Theatre, Performance & Dance

Our research explores the role of performance in animating histories, epistemologies and voices that are embodied in non-Western, more-than-human practices of listening. First Nations knowledges anchor approaches which build collaborations based on Country, that activate cultural interactions, place and environment as forms of ecological thinking and making performance.  

View: Visualising Intercultural Futures, The River Ends as the Ocean, Reimagining Cape Hawke , HDR projects by Mitchell Whitehead, Roko Zaper, Vic Hunt 

We investigate how queer, trans and intersectional feminist practices transform performance culture in Australia and beyond. Projects explore performance in non-traditional spaces, transfuturist choreography and queer Indigenous theatre, expanding understandings of embodiment, collaboration and national theatre history.  

View: HDR projects by Lu Bradshaw, Bilal Kanafani

Our research engages with communities affected by displacement, conflict or social inequity, exploring theatre as a mode of care, resilience and public dialogue. From applied theatre in refugee contexts to co-designed research with young people, we are internationally recognised for advancing performance as a tool for social change in areas of health, migration, education, criminal justice and First Nations communities. 

View: Arts and Health Research Group, Future Stories ,HDR projects by Ruth Horsfall, Viola Karungi, Anita Hallewas 

The Esme Timbery Creative Practice Lab anchors our world-leading work in creative methodologies. Our research positions creative practice as a mode of inquiry. Integrating design, dance, writing, projects focus on interdisciplinary, intermedial and intercultural practices of composition, advancing new methodologies that assert and redefine the role of performance in new knowledge-formation. 

View: Intermedial Composition Network, Precarious Movements, HDR projects by Zoe Theodore, Susannah Keebler, Tom Hogan, Hannah Ray, Nalina Wait

We examine how theatre and performance histories are documented, curated and reimagined in digital and embodied archives, particularly within a national context. From oral history projects with the State Library of NSW, to radical stage adaptations of classical texts to explorations of data feminism and sovereignty, our work redefines what it means to create new frameworks for preserving ephemeral art and making cultural memory accessible. 

View: Australian Creative Histories and Futures, HDR projects by Alex Talamo, Nathan Jackson, Frieda Lee  

We're networked with leading industry and academic partners including: ACMI, Art Gallery of NSW, Australian Research Data Commons, Belvoir Street Theatre, Big Medicine Studios, Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, Central Queensland University, Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, Creative Australia, Exeter University, UK, Flinders University, Griffith University, La Trobe University, Monash University Museum of Art, Moogahlin Performing Arts, Marrugeku, NAISDA, National Art School, National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Newman University, NSW State Archives, Notre Dame University, Nulungu Research Institute, PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, Performance Space, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, RealTime, Shopfront Arts, South Eastern Sydney Health District (including Sutherland Hospital, St George Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Royal Women's Hospital, Eye Hospital, and Garrawarra Dementia Care), State Library of NSW, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Sydney Dance Company, Tate UK, University of Limerick, Yirramboi Festival.