Image: O&J Wikner Photography

QL2 DANCE

〰️ MAJOR PRODUCTION 2025 〰️

QL2 DANCE 〰️ MAJOR PRODUCTION 2025 〰️

Audition registrations have now closed.

From the beginning of QL2’s [performance], the quality of dance was striking. It was not a stretch to think of the choreographic style or the quality of Australia’s top contemporary dance companies. Should some of these dancers end up with them, it would seem fitting.  

Samara Purnell, City News 

CHOREOGRAPHERS

In 2025, Alice Lee Holland will choreograph her first major work as Artistic Director of QL2 Dance. This is an exciting opportunity to connect with Alice as a maker, particularly as someone with a wealth of experience working at scale. Alice will be creating a new work with a combined ensemble that reflects on the lineage of contemporary dance in Australia, particularly the expressive movement pioneered by Gertrud Bodenwieser and related movement vocabularies Alice experienced while living in the USA. After recent years working in the community dance space, Alice looks forward to diving back into her own practice and physicality with QL2’s extraordinary young dance artists to create a new work with an original composition.  

  

Our other confirmed choreographer for QL2’s major project is James Batchelor. James grew up within the Quantum Leap Youth Ensemble and is now an internationally recognised choreographer based between Canberra and Berlin. He will be working with our senior dancers to explore expressionist movement through a contemporary lens. Before his intensive begins, James will be working in the studio with Chloe Chignell (another QL2 Dance alum), sound artist Morgan Hickinbotham, dramaturg and producer Bek Berger and dance artists Anton and Amelia McQueen. These artists will also be present in the first few days of James’ intensive, giving our senior dancers a rare opportunity to connect with other professional artists. 

REHEARSAL SCHEDULE 

Successful applicants will commit to the following rehearsal schedule: 

 

Junior Dancers: 

Sundays during term 1: 9 Feb – 6 Apr 2025 (9 Sundays) 

April school holidays: 22 – 24 April, 26 – 27 April 2025 (5 days) 

Production week: 29 April – 4 May 2025 (6 days) 

 

Seniors Dancers: 

All dates listed above, plus: 

January school holidays: 15-17, 20-24, 28-29 Jan 2025 (10 days) 

Please note, senior dancers may still be considered if they cannot attend the January dates. 

PROJECT FEE   

Our Major Production is heavily subsidised at $595 per senior dancer, and $395 per junior dancer.

The project fee includes 280 hours of rehearsal and performance (120 hours for junior dancers) facilitated by professional choreographers and designers, a fully produced performance season in a professional performance space, lighting and sound design, costumes, marketing, professional photography, project management and a project t-shirt. 

Project fees are due before the project begins. Payment plans are also available. Additionally, QL2 Dance has a limited number of bursaries available to support dancers and families in need. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • We will accept a maximum of 40 dancers for this project. Please note that there is no commitment to a particular breakdown of junior/senior dancers. 

  • This nominal administrative fee supports the organisation and management of audition applicants. We take your interest in our project seriously and work to ensure you are properly informed and supported to do your best at the audition.

  • The best way to audition is to attend on 1 December. If this is impossible, please indicate on your application form that you are unable to attend, and QL2 staff will be in touch with an alternative way for you to audition. Please note that it might not be possible to consider applications received after the deadline (Friday 29 November.) 

  • We understand that the project schedule is a significant commitment for young people and their families – and there may be pre-existing commitments that are not easily changed. In this instance:  

     

    Please include all clashes you have with the project schedule on your application form – the more information you provide us, the better. Post-audition, if you are successful, QL2 staff will review these clashes in relation to the overall schedule and: 

    • Be in touch with you to discuss any clashes not easily approved, or 

    • Confirm pre-approved absences in your personal schedule. 

     

    Please note that absences arising once the project is underway (planned or unplanned) may impact your ongoing involvement in the production. 

  • No. All dancers must be eight years old at the time of audition to apply for our 2025 Major Production.

  • Interested young people are required to attend the audition on Sunday 1 December 2024. This is an opportunity for us to get to know each other. Professional choreographers will lead you through the workshop in two parts. The first part involves a warmup and learning short movement sequences to remember and perform. The second part is creatively focused. We will give you some creative inspiration so you can imagine your own movement response and create a short dance in a small group. 

  • No – you will either dance with everyone else at the same time, or in groups. No one will be required to do anything on their own.  

  • Previous dance experience is likely to help young dancers perform well at the audition. Successful applicants will have strong skills relating to dance, such as rhythm/musicality, coordination, memory and recall, as well as independence, imagination and presence.

  • The Major Project is the centrepiece of QL2 Dance’s annual program. It is designed for young dance artists with significant interest in – and commitment to – contemporary dance. The Major Project is created across a four-month period, led by professional choreographers and designers who have an established practice and significant experience. It is most suited to young dance artists who are considering a career in the creative arts.

    The Chaos Project is QL2 Dance’s other annual performance season (Sept-Oct) which is designed for young dance artists who want to have an enjoyable, collaborative, creative experience of dance with other young people. The Chaos Project is created across an intensive three-week period, led by professional choreographers. Young artists of The Chaos Project aren’t necessarily considering a career in the creative arts (although they might be!) but they are curious and interested to experience more.

    Therefore, casting for the major project will be more selective than is typical for Chaos.