16–18 May 2024

Subject to Change is the major production for QL2 Dance in 2024.

Three dynamic new dance works explore our relationship to change.

Subject to Change considers our adaptability and awareness in a rapidly changing world. Is it possible to maintain a sense of agency and accountability as other forces impact our experience? Can we remain open-minded and responsive to the ever-shifting landscapes of life?

With 26 young Canberran dance artists at the forefront, Subject to Change is a triple bill of new dance works created by renowned Australian choreographers Alisdair Macindoe (Naarm/Melbourne), Gabrielle Nankivell (Meanjin/Brisbane) and Artistic Director of QL2 Dance, Ruth Osborne OAM (Kamberri/Canberra).

Subject to Change represents Australian youth dance at its best; innovative choreography, sound and production design combined with powerful performances by the next generation of young Canberra region dancers.

Project Rehearsal Dates

January Intensive: Daily rehearsals, 9am - 5pm, January 15th to 26th (includes 26th with the 21st as a rest day)

Term 1 Sunday rehearsals: Sunday 4th February - Sunday 7th April (9 rehearsals, no rehearsal during the Easter long weekend)

April intensive: Daily rehearsals, 9am - 5pm, 15th - 19 April, 21- 24 April, 26- 27 April (Rest days April 20 and 25)

Term 2 Sunday rehearsals: 5th May - 12th May

Production week: 13th May - 18th May

More about the Choreographers

Ruth Osborne OAM (She/Her)

QL2 Dance Artistic Director Ruth Osborne OAM pioneered youth dance practice in Australia: performing, teaching, choreographing, directing and collaborating. She established the Contemporary Dance Centre, taught at WAAPA, and was founding AD of Steps Youth Dance Company. She served on boards of Ausdance, WA Ballet, and WAAPA. She has developed unique programs in Canberra at the Australian Choreographic Centre, and now as Artistic Director of QL2 Dance. She established Quantum Leap youth dance ensemble, developing choreographic literacy in young dancers, and has presented youth dance in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Jamaica, and Scotland. She represented Australian youth dance at Dance and the Child International (Jamaica, Taiwan and Adelaide), and Youth Dance England’s 2010 conference. At the 2011 Australian Dance Awards, she won the Award for Services to Dance “For her superlative teaching and wide-ranging services to dance for over four decades; for an outstanding contribution to dance education and to the development of youth dance practice in Australia.” Ruth was Director of the 2012 and 2013 Australian Dance Awards. She won the ACT Critic’s Circle award in 2015 for Walking and Falling, and in 2017 was awarded a Churchill Fellowship.

Alisdair Macindoe (He/Him)

Alisdair Macindoe is an independent multidisciplinary choreographer living on unceded stolen Woi Wurrung country (Melbourne, Australia). With an interest in extending the boundaries of choreographic practice, Alisdair’s work spans dance, sound, electronics, coding and text. Recent works have seen him explore automated dance and Artificial Intelligence; new technology for music expression; trans-humanism; waste and climate change; and identity in the age of narcissism. Alisdair’s independent and collaborative work has been commissioned and presented widely, including FORGERY (2021, Australasian Dance Collective & Brisbane Festival); PROGRESS REPORT (2023 & 2021, with co-director Alison Currie for Vitalstatistix & Frame Biennial @ The Substation ); SYSTEM ERROR (2021, co-created with Chamber Made & Tamara Saulwick for Arts House); REFERENCE MATERIAL (2021, Darebin Speakeasy); NONCOMPETE (2018, The Substation); MEETING (2015, with co-creator Antony Hamilton, commissioned by Arts House, presented across 35 international seasons) and BROMANCE (2010, Next Wave, Arts House & Performance Space).

Alisdair has received 5 Greenroom awards; an Australian Helpmann Award and a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’. He was the 2019 Resident Director for Lucy Guerin Inc; the 2019 Ausdance Peggy Van Praagh Fellow; the 2020 Dancenorth NO-SHOW resident; a 2020-21 Sidney Myer Foundation Creative Fellow and a recipient of the 2022 Chloe Munro Mid-Career Fellowship. He is a current board member of Ausdance Victoria. Alisdair has an extensive history of almost 20 years working as a dancer and sound designer for some of Melbournes' most celebrated choreographers, including his career spanning mentor Lucy Guerin.

Gabrielle Nankivell (She/her)

Gabrielle Nankivell’s atmospheric performance works and immersive projects are known for their vivid choreography, attention to detail and evocative combinations of the mundane and the bizarre. Recognised as a leading Australian independent artist, she has also created works for Sydney Dance Company, Dancenorth, Australasian Dance Collective, Queensland Ballet, Vitalstatistix, Brisbane Festival, Adelaide Festival Centre and Frontier Danceland Singapore.

As a performer Gabrielle has worked with Australian Dance Theatre, Alexander Baervoets (BE), Chunky Move/Gideon Obarzanek, Gavin Webber/Regurgitator, Jurij Konjar (SLO), Maxine Doyle (UK), The Farm, Thomas Steyaert (BE), Raul Maia (PT) & Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus (BE) amongst others.

Gabrielle is the recipient of the inaugural Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship, the Tanja Liedtke Fellowship and an Arts South Australia Fellowship. She was Artist in Residence at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (2017), Sydney Dance Company’s inaugural Training Associate (2021) and is currently part of the Artistic Team at Australasian Dance Collective.