considers that it’s not just our physicality that mirrors nature, but our stories. From Ovid to Kafka, a butterfly’s metamorphosis has been parodied for centuries as a reference to the human capacity for change. Cycles and multitudes are constant from humans to butterflies, and are evidence that we are nature from the inside out.
DIRECTION
CHOREOGRAPHY
CINEMATOGRAPHER
EDITING
COSTUME DESIGN
MUSIC COMPOSITION
PERFORMED BY
Amy Wake
Tara Gilmour
Jenaya Gladman
Sophie Richards
Meena Sayed
Amy Wake
Addison Sharp
Tara Gilmore
Jenaya Gladman
Sophie Richards
Amy Wake
Tara Gilmore
Jenaya Gladman
Sophie Richards
Amy Wake
Space 4 — Nala Sinephro
Tara Gilmore
Jenaya Gladman
Sophie Richards
Amy Wake
Inside, a place of shelter, protection and internal strength. Outside, a place of contrasting environments, freedom and independence. Both perspectives are valuable and have a familiar place in our everyday lives, but what happens when these worlds are flipped?
DIRECTION
Madison Hardwick
Isabela Thompson
Matilda Shanks
Neve Smith
Isa King
CHOREOGRAPHY
Madison Hardwick
Isabela Thompson
Matilda Shanks
Neve Smith
Isa King
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Madison Hardwick
Isa King
EDITOR Isa King
COSTUME DESIGN
Madison Hardwick
Isabela Thompson
Matilda Shanks
Neve Smith
Isa King
MUSIC COMPOSITION Life. Ambience. Peace
PERFORMED BY
—Beats by Lucky
Madison Hardwick
Isabela Thompson
Matilda Shanks
Neve Smith
Isa King
Our inner turmoils exist in a thorough range of emotive qualities, often more than one. Experiences shape our thoughts, values and opinions. What is let in, has to be let out.
DIRECTION Anagha Raskar
CHOREOGRAPHY
Anagha Raskar, Isabella Messer
Katharine Hodgson
Neve Wright
CINEMATOGRAPHER Anagha Raskar
EDITOR Anagha Raskar
COSTUME DESIGN
Anagha Raskar, Isabella Messer
Katharine Hodgson
Neve Wright
MUSIC COMPOSITION Run — 1of1
PERFORMED BY Anagha Raskar
Isabella Messer
Katharine Hodgson
Neve Wright
Belief takes shape in the body, etched through instinct, through movement older than memory. Worship hums beneath the surface, not followed but felt, a breath between devotion and doubt. Fire sacrifices, water cleanses, earth holds, air for the breath between devotion and doubt. Faith begins somewhere — inside, outside, a ritual rising from skin to sky.
DIRECTION Ada Feeney
CHOREOGRAPHY
Developed collaboratively by the performers
CINEMATOGRAPHER Ada Feeney, Isla Gillespie
EDITOR Annika Lewis
ASSISTANT EDITOR Isla Gillespie, Ada Feeney
COSTUME DESIGN Ada Feeney
MUSIC COMPOSITION Annika Lewis
PERFORMED BY Ruby Mason, Rylee Crossley Annika Lewis, Ada Feeney
(pictured)
Sparks twitch like nerves, the mind folding in on itself.
Red comes in pairs and frills, pulsing with promise and wounds.
Marrow stutters in rhythm with jointed and jagged angles.
Something deeper churns thick, instinctive, unsaid.
Each gesture pulls us open.
Each moment asks: What if the inside was out?
DIRECTION
CONCEPT AND CREATIVE DIRECTION
CHOREOGRAPHY
CINEMATOGRAPHY
EDITORS
COSTUME DESIGN
Cordelia Richards
Georgia Hart
Cordelia Richards, Dakota McCullough, Georgia Hart, Isla Gillespie, Madison Small
Ada Feeney, Cordelia Richards, Dakota McCullough, Hannah Millar
Cordelia Richards, Ethan Richards
Cordelia Richards, Georgia Hart
MUSIC Maze — Actress
Sleep to Mother’s Heartbeat — Womb Ambience
King of Hosts — Tzusing
Ww — Other Nothing
ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION SUPPORT
PERFORMED BY
Ada Feeney, Hannah Millar
Cordelia Richards, Dakota McCullough, Georgia Hart, Isla Gillespie, Maddy Small
In a world obsessed with order, snakeskin cracks it open. Drawing from the ancient Gnostic text The Thunder, Perfect Mind, this work channels the raw, unstable power of teenage girlhood—contradictory, divine, defiant. A group of young women, aged 14 – 19, embody the paradoxes they’ve been told to suppress: softness and rage, wisdom and doubt, obedience and rebellion. Through a fierce, flickering movement language, snakeskin asks: what happens when power is no longer hidden, but claimed? This is not a coming-of-age story. This is a revelation.
The Coptic text The Thunder, Perfect Mind was our starting point for this work. I didn’t want us to simply create a piece—I hoped the process itself would be transformational. I wanted to honour the wild soul of each performer and, through the text and the way we worked with it, encourage them to embrace the multiplicity and duality that lives within them—the paradoxes we all carry throughout our lives.
I hope this process has opened new depths within them, as it has within me. This work has come through our group mind, we created it together. They are the work.
What a gift it has been to create this piece alongside these incredible young artists.
CONCEPT & DIRECTION
LIGHTING DESIGN
COSTUME DESIGN
Kate Harman
Claire Browning
Kate Harman
MUSIC Are You Religious? by The Black Heart Rebellion Goodbye by Apparat, Soap&Skin Sangkakala by Gabber Modus Operandi
Pills and Passion, Pt 2 by The Black Heart Rebellion
PERFORMED BY
ADC Youth Ensemble
Choreographer Courtney Scheu is an independent dance artist whose practice spans performance, choreography, education, producing, and interdisciplinary art-making. Courtney is the only Certified Gaga Teacher currently based in Australia, bringing the unique insights of Ohad Naharin’s movement language to the Youth Ensemble. Courtney is currently the ADC Youth Ensemble Director. Courtney’s choreographic works have been presented across Australia and internationally over the past 14 years. Her work plays between waking and dreaming worlds, the real and unreal. Recently, Scheu presented SAND in Horizon Festival 2022, Plastic Belly in Supercell Contemporary Dance Festival 2020 and on film at Horizon Festival 2020, Tempo Dance Festival 2020 (New Zealand), and Modes of Capture Symposium 2021 (Ireland).
Scheu was a dance artist in Burrbgaja Yalirra /Dancing Forwards Lab 3: Dance Dramaturgy and Contested Land in Rubibi (Broome) and lands of the Eora Nation (Sydney) in 2022 with Marrugeku to explore new cultural pathways to consider dramaturgy in dance, performance, and live art.
Courtney was co-founder and co-artistic director of OUTBOUND
| Contemporary Dance x Live Art Festival on Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi Country (Sunshine Coast) and she created and facilitated Footfall: Dance Professional Development Program for emerging artists in South East Queensland, through Sunshine Coast Council.
Courtney has also worked extensively in the youth dance space, nurturing the growth of young makers, thinkers, and leaders. She loves dance for its capacity to create meaningful discoveries and connections.
Choreographer
Kate Harman is a performer, dancer and choreographer. She is a founding member of Gold Coast company The Farm and with them has created the works Glass Child, Cockfight, The Ninth Wave, and Helpmann Award winning durational performance TIDE.
Kate completed her training at QUT, following which she joined Dancenorth under the directorship of Gavin Webber in 2005 forming friendships and collaborative relationships that continue to this day. As a collaborator and performer she has worked with La Boite Theatre Company, Dancenorth, PVCtanz (Germany), KLARA theatre (Switzerland), David Pledger and Ochre Dance Company.
Her works have been presented nationally and internationally in the contexts such as Dance Massive, Darwin Festival, BLEACH* Festival, Supercell Dance Festival, Festival 2018 (for the Commonwealth Games), The United Kingdom through Dance Touring Partnership, and GAM, Chile.
Her practice currently focuses on the notions of authenticity and connection, in the context of performance. This is focused through a view of the body as a container for personal, genetic, and cultural memory, an archive or sorts, containing limitless realms of possibilities. Influence from her years working in Germany across genres has resulted in her work taking various forms (performance, installation, durational performance, documentary theatre and participatory works made with young people and amateurs).
Kate often works with personal biographies, having created performances with a rock star, a world champion freestyle wrestler and, most recently, a moody teenager.
Lighting Designer Claire graduated from the Queensland University of Technology and has since worked with ADC on multiple main stage productions as Head Electrician and with the ADC Youth Ensemble as Lighting Designer.
Past lighting design credits include: Echo (ADC Youth Ensemble, 2022, 2023 & 2024), Very Happy Children with Bright and Wonderful Futures (Brisbane Girls Grammar School, 2024), Succession (ADC Youth Ensemble, 2023), Algorithm (Queensland Theatre Young Artists, 2023), This Girl Laughs (BGGS, 2022), Gloria (QUT, 2021) & Mr Burns (QUT, 2021).
CHAIR
Julie Garner
Tony Denholder
Laura Campbell
Samantha Jones
Carmenza Cespedes
Deborah Brown
COMPANY SECRETARY
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CEO
ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
HEAD OF OPERATIONS
HEAD OF MARKETING
MARKETING MANAGER
Tracey Moore
Sam Hall
Lilly King
Jack Lister
Taiga Kita-Leong
Lily Potger
Georgia Van Gils
Amy Hollingsworth
Jack Lister
Jade Ellis
Jade Fantozzi
Madelyn Wise
PRODUCTION MANAGER Mathew James
PRE-PROFESSIONAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR
REHEARSAL DIRECTOR
YOUTH ENSEMBLE DIRECTOR
MATURE PROGRAM COORDINATOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICER
ACCOUNTANT
BOOKKEEPER
Alison Currie
Sam Coren
Courtney Scheu
Jaime Redfern
Josephine Reid
Karen Mitchell
Elizabeth Lepua
LIGHTING DESIGN Claire Browning
HEAD ELECTRICIAN Skye Lillis
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Lily Cox
Be
GOVERNMENT PARTNER
MAJOR PARTNERS
FOUNDATION PARTNERS
The L&R Foundation
The Patricia MacDonald Foundation
DESIGN PARTNER
Designfront
SPECIAL THANKS
AUSTI. Dance & Physical Theatre
Mature Program Volunteers
ADC PHOTOGRAPHY Jade Ellis
This year, Brisbane Airport celebrates its 100th birthday. Across the century there have been many milestones,
Explore more milestones at bne.com.au/100years
Help us create our next 40.
Thank you for your support over the last 40 years. As we mark this milestone, we are grateful to all those who have contributed to our legacy of innovative artmaking and nurturing community.
As we look to the future, we invite you to continue to be part of the journey. Thanks to our visionary supporters, every donation received before 30 June will be doubled dollar for dollar, and enable the art that is to come.
Here’s to the next 40 years of bold visions, performance excellence and pushing boundaries. Let’s make more history, collectively.
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