Echo Program 2026 | ADC Youth Ensemble

Echo

19—20 JUNE JUDITH WRIGHT ARTS CENTRE

ADC 2026 YOUTH ENSEMBLE

Echo 06 Notes for Radical Living Lilly King 08 Before Thought Arrives Riannon McLean 10

Relic Jack Lister 1 0 M IN INTE RVA L

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Joyful Flight Courtney Scheu & Riannon McLean

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.

WELCOME TO ECHO An echo is often understood as a return, but it is never a perfect repetition. What returns has shifted, gathered new textures and meanings.

This idea sits at the heart of Echo.

Across the program, movement is a conversation between artists, generations and communities.

Choreographic ideas are shared, inherited, reimagined and transformed, revealing how creativity continues to evolve through connection.

For the dancers of ADC Youth Ensemble, this exchange of ideas has been central to their year.

Through new creative challenges, collaborative processes and engagement with professional repertoire, they have developed a deeper understanding of the potential of their voices as artists within a wider creative community.

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This year, we are excited to present a new work

by Company Artist Lilly King, devised through a process in which the dancers’ voices are actively embedded within the creation, literally and figuratively. At its centre is a process of listening — to ideas, to one another, and to the small details that often go unnoticed. Alongside this, a reimagined excerpt from Jack Lister’s acclaimed Relic — offers the dancers the opportunity to inhabit a bold and dynamic movement world and to make it meaningful through interpretation and collective attention. The program culminates in a collaboration with The Movement Lab GC (TML GC), co-choreographed by myself and former Youth Ensemble Director Riannon McLean, a partnership that reflects the enduring relationships and artistic exchanges that continue to shape our program. Riannon also shares a striking solo performed by TML GC dancer, Charlotte White.

What has stayed with me throughout the year is the generosity with which these young artists approach their work. Their willingness to take risks, support one another and remain open to new ideas has shaped not only the performances you see on stage, but the community we have built together.

It has been a privilege to share this process with them. Thank you for joining us for Echo.

Courtney Scheu Youth Ensemble Director

IG @training.adc

MEET THE ARTISTS

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2026 marks the ADC Youth Ensemble’s eighth Echo season and celebrates a new collaboration with The Movement Lab GC. Thank you to TML GC Director Riannon McLean for her support in nurturing this exciting connection.

ADC Youth Ensemble

Ashlee Barnetson

Charlotte Brackenbury

Lauren Burton-Jones

Lillian Craig

Ada Feeney

Imogen Forde

Rosha Forghani

Isla Gillespie

Zavier Glyde

Isabella Haynes-Dohijo

Katharine Hodgson

Gabrielle Jackson

Dakota McCullough

Isabella Messer

Margerita Morris

Renee Thompson

Sarah Vincent

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The Movement Lab GC

Magdalena Bohacik

Rylee Crossley

Angus Fraser

Audrey Fraser

Annika Lewis

Lexi Lewis

Milay Matsumoto

Mia McCallum

Ivy Perry

Charlotte White

Notes for Radical Living

Based on Tilda Swinton’s poem “Notes for Radical Living,” this work embraces acts of freedom, cherishing & trying to capture a moment. It has been made with, for and about the Youth Ensemble dancers that perform in it.

“Drop your shoulders Bend your knees Raise the roof Keep breathing Be trustworthy Take care of yourself Believe in goodness Head for the light”

CREATIVES CONCEPT, DIRECTION & CHOREOGRAPHY

Lilly King

LIGHTING DESIGN

Bryce Delany

COSTUME DESIGN

Lilly King

MUSIC

Me vs. a Brick Wall by LOCKED SHUT I. Sequence (Four) by Peter Gregson, Warren Zielinski, Magdalena Filipczak, Meghan Cassidy, Richard Harwood

PERFORMED BY

ADC Youth Ensemble

GUITAR SOLOIST

Gabrielle Jackson

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Before Thought Arrives

The body moves before thought arrives, carrying unspoken knowledge that cannot always be explained. Quietly, it holds moments of remembering — an invitation to live within intuition, history, and the soul of one’s own body.

CREATIVES CONCEPT, DIRECTION & CHOREOGRAPHY

Riannon McLean

LIGHTING DESIGN

Bryce Delany

COSTUME DESIGN

Riannon McLean

MUSIC

Earnestly Yours (feat. Ren Ford) by Keaton Henson, Ren Ford

PERFORMED BY

Charlotte White of The Movement Lab GC

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Relic

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Where we meet, time is suspended.

The quiet symbolism of vanitas lingers, candles, smoke and skulls, emblematic of fate.

Yet amidst this stillness, the spirit of motocross surges.

Grit and grace, framed beneath the cold gaze of gothic gargoyles.

Relics, shrouded and preserved.

They watch, hollow-eyed and vigilant, silent sentinels guarding a truth well known.

Life, wild and beautiful, every race running towards an end.

Engines roar like demons unleashed, Filling the space with a beautiful fury disrupting its stillness.

The rider channels both the angel and demon, a tempest of grace and destruction, racing against the inevitability of time.

The final lap approaches.

Is the finish line a false promise, an illusion of victory, an empty glory. nothing can rival the sureness of the final flag.

CREATIVES CONCEPT, DIRECTION Jack Lister & CHOREOGRAPHY MUSIC COMPOSITION Louis Frere-Harvey LIGHTING DESIGN

Bryce Delany

PERFORMED BY

ADC Youth Ensemble

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Joyful Flight Joyful Flight explores the space between memory and lived experience. Lingering in the in-between — where memories are held, softened, or let go, and where nostalgia offers comfort.

Returning to childhood experiences of warmth and familiarity, alongside those that are blurred and fragmented, these memories begin to shift and reshape into something both remembered and reimagined.

CREATIVES CONCEPT, DIRECTION & CHOREOGRAPHY

Courtney Scheu & Riannon McLean

LIGHTING DESIGN

Bryce Delany

COSTUME DESIGN

Courtney Scheu & Riannon McLean

MUSIC

Gelis by Natureboy A’l’infini by Gasper Claus The Lake by Rene Aubry Dawn by ori lichtik Qiankun Tu by UVB76 Nearly Curtains (feat. Ren Ford) by Keaton Henson, Ren Ford

PERFORMED BY

ADC Youth Ensemble The Movement Lab GC

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MEET THE CREATIVES

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Lilly King

Jack Lister

Choreographer Notes for Radical Living

Choreographer Relic

Originally from Boorloo/Perth, Lilly King studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduating with a Bachelor of Dance (Elite Performance).

As an independent artist Lilly performed with numerous choreographers such as Brooke Leeder, Sally Richardson, Scott Elstermann, Scott Ewen & Stephanie Lake as well as working on multiple film endeavours with Beautiful Pictures & most recently, Molasses Pictures. King was also a founding member of Syndicate Performance, co-creating numerous shows in a creatively collective format.

In 2019, she was awarded Best Newcomer in the Performing Arts Awards WA for her roles in Brooke Leeder’s RADAR and Scott Elsterman & Shona Erskine’s BANG! BANG!. Since joining ADC in 2022, King has performed in various works by esteemed choreographers Amy Hollingsworth, Cass MortimerEipper, Jenni Large, Jack Lister, Maxine Doyle & Melanie Lane.

Lilly is continuously interested in finding connection to people and places through nostalgia and finding absurdity in the everyday mundane.

Jack Lister is an Australian dancer, choreographer and creative whose work spans stage, screen and large-scale performance.

After graduating from The Australian Ballet School, he joined Queensland Ballet in 2014, performing and originating many roles across the classical and contemporary repertoire, before beginning to create his own work in 2015. He joined ADC as a company artist in 2020 and was appointed Associate Choreographer with Queensland Ballet. He became Creative Associate of ADC in 2022 and Associate Artistic Director in 2024.

Lister has created a significant body of work for ADC, developing a distinct choreographic voice through ambitious, large-scale and site-specific productions. His work also extends across contemporary dance and ballet companies worldwide, where his creations have met with critical and audience acclaim. For ADC, his works Halcyon (2023), RELIC (2025) and Code of Conduct (2026) have transformed unconventional spaces into immersive performance environments. In 2025, he was a lead creative on Bad Nature, an international collaboration between ADC, Club Guy & Roni and Boris Acket, which toured extensively.

Alongside his creations, he continues to work as a performer, collaborating with leading Australian and international choreographers.

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Riannon McLean

Courtney Scheu

Choreographer Before Thought Arrives & Joyful Flight

Choreographer Joyful Flight

Riannon McLean is a New Zealand School of Dance Graduate, earning distinguished graduate honours in 2010. With over 24 years of experience, she is a versatile creative professional in dance performance, teaching, choreography, mentorship, youth development, and community engagement. Riannon’s career spans both national and international stages, having worked with renowned choreographers, musicians and companies, including Merenia Grey Dance Company, Dance North, Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), and Expressions Dance Company (EDC/ADC).

Riannon began honing her choreographic voice in London in 2004, founding Red-I Dance Company and performing at The Place as part of their Choreodrome program. Since then, she has made her mark as a national choreographer.

In 2018, Riannon established and directed the Youth Ensemble for Australasian Dance Collective (ADC) Brisbane, a role she held for the next six years.

A sought-after teacher and mentor, Riannon has worked with major companies, vocational training schools, and youth programs both in Australia and internationally. Riannon is the Director of The Movement Lab GC, a contemporary youth program on the Gold Coast and is Co-Creator alongside Keith Hawley for The Creative Project Australia.

Her creativity, passion, and commitment to education are the foundation of her distinguished career. Riannon returned to the stage in 2025 as a guest artist for ADC for the company’s 40-year anniversary, reprising her role of The Woman in Natalie Weir’s When Time Stops.

Courtney Scheu (she/her) is an independent dance artist whose practice spans performance, choreography, education, producing and interdisciplinary art making. Courtney is the only Certified Gaga Teacher based in Australia, Gaga: Ohad Naharin’s Movement language.

Courtney was co-founder and co-artistic director of OUTBOUND | Contemporary Dance x Live Art Festival on Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi Country (Sunshine Coast) 2023. Courtney is the Director of the Youth Ensemble at Australasian Dance Collective. She has worked actively in the youth dance space in various capacities and is passionate about nurturing young people — creatives, thinkers and leaders.

Courtney’s choreographic work has been presented across Australia and internationally over the past 15 years. Her choreographic work plays between waking and dreaming worlds, the real and unreal. She has been supported by the Sunshine Coast Council, Sunshine Coast Arts Foundation, Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.

Courtney loves dance for its capacity to create meaningful discoveries and connections.

MEET THE CREATIVES

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Bryce Delany

Louis Frere-Harvey

Lighting Design

Music Composition and Sound Design Relic

Bryce Delany is a Brisbane based lighting designer with nearly 8 years experience in theatre, dance and music lighting design, in addition to working as a senior lighting technician at QPAC since 2023. Bryce has designed in the Concert Hall at QPAC, the Powerhouse and for the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries for many years. Designing the lights for ADC’s Youth Ensemble’s production of Echo will be Bryce’s second design with the ensemble. Bryce’s approach to lighting is deeply collaborative, working closely with directors to integrate lighting into the fabric of each work, with a focus on crafting emotional landscapes that respond to movement, music, and space, creating immersive visual worlds that elevate performance and connect with audiences.

Louis is a composer, percussionist and performer whose work sits at the intersection of contemporary classical music, electronic and club culture, and movement.

Drawing on his training in percussion and a deep understanding of the body in motion, Louis creates energetically percussive scores that explore rhythm at its physical source and its relationship to sound. His practice spans theatre, dance and music, with compositions and arrangements ranging from small ensembles to full orchestra, often blending acoustic instrumentation with electronic elements.

Following a decade of touring Australia, New Zealand and North America as the internationally acclaimed DJ Command Q, Louis transitioned into freelance composition, scoring works presented throughout Australia, North America and Venice. He has collaborated with award-winning dance and theatre companies, directors and choreographers including Club Guy & Roni, Slagwerk Den Haag, Australasian Dance Collective, Milwaukee Ballet, Scott Elstermann (Venice Biennale), Brooke Leeder (Perth Festival), The Last Great Hunt, ROOKE Circus, Sally Richardson (NICA) and Mitchell Harvey Company.

Louis is a recipient of Minderoo Foundation’s inaugural Artist Fund (2021), has undertaken residencies with STRUT Dance and TasDance, and was awarded the Performing Arts WA Award for Outstanding Composition in both 2022 and 2024.

MEET THE COLLECTIVE BOARD CHAIR

COMPANY ARTISTS Julie Garner Tony Denholder Samantha Jones Carmenza Cespedes Deborah Brown Alison Kubler

COMPANY SECRETARY

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Sam Hall Lilly King Jack Lister Taiga Kita-Leong Lily Potger Te Atawhai Kaa (Trainee)

Tracey Moore

STAFF

ECHO PRODUCTION STAFF

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CEO

Amy Hollingsworth

GUEST PRODUCTION MANAGER

Lauren Sallaway

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Jack Lister

LIGHTING DESIGN & REALISATION

Bryce Delany

HEAD OF OPERATIONS

Jade Ellis

STAGE MANAGER

Rachael King

Madelyn Wise

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

Isa King

MARKETING MANAGER ACTING PRODUCTION MANAGER

Mick Trevisan

WARDROBE

Lily Cox

PRE-PROFESSIONAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Riannon McLean

REHEARSAL DIRECTOR

Lonii GarnonsWilliams

YOUTH ENSEMBLE DIRECTOR

Courtney Scheu

MATURE PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Jaime Redfern

PROGRAM & OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

Josephine Reid

ACCOUNTANT

Karen Mitchell

BOOKKEEPER

Elizabeth Lepua

OUR PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS

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GOVERNMENT PARTNERS

Australasian Dance Collective acknowledges the assistance of the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s Strategic Partnerships Fund (2024 to 2026).

Australasian Dance Collective acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts funding and advisory body.

Australasian Dance Collective is proudly supported by Brisbane City Council.

MAJOR PARTNERS

FOUNDATION PARTNERS

The L&R Foundation Cybec Foundation

DESIGN PARTNER

Designfront

PHOTOGRAPHY Jade Ellis

PRODUCTION PARTNER

PRE-PROFESSIONAL PROGRAM Train alongside a professional company in 2027 Applications now open australasiandancecollective.com/training

Program supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland’s Strategic Partnerships Fund, The L&R Foundation and Stack Family Foundation.

Photography David Kelly

Youth Ensemble 2027

Be inspired, explore your creativity and learn from the very best.

ADC invites emerging dancers aged 14 – 19 to join our Youth Ensemble for 2027.

Photography Jade Ellis

REGISTER TO AUDITION australasiandancecollective.com/youth-ensemble

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