Erin O’Rourke 2022 TEC winner

Dancer and choreographer Erin O’Rourke from Melbourne has been named because the winner of the 2022 Telstra Rising Choreographer (TEC) award. Aged 23 years outdated, the younger artist has been creating work for the previous 5 years. O’Rourke is thrilled to have this distinctive platform to propel her profession ahead. 

The Australian Ballet and Telstra are delighted to unveil the second winner of this new initiative, which started in 2021, to encourage Australia’s subsequent technology of choreographers. TEC supplies younger creators with a platform to share their work and the prospect to develop their expertise and nurture their potential, supported by The Australian Ballet and Telstra. 

For successful, O’Rourke will obtain a money prize of AU$10,000, courtesy of The Australia Ballet’s Principal Accomplice Telstra. The prize cash will go towards supporting the event of her choreographic observe and permit her to attach with the broader dance group. 

The Australian Ballet and Telstra have been delighted with the variety of purposes obtained from TEC’s second yr, with greater than 70 entries from choreographers throughout Australia protecting all genres of dance. Individuals have been requested to submit purposes responding to the 2022 theme: ‘Identification.’ Three TEC Finalists have been then chosen to vie for TEC’s first prize. 

The 2022 TEC Finalists included Amber McCartney, Erin O’Rourke and Ko Yamada. The three choreographers have been every offered a funds of $3,000 to create a piece which was then reviewed by the TEC Judging Panel, and a Winner chosen. 

The 2022 TEC award judges included David Hallberg, The Australian Ballet’s inventive director; Stephanie Lake, multi-award-winning Australian choreographer, dancer and director of Stephanie Lake Firm; and Josh Wright, artistic producer, curator and CEO/inventive director of Dancehouse, Melbourne. 

The 2021 winner of the inaugural TEC award was Western Sydney dancer and choreographer Feras Shaheen. Since receiving the award, Shaheen has been working with The Australian Ballet to create a bit for the Bodytorque Digital season which can premiere in 2023. 

The TEC award has been spearheaded by The Australian Ballet Creative Director David Hallberg, who stated he noticed monumental potential in all the 2022 finalists, however specifically the winner. “I’m thrilled that this initiative permits us to attach with rising impartial artists of Erin’s caliber.” 

Hallberg added, “Erin is a proficient and considerate multi-disciplinary artist. In her spectacular work throughout dance, writing and pictures, she considers not solely the world we stay in and our place in it however typically turns her gaze inward exploring the intangible issues that make us distinctive. Her ultimate submission, whereas joyous and eccentric, beats with an underlying melancholy, completely inspecting the complexities all of us really feel as we form and reshape our personal identities.”

Collectively, Telstra and The Australian Ballet share one goal – supporting innovation by nurturing future creatives. Telstra Principal, Media, Sponsorship and Awards, Genelle Sharples, stated, “Telstra and The Australian Ballet are proud to be fostering the following technology of artists. The TEC award goals to encourage up-and-coming Australian choreographers by offering them a platform to develop their expertise and obtain their goals. The way forward for the ballet in Australia depends upon having a robust ecosystem of expertise round it, with choreography being some of the important. TEC supplies that pathway to help this ambition.” 

The partnership between Telstra and The Australian Ballet is without doubt one of the longest-running arts partnerships within the nation. Telstra has been the Principal Accomplice of The Australian Ballet for 38 years. Via the Telstra Ballet Dancer Awards (TBDA), Telstra helps to have fun ballet expertise by shining a highlight on the ballet’s rising stars.