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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-08-20 Daily Xml
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Australian Dance Theatre 60th Anniversary

Ms O'HANLON (Dunstan) (12:55): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges that Australia’s oldest continuing contemporary dance company, Australian Dance Theatre, will mark its 60th anniversary in 2025;

(b) acknowledges the important cultural, social and economic contribution that Australian Dance Theatre delivers to the South Australian arts and cultural sector;

(c) recognises the importance of Australian Dance Theatre in showcasing some of the best interstate and international artists; and

(d) encourages all South Australians to celebrate and attend Australian Dance Theatre’s 2025 program in its 60th year.

It is with great joy and a fair bit of awe-inspired admiration that I rise to move this motion celebrating an icon of Australian contemporary culture, the Australian Dance Theatre, which this year marks 60 years of bold, breathtaking, boundary-pushing performance. ADT is Australia's oldest continuing contemporary dance company, proudly based in Norwood within my electorate of Dunstan since 2018. While they have called several parts of Adelaide home over the decades, they have been an Adelaide-based company since their founding in 1965.

For 60 years, ADT has done something quite remarkable: they have challenged us artistically, emotionally and intellectually with dance that does not just entertain but moves us to think, to feel and to reflect. I know I can count on the support of those across the aisle and on the crossbench for this motion, and I thank them for that.

The kind of work ADT creates is not necessarily the sort that leaves you wanting to try a few of their moves on your own. It is deeper than that. It is the kind of work that stays with you long after the curtain falls. It is visceral, exhilarating, and often hauntingly beautiful. It leaves you walking out of the theatre changed and quietly pondering ideas or storylines you perhaps had not considered before.

How did ADT come to produce such profound and creative work? As Premier Peter Malinauskas said, South Australia has long been a hub of arts and culture, but this did not happen by chance. It was built through deliberate effort, and of course that effort has not just been driven by various governments. It has come from the determination of the drivers of the arts in South Australia. I knew something of the arts in South Australia in the seventies and eighties, because my own grandfather was drawn into it from his home base in Sydney in the 1970s. I remember him talking about it when I was a young child.

Before I was even thought of, in 1965, when The Beatles were topping the charts, Australia was changing rapidly. Amidst that era of transformation, a young and visionary artist named Elizabeth Cameron Dalman founded a company with a clear purpose: to make dance that was relevant, experimental, connected to the world and. crucially, connected to this place, our country, our culture, our people. That spirit of innovation has never left ADT. It is in their DNA. It is in every movement, every gesture, every electrifying stillness.

What a moment it was earlier this year during the Adelaide Festival when ADT premiered the extraordinary new work A Quiet Language, a deeply evocative piece codirected by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman herself, now in her 90s, and the company's current artistic director, the trailblazing Daniel Riley. It was an intergenerational dialogue through dance, a quiet, powerful conversation between past and present, a reverent nod to legacy and a bold statement of intent for the future. It was truly magnificent.

Daniel Riley's leadership marks another pivotal moment in ADT's story. A proud Wiradjuri man, Daniel is the first Indigenous artistic director of the company. His appointment is more than symbolic; it is transformative. Under his guidance, ADT is exploring deeper truths, grappling with our collective history and forging a more inclusive and truthful artistic path forward. Daniel's work is rooted in culture, in country and in storytelling, and it resonates far beyond the stage. His choreography is not just movement; it is memory, resistance, reclamation and hope. His vision ensures that ADT does not just continue; they evolve, they lead and they inspire.

What does it mean to be a powerhouse of the arts, as ADT undoubtedly is? Firstly, ADT employs full-time dancers, one of the few companies in South Australia to do so outside of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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