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RISING receives lifeline from Creative Australia to deliver 2026 dance biennial

ArtsHub exclusive: RISING will return in 2026 as the national presenter of the Australian Dance Biennial.

15 Jul 2025 7:00

Celina Lei

A production photo of dynamic dancers dressed in black suits, forming single file while pulling at each other’s clothes. RISING

Performing Arts

Chunky Move and Restless Dance Theatre, ‘Rewards for the Tribe’, part of RISING 2022. Photo: Jeff Busby.

Melbourne’s winter festival RISING has been appointed by Creative Australia as the delivery partner of a new national celebration of Australian dance, the Australian Dance Biennial.

This new appointment may just be the badge of validation the festival needs to continue and grow.

While heralded as a milestone initiative, this model of a dance biennial is not entirely new in Melbourne. Dance Massive (2009–2019) and FRAME: A Biennial of Dance (2023) – co-presented by Dancehouse, Arts House and Malthouse Theatre – were the forbearers, but the latter festival came to halt in 2023/24, citing funding and human resources as key hurdles. Perhaps this time, some longevity can be ensured.

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Celina Lei

Celina Lei is ArtsHub's former Content Manager. She has previously worked across global art hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York in both the commercial art sector and art criticism. She took part in drafting NAVA’s revised Code of Practice - Art Fairs, and was the project manager of ArtsHub’s diverse writers initiative, Amplify Collective. Celina is based in Naarm/Melbourne. Instagram: @lleizy_