By Helen Musa

The name Australian Dance Party has a cheeky political edge, fitting for a professional contemporary dance company based in Canberra.

As founding director Alison Plevey prepares for the company’s 10th anniversary production, Sphere, she reflects on how that identity came to be.

“We live in a political environment in Canberra,” Plevey says. “I wanted to position dance within that narrative, but in a playful way.”

The company emerged in 2016 during a period of significant arts funding cuts, which also sparked the formation of the Canberra Arts Action Group. For Plevey, it was a call to action.

“Local artists were debating how the arts could be sustained as a profession, leading to the formation of the Canberra Arts Action Group,” she says.

“We needed a voice, not just to argue for funding, but to express the intrinsic value of art. From the beginning, Australian Dance Party did that through storytelling and embodied experience.”

Accessibility has always been central to her vision. 

“Contemporary dance can feel serious or hard to access,” she says. 

“I wanted to show that the body can communicate ideas – whether that’s beauty or something like climate change – in a way that’s engaging and human.”

Plevey’s interest in dance as communication dates back to her honours research at the WA Academy of Performing Arts. 

Raised in regional NSW, born in Dorrigo and growing up in Bathurst, she describes herself as “a regional girl through and through”.

After studying and working in Bathurst, including collaborations at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, she was drawn to Canberra after a call from Ruth Osborne of QL2 Dance. 

“Canberra felt like a big country town,” she says. “The arts community is generous and supportive, and I’ve always wanted to contribute to that.”

That spirit of collaboration has defined Australian Dance Party’s work, usually staged in unconventional locations. Its first production, Strings Attached, brought together four dancers and eight Canberra Symphony Orchestra musicians in an intimate space at the Nishi Building. I was one of the many people enticed on to the dance floor as part of the show.

Since then, the company has performed at sites including Mount Stromlo Observatory (Nervous), the Australian National Botanic Gardens (Symbiosis), and even atop a military-style truck, The Soul Defender, in a work that subverted militarism with soul music. It also staged Energia at a solar farm on Mount Majura, exploring renewable energy in freezing conditions.

“It was amazing having the farm behind us as we considered renewable energy and also how we were using our own energy in the rat race,” she says.

The company has also embraced screen-based work, producing the Move to Zero series of seven short dance films to highlight the ACT Government’s carbon-reduction targets, addressing issues from plastic use to electric vehicles.

Now, Australian Dance Party turns to its milestone production, Sphere, staged in The Vault in Fyshwick. Plevey describes the site as “an amazing canvas” for an immersive, gallery-style experience where audiences can move freely through the work.

Directed by Plevey and Sara Black, Sphere features eight Canberra dancers, including Ashlee Bye, Gabriel Sinclair, Pat Hayes Cavanagh, Jahna Lugnan, Jason Pearce and Mia Rashid, alongside composer Sia Ahmad and Creswick Collective on video design.

The anniversary program also reflects the company’s growing reach, with recent performances of Impulse expanding beyond the city centre to Woden and Belconnen.

Offstage, Plevey’s life has taken on a new dimension as a mother to three-year-old Cora. 

“It’s a different kind of awakening,” she says. “You pour everything into dance, and then you learn to balance that with family. It’s given me even more energy.”

Unsurprisingly, Cora is already into dance and music.

After a decade of bold, site-specific work and community engagement, Plevey is ready for what comes next.

“Bring on the next 10 years,” she says.

Sphere, May 14-16, The Vault,Fyshwick. Details at australiandance.party.