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.
The Biennial will launch officially in 2026 to run alongside RISING every other year, with the first two iterations focusing on a curated program of Australian dance works, promising representation from every state and territory.
The hotly debated RISING festival initially struggled to find its footing, launching in the snap-lockdown era Melbourne, then falling into funding uncertainty. From what ArtsHub witnessed this year, RISING has now picked itself up and outperformed on a number of occasions, from striking dance and theatre performances to a playable mini-golf exhibition.
This new appointment may just be the badge of validation the festival needs to continue and grow.
The Biennial will include a strong industry-facing element, the National Dance Gathering, designed to support independent artists and foster national and international dialogue. Additionally, a dedicated BlakFutures gathering for First Nations practitioners will be led by Meanjin/Brisbane-based BlakDance.
To push Australian dance works onto the global stage, the Biennial comes with an international delegate program to strengthen touring potential.
RISING is set to collaborate with a national network of advisers, including major festivals, independent presenters and dance organisations to ‘ensure a truly representative and dynamic program’.
RISING co-Artistic Director and CEO, Gideon Obarzanek says the team is “honoured to deliver this ambitious new platform for Australian dance”, which will “amplify voices from every state and territory, showcase exceptional work, and foster national and international touring opportunities”.
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.
An online information session on the Australian Dance Biennial will be held in the coming months.
RISING has previously worked with dancers and companies including Stephanie Lake Company, Chunky Move Studios, Australian Dance Theatre, Lucy Guerin Inc, BlakDance, Neon Dance (UK) and Botis Seva (UK) for its annual program.
Discover more arts, games and screen reviews on ArtsHub and ScreenHub.
Also on ArtsHub: 20 organisations named under Creative Australia’s new funding platform, Creative Futures Fund
Today (10 July), Creative Australia (CA) has announced the first recipients for funding under the Creative Futures Fund – a new funding platform established to support ambitious, large-scale creative projects, spanning every state and territory, under the National Cultural Policy, Revive.
Executive Director Arts Investment at CA, Alice Nash says in a statement: “This is an investment in imagination. It will support the telling of unique Australian stories that cross generations, industries, and borders, while remaining deeply local.”
Wendy Martin, Director of the new fund, adds: “This first round of projects offers a glimpse of what is possible through investment in our creative future.”
She continues: “This extraordinary collection of work will take audiences on imaginative journeys, under the sea with sharks, onto football fields and into the wild, wonderful world of roller derby. Collaborations between artists and scientists will investigate Hobart as gateway to Antarctica and explore the Murray Darling River system as a life force that runs through our country.
Notifications of outcomes had been listed for February 2025, but the delayed announcement will be nevertheless welcomed by some. Twenty organisations have been successful, with the weighting towards NSW geographically, and overwhelmingly to the performing arts and festival sectors.
Read on…
