The Australian Ballet’s announcement today that Stephanie Lake is to be its new Resident Choreographer from the beginning of next year is very good news indeed. Lake is one of the country’s most sophisticated makers of dance and one of the most wedded to the joys and trials of being human.

In everything she does, no matter how abstract the movement might appear at first glance, there is a strong sense of its being grounded in connections – between performer and performer, between performers and the audience, and between the work and the world of ideas and emotions. I first encountered her choreography in 2016 with Double Blind and found it thrilling, as I have those seen since.

She often returns to the idea of the place of the individual within the group – and who amongst us is not in that place? Crucially, she is excited by the possibility of large groups of dancers, an obvious plus when it comes to working with the company the size of The Australian Ballet (close to 80 dancers).

Indeed, next year Lake enlarges the new work Circle Electric for TAB, using her biggest cast to date. That means more than 50 dancers, the number Lake made her big breakthrough word Colossus on. (Circle Electric started life this year on the company’s regional tour and had a cast of six.) Circle Electric already promised to make a splash when it’s performed in Sydney (May) and Melbourne (October) next year – TAB artistic director David Hallberg has wittily paired it with Études, a feast of white tutus and classical technique – but the opening will now have the added oomph of introducing Lake to the ballet audience in her new guise.

Lake is a contemporary choreographer whose Melbourne-based Stephanie Lake Company has in recent years become a fixture at leading national and international arts festivals. Her first ballet commission was from Li Cunxin at Queensland Ballet in 2017, Chameleon. She then returned to QB last year as part of the Bespoke program with Biography, which I reviewed for The Australian, writing: 

“Lake’s Biography is the star of the show. It adds further lustre to Lake’s reputation as one of the country’s most distinctive, probing choreographers. Biography starts with dancers crossing the stage speedily from side to side with the tight classical step called a bourrée. Each breaks ranks momentarily, some goofily, some in anguish, but the pattern is reimposed. Their music is Passacaglia della vita, a song that attests to life’s brevity and insists we must acknowledge our mortality. Lake meanwhile gets on with the business of living.

“The exciting, high-octane choreography often has a sporty air with  images from boxing, fencing and gymnastics. Sometimes it’s playful, sometimes combative, always fascinating. A lot of Lake’s work touches on the relationship between individuals and the mass and the idea of control versus co-operation. Biography joins the club. 

“A wonderful explosion of individual action around and over irregularly placed blocks, for instance, turns into a carefully arranged straight line of 12 men and women all doing the same complicated things while seated. It’s a real tour de force. Lake packs a huge punch in just 25 minutes and nothing is predictable, other than the ever-present ferocious life force.”

While Lake’s title will be Resident Choreographer, the role with TAB has broader scope. “Providing curatorial support on future programming to Artistic Director David Hallberg and supporting initiatives that broaden the company’s collaborations across the Australian dance sector will also be central to the role,” TAB said in its statement.

Lake succeeds current Resident Choreographer Alice Topp, who has held the position for the past five years. 

Lake said: “The significance of being a contemporary choreographer invited into this role with one of the world’s leading ballet companies, is not lost on me. I am deeply honoured and can’t wait to sink my teeth into the big opportunities that lay ahead.”