Perth Moves Archive

Presented by STRUT Dance in association with Perth Festival from 2023 to 2026, Perth Moves brought artists, communities and audiences together through performance, workshops, public classes, dance battles and large-scale participatory works. Across city spaces, the program connected local practice with leading artists from Australia and around the world, creating new opportunities to experience dance as performance, exchange and collective action.

Program Archive

2023

The inaugural Perth Moves transformed the State Theatre Centre Courtyard into a free five-day dance space for artists and audiences. At its centre was Crystal Pite’s intimate 10 Duets on a Theme of Rescue, performed by leading independent dancers from Australia and Aotearoa, alongside public classes, artist conversations, DJs and the first Perth Moves all-styles dance battle.

2024

Perth Moves returned with an expanded ten-day Hub, a dedicated professional Workshop Series and the introduction of the Perth Moves Bursary Program, supporting independent artists to access professional development opportunities. Michele Rizzo’s Coalescing Towards brought 12 Asia-Pacific artists together in a new work exploring repetition, unison and communal dancing, while Deep Soulful Sweats, public classes, screenings, meditations, DJs and the dance battle invited audiences to move throughout the State Theatre Centre Courtyard.

2025

Moving into Forrest Place, Perth Moves grew into a major public celebration of dance in the centre of Boorloo. The Hub featured the Australian premiere of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s large-scale Manifest, an LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club, free public classes and the returning Perth Moves Battle, while the Workshop Series and Bursary Program connected independent artists with leading practitioners from Australia and around the world.

2026

The most recent edition brought large-scale choreography, regional exchange and collective participation together in Forrest Place. Boris Charmatz’s CERCLES unfolded across six nights with 150 community participants, Ta’alili premiered Concrete Echoes with dancers from across the Indo-Pacific, and the Perth Moves Battle again brought different forms and generations into conversation. The Workshop Series shifted towards immersive, week-long intensives, supported by the continuing Bursary Program to broaden access to professional development.

The Hub – Free public dance

2026 – CERCLES

In an Australian exclusive, French choreographer Boris Charmatz brought CERCLES to Forrest Place with 150 community participants and a team of professional dancers from Europe and Australia. Developed in public over six evenings, the large-scale work explored the many forms a circle can take, building a collective energy that drew performers, participants and passers-by together.

2026 – Concrete Echoes

Created by award-winning Aotearoa duo Ta’alili, Concrete Echoes brought nine dancers from across Australia and Aotearoa together for a new work shaped by their distinct movement forms, cultures and landscapes. Co-produced with Performing Lines, the world premiere transformed Forrest Place into a meeting ground for powerful, athletic and deeply connected dance.

2023-26 – The Perth Moves Battle

From 2023 to 2026, the Perth Moves Battle became a lively fixture of the Hub, bringing dancers from across Boorloo’s street, club and contemporary communities together in the heart of the city. Presented with VSQD, the all-styles, all-ages event celebrated improvisation, individuality and exchange, with audiences gathering to cheer on each round before joining the dance floor themselves.

2025 – Manifest

Renowned Moroccan-Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui created Manifest with 12 Australian dancers, a silent chorus of 53 community volunteers and two live pianists. Presented free in Forrest Place, the large-scale work explored conflict, protest, resistance and the courage required to engage with opposing beliefs in pursuit of insight rather than victory.

2025 – LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club

All The Queens Men brought their LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club to Forrest Place for a joyful intergenerational celebration of older queer communities, allies and chosen families. Disco, ballroom, line dancing, pop music and guest performances created a welcoming space for connection, visibility and collective dancing.

2024 – Deep Soulful Sweats

Dance artists Sarah Aiken and Rebecca Jensen invited the public into Deep Soulful Sweats, an ecstatic guided dance experience combining choreography, ritual, rave and contemporary class. Participants were divided according to the elements of their star signs before moving together through an inclusive, playful and increasingly energetic collective workout.

2024 – Coalescing Towards

Italian choreographer Michele Rizzo worked with 12 artists from across the Asia-Pacific to create Coalescing Towards, a new performance inspired by communal and club dancing. Through repetition, unison and a gradual build in energy, the work explored dance as a means of producing cohesion and togetherness, accompanied by an original score from Australian sound artist Ozlem Kesik.

2023 – 10 Duets on a Theme of Rescue

The inaugural Perth Moves Hub centred on Crystal Pite’s acclaimed 10 Duets on a Theme of Rescue, performed by an ensemble of leading independent artists from Australia and Aotearoa. Presented twice nightly in the State Theatre Centre Courtyard, the intimate work offered a moving meditation on vulnerability, connection and the shifting relationship between rescuer and rescued.

2023-25 – Free dance classes

From 2023 to 2025, Perth Moves offered a free program of public dance classes that invited people of all ages and experience levels to take part. Led by local, national and international artists, the sessions shared a wide range of movement practices, from contemporary and street styles to cultural dance forms, yoga and improvisation, creating accessible entry points into dance and a lively meeting place for artists, audiences and the wider community.

Workshop Series – Past facilitators

Daniel Riley

Nick Coutsier

Eisa Jocson + Venuri Perera

Ta’alili

My Studio Performance Makers’ Collective

Deep Soulful Sweats / Sarah Aiken & Rebecca Jensen

TINE

Adelina Larsson Mendoza

Christos Papadopoulos

Gary Lang

Fábio ‘Krayze’ Januário

Michael Keegan Dolan

Miguel Gutierrez

Dan Daw Creative Projects

Magali Caillet Gajan

Emma Fishwick

Martha Hincapié Charry

Azzam “Shazam” Mohamed

Perth Moves was presented by STRUT Dance in association with Perth Festival from 2023 to 2026, with artistic and project partnerships including Tura, Eastman, Performing Lines, Boris Charmatz | Terrain, Ta’alili, VSQD and WAAPA.

Across its four editions, Perth Moves was assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Australia; the Western Australian Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries; the City of Perth; Lotterywest; Creative Partnerships Australia; Arts Impact; the Feilman Foundation; the J P Stratton Trust; the Ungar Family Foundation; the Judy and Wilmot Matthews Foundation; and STRUT’s Donor Circle and STRUT Movers.

STRUT gratefully acknowledges the artists, companies, venues, bursary partners, donors, volunteers, community participants and audiences whose support made Perth Moves possible.

Four years of dance, exchange and collective movement across Boorloo.

Program Archive

The Hub – Free public dance

Workshop Series – Past facilitators