Restless Dance Theatre for young disabled and non-disabled gains a special synergy under director Michelle Ryan

Restless Dance Theatre dancers Michael Hodyl and Jianna Georgiou in Seeing Through Darkness, performed at the Art Gallery of South Australia.in 2020. Inset: Restless Dance Theatre's artistic director from 2013, Michelle Ryan.
Image by Shane Reid

Michelle Ryan’s appointment as artistic director of Adelaide’s Restless Dance Theatre in 2013 came from a synchronicity with special outcomes.

Founded in 1991 by Sally Chance and Tania Rose, Restless became Australia’s leading dance theatre company for young disabled and non-disabled people. Ryan first came to Adelaide in the early 1990s with Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre, setting off more than seven years of dancing worldwide including the United States of America and London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

At 30, the onset of multiple sclerosis seemed an end to Ryan's dancing career – until a turnaround that led to her joining Restless Dance and a 2002 Australia Council award for outstanding achievement in the arts.

Based at Gilles Street, Adelaide city, Restless Dance Theatre (originally Company) allowed integrated young disabled and non-disabled dancers to express themselves to a diverse audience. Its choreography didn’t rely on the traditional mode of mimicry or acting but integrated the individual stories, experiences and emotions of the dancers. The varied cast included dancers with learning disabilities and dancers who have physical and sensory impairments. The company’s three broad areas were: a community workshop (education) program, the youth ensemble and the company that toured the regions and nationally and internationally, including its Intimate Space  played at the Seoul Street Arts Festival in South Korea in 2019.

The company won the award for outstanding achievement in youth or community dance at the 2010 Australian dance awards for Bedroom Dancing. A shock omission from Australia Council funding in 2020 was eased by being included for federal government support in the first round of the RISE grants scheme.

Also in 2020, long-time company dancer Jianna Georgiou won the Frank Ford Memorial young achiever at the Ruby awards. Michelle Ryan’s Guttered, set in the Kingpin Norwood bowling alley, premiered at the Adelaide Festival.

At the Art Gallery of South Australia throughout September 2020, Restless dances gave 52 performances of SeeingThrough Darkness, a lighting installation inspired by Expressionist artist George Rouault. All the 15-minute performances were sold out, with only 10 people allowed per performance, owing to Covid-19 social distancing. Ryan chose nine works focused on the human body and experience, rather than Rouault's religious works. Six dancers were accompanied by an original score by Hilary Kleinig and Emily Tulloch of Adelaide’s Zephyr Quartet with lighting designed by children’s theatre artistic director Geoff Cobhma and Meg Wilson.

Covid 19 restrictions prompted two 2020 virtual creative developments: Rewards for the Tribe was Restless’s three-week collaboration with Chunky Move in Melbourne. Chunky Move director Antony Hamilton arranged for matching sets to be built at Chunky and  the Restless studio so the dancers in Melbourne and Adelaide could work in similar environments. Restless adopted a similar approach for Correlation – a collaboration between Restless and South Korean Dance dompany company LSF (Light Sound Friends), using a distinctive movement language pioneed by Restless to create a cross-cultural celebration of diversity.