Garry Stewart (born 1962) is an Australian dancer and choreographer. He was the longest-serving artistic director of the

Australian Dance Theatre Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), known as Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre from 1993 to 1999, is a contemporary dance company based in Adelaide, South Australia, established in 1965 by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman . The ADT was the first moder ...

, taking over from Meryl Tankard in 1999 and finishing his term at the end of 2021. He is renowned for his unusual,

post-modern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

interpretations of classical ballets.

Early life and education

Garry Stewart was born in 1962. After abandoning his university studies in social work when he was 20, Stewart studied first in Sydney at the Sydney City Ballet Academy (1983), and then at the Australian Ballet School in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

(1984–1985).

Dance career

He has danced with the Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), the Queensland Ballet, Expressions Dance Company and The One Extra Dance Company (Onex), and has performed in acting roles with the Sydney Theatre Company. He also worked on many independent projects, and in 1989 performed the role of Luke in production of ''

Harold in Italy ''Harold en Italie,'' ''symphonie avec un alto principal'' (English: ''Harold in Italy,'' ''symphony with viola obbligato''), as the manuscript calls and describes it, is a four-movement orchestral work by Hector Berlioz, his Opus 16, H. 68, wr ...

''. He retired from professional dancing at the end of the 1980s and concentrated on choreography from 1990. In 1995 he co-founded the

dance company Chunky Move, and two or three years later founded the

dance company A dance troupe or dance company is a group of dancers and associated personnel who work together to perform dances as a sport, spectacle or entertainment. There are many different types of dance companies, often working in different styles of dan ...

Thwack! in Sydney, which performed ''Plastic Space'' at the

Melbourne Festival Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festi ...

in October 1999. On 29 November 1999, Stewart became artistic director of the ADT, based in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, taking over from Meryl Tankard. In 2000, he choreographed his first major work for ADT: ''Birdbrain'', described as "an ironic,

deconstruction" of the classical ballet '' Swan Lake'', which had an immediate impact on the dance world, with its innovative use of

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...

breakdance Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...

, gymnastics,

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

, and ran for around 200 performances around the world. Other works for ADT which also proved to be hits included ''The Age of Unbeauty'' (2002), ''Devolution'' (2006), ''G'' (2008), ''Be Your Self'' (2010), ''Proximity'' (2012), and ''The Beginning of Nature'' (2018). The ''Age of Unbeauty'', a piece that incorporated martial arts and gymnastics within the dance performance, had its premiere in February 2002 at the

Adelaide Fringe Festival The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, i ...

. Stewart said that his inspiration came from the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre, after the ADT had arrived in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

just a few weeks after the destruction. ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

'' dance critic and awards panel judge Hilary Crampton said that Stewart "challenges accepted perceptions of dance performance and also of what is conceived of as a dancer or a dancer's body, so he's pushing the edge". For ''Devolution'', Stewart collaborated with Canadian robotics expert Louise-Philippe Demers, producing a show with 30 robots on stage. In April 2006, Stewart co-produced and directed the dance gala "UNIFIED" for

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

Australia, to benefit the Gap Youth Centre in Alice Springs for

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

young people and an

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

program for children in Laos. ''G'', a fast-paced deconstruction of the

romantic ballet The Romantic ballet is defined primarily by an era in ballet in which the ideas of Romanticism in art and literature influenced the creation of ballets. The era occurred during the early to mid 19th century primarily at the Théâtre de l'Académ ...

'' Giselle'', was first performed at the 2008

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

, followed by an extensive tour of Europe in 2008 and 2009. The work was reprised in November 2021 in Adelaide. In 2019, to celebrate his 20 years at ADT, the company produced ''Anthology'', a piece comprising parts of six of Stewart's most successful productions. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...

, the company did not tour throughout 2020 and 2021, but did perform in Adelaide, as South Australia did not have large numbers of people infected with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

and restrictions were not severe. Stewart's last major original work, ''Supernature'', premiered at the newly-renovated

Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide Her Majesty's Theatre is a theatre in Adelaide, South Australia, located on Grote Street, originally built in 1913 as the New Tivoli Theatre. Other names through its history have been the Princess Theatre (before it was first opened), the Prince ...

in March 2021 as part of the

. His tenure at ADT ended at the end of 2021, when he handed over the reins to Daniel Riley, making him the longest-serving artistic director of the company, at 22 years. The last performance of ''G'' took place at Her Majesty's Theatre exactly 22 years to the day since Stewart's appointment as artistic director of the ADT. Stewart was also commissioned by the

Australian Ballet The Australian Ballet is the largest classical ballet company in Australia. It was founded by J. C. Williamson Theatres Ltd and the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust in 1962, with the English-born dancer, teacher, repetiteur and direc ...

, Royal Ballet of Flanders,

Sydney Dance Company Sydney Dance Company is a contemporary dance company in Australia. The company has performed on stages around the world, including the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Joyce Theater in New York, the Shanghai Grand Theatre in China, and the ...

Rambert Dance Company Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

(UK),

Ballet du Rhin Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, Birmingham Royal Ballet (UK), tanzmainz (Germany), and the

Royal New Zealand Ballet The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a ballet company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company. History New Zealand Ballet was established in 1953 as an independent charitable trust by Royal Danish ...

. His intentions for the future after ADT include "opening up isown practices as an artist working in opera, in film, creating large site-specific projects, and working a bit more nationally and internationally".

Other roles

From 2020 Stewart has been professor in

creative arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

at Flinders University. He has sat on the jury for both the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

and the International Choreographic Competition Hannover.

Recognition and awards

Stewart's works have been studied in schools and universities. He has also been recognised by a number of awards, fellowships and the like: *2000: For ''Birdbrain'', Best Choreography, Australian Dance Awards *2001: Centenary Medal, for service to Australian society and dance *2002: For ''The Age of Unbeauty'', Winner, Outstanding Choreographic Achievement, and Outstanding Work by a Company, Australian Dance Awards; Best Choreography, Helpmann Awards *2004: Held, Best Choreography, Helpmann Awards *2005: For the film '' Nascent'', awards for choreography *2006: For ''Devolution'', the Helpmann Awards for Best Choreography and Best New Australian Work; a South Australian Ruby Award for innovation; an

Australian Dance Award The Australian Dance Awards recognise excellence and promote dance in Australia. They are awarded under the auspices of the Australian Dance Council (Ausdance) for performance, choreography, design, dance writing, teaching and related professions ...

; and a Green Room Award *2007: For ''Honour Bound'' (2006), Best Choreography, Australian Dance Awards *2008:

Artist in Residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

Birmingham International Dance Festival Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

*2012–2013: Thinker in Residence at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia. Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...

, Melbourne *2014: Artist in Residence at

National Institute of Dramatic Art The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts is based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, many of Australia's leading actors and directors trained at NIDA, including Cat ...

, Sydney *2015: Inaugural

Australia Council Award The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austr ...

for Outstanding Achievement in Dance *2017: Churchill Fellow, for which he did a comparative study of seven major international choreographic centres *2019: For ''The Beginning of Nature'', Helpmann Award for Best Dance Production *2021: Joint winner of the 2021 South Australian Ruby Award for Lifetime Achievement Other fellowships and awards include: *A two-year Australia Council Fellowship to study dance and new technologies *The Sir Robert Helpmann Fellowship from the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts, to study the

Klein Technique Klein may refer to: People *Klein (surname) *Klein (musician) Places * Klein (crater), a lunar feature * Klein, Montana, United States *Klein, Texas, United States *Klein (Ohm), a river of Hesse, Germany, tributary of the Ohm *Klein River, a riv ...

**Other Australian Dance and Green Room Awards

Selected works

Choreography

*Sydney-based freelance choreographer (1990–1998) **

Chunky Move Chunky Move is an Australian contemporary dance company from Southbank, Victoria It was founded in 1995 and debuted at the Melbourne International Arts Festival with artistic director Gideon Obarzanek. The company's work is diverse and has includ ...

''Fast Idol / Spectre in the Covert Memory'' (1995) **

– ''Thwack!'', and others (1996) *THWACK (1999), Stewart's own company **''Plastic Space''

(October 1999) *Australian Dance Theatre **Split, Optima Playhouse,

(August 1999) **''House Dance'', broadcast on the outside of the main sail of the Sydney Opera House on New Year's Eve 1999 **''Birdbrain'' (2000–) **''The Age of Unbeauty'' (2002–) **''Nothing'' (2004) **''Held'' (2004), a collaboration with U.S. dance photographer Lois Greenfield, at the 2004

**''Devolution'' **''G'', 2008

, followed by an extensive tour of Europe in 2008 and 2009; reprised in November 2021 in Adelaide **''Be Your Self'' (2010) **''Worldhood'' (2011), with the Adelaide Centre for the Arts (now Adelaide College of Arts) **''Proximity'', 2012 Adelaide Festival, Melbourne 2013, European tour 2014 *''So You Think You Can Dance'', 2008 Channel 10 reality television show *''Vocabulary'', with Kat Worth from Restless Dance Company (2005) *''Objekt'' (October 2016), with tanzmainz, the contemporary dance company of Staatstheater Mainz *''The Beginning of Nature'' (March 2016), with the

Zephyr Quartet The Zephyr Quartet is a string quartet based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1999, they have been recognised with awards and have collaborated with international musicians. History Founded in 1999, Zephyr has received tuition from the ...

, performed at

Womadelaide WOMADelaide is an annual four-day festival of Music, Arts and Dance, which was first held in 1992 in Botanic Park, Adelaide, South Australia. One of many WOMAD festivals held around the world, it is a four-day event that presents a diverse selec ...

*''Honour Bound'', based on the experiences of Terry and

David Hicks David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, and met with Osama bin Laden during 2001. He was then detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp fro ...

, directed by Nigel Jamieson, commissioned by and performed at the Sydney Opera House (28 July – 3 September 2006) and

Malthouse Theatre Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of The Malthouse building in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. In the 1980s it was known as the Playbox Theatre Company and was housed in the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne's CBD. A ...

, Melbourne (September 2006). Toured to The

Vienna Festival __NOTOC__ The Wiener Festwochen (Vienna Festival) is a cultural festival in Vienna that takes place every year for five or six weeks in May and June. The Wiener Festwochen was established in 1951, when Vienna was still occupied by the four Alli ...

(May 2007),

Holland Festival The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and archit ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

(June 2007),

Barbican Theatre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhib ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

(November 2007) and the New Zealand Festival of the Arts,

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

(March 2008) *

– ''Infinity'' (2007) * Birmingham Royal Ballet – ''The Centre and its Opposite'' (2009) * ''Anthology'' (2019) *''Supernature'', Adelaide (March 2021)

Film and other media

''Nascent'', a film created by Gina Czarnecki and choreographed by Stewart, was shown at the 2005 Adelaide Film Festival in February–March 2005, and later at other film festivals. It earned several awards: * Special mention, Napolidanza Videodance Festival, Il Coreografo Elettronico,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy, May 2005 * Delegates’ Choice, IMZ Dance Screen, Brighton, England, June 2005 * Dance Film Award, Australian Dance Awards, November 2005 * Winner, Best Dance Film at the ReelDance Awards for Australia and New Zealand, May 2006 In 2015 Stewart was commissioned by the

Adelaide Film Festival The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented biennially in March from 2003, since 2013 AFF has been held in October ...

to create ''Mood Machine'', a short film focusing on the gestures of human emotions. In 2018, to accompany the stage production ''The Beginning of Nature'', Stewart directed a 360-degree

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

project, featuring dancers performing in various natural landscapes, ''The Beginning of Nature in VR''. In 2018–2019 he created ''The Circadian Cycle'', a short film filmed in across contrasting landscapes in South Australia. He was choreographer for the TV series ''

Stateless (TV series) ''Stateless'' is an Australian television drama series launched on ABC on 1 March 2020. The six episodes were released on Netflix on 8 July 2020. The series is partly inspired by the real-life story of Cornelia Rau, an Australian who was unla ...

'' (2020).

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Garry Australian choreographers Australian male ballet dancers Living people 1962 births Australian Ballet School alumni Helpmann Award winners Australian LGBT entertainers Recipients of the Centenary Medal