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.[1][2]
He retired from professional dancing at the end of the 1980s and concentrated on choreography from 1990. In 1995 he co-founded the Melbourne dance company Chunky Move, and two or three years later founded the dance company Thwack! in Sydney,[3] which performed Plastic Space at the Melbourne Festival in October 1999.[4]
On 29 November 1999, Stewart became artistic director of the ADT,[5] based in Adelaide, South Australia, taking over from Meryl Tankard.[6][7][8] In 2000, he choreographed his first major work for ADT: Birdbrain, described as "an ironic, post-modern deconstruction" of the classical ballet Swan Lake,[5] which had an immediate impact on the dance world, with its innovative use of yoga, breakdance, gymnastics, video art and electronic music, and ran for around 200 performances around the world.[3]
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).[3]
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. Stewart said that his inspiration came from the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre, after the ADT had arrived in New York City just a few weeks after the destruction. The Age 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".[9]
For Devolution, Stewart collaborated with Canadian robotics expert Louise-Philippe Demers, producing a show with 30 robots on stage.[3]
In April 2006, Stewart co-produced and directed the dance gala "UNIFIED" for UNICEF Australia, to benefit the Gap Youth Centre in Alice Springs for Indigenous Australian young people and an HIV/AIDS program for children in Laos.[2]
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.[3]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, 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 and restrictions were not severe.[3] Stewart's last major original work, Supernature, premiered at the newly renovated Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide in March 2021 as part of the Adelaide Festival.[11]
His tenure at ADT ended at the end of 2021, when he handed over the reins to Daniel Riley,[12] making him the longest-serving artistic director of the company, at 22 years.[3] 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.[5]
2002: For The Age of Unbeauty, Winner, Outstanding Choreographic Achievement, and Outstanding Work by a Company, Australian Dance Awards;[9] Best Choreography, Helpmann Awards[14]
2004: Held, Best Choreography, Helpmann Awards
2005: For the film Nascent, awards for choreography [17]
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.[17] It earned several awards:[36][17]
Special mention, Napolidanza Videodance Festival, Il Coreografo Elettronico, Naples, Italy, May 2005
Delegates’ Choice, IMZ Dance Screen, Brighton, England, June 2005[37]
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 to create Mood Machine, a short film focusing on the gestures of human emotions.[14]
In 2018, to accompany the stage production The Beginning of Nature, Stewart directed a 360-degree virtual reality project, featuring dancers performing in various natural landscapes, The Beginning of Nature in VR.[14]
In 2018–2019 he created The Circadian Cycle, a short film filmed in across contrasting landscapes in South Australia.[14]
He was choreographer for the TV series Stateless (TV series) (2020).[38] starring Cate Blanchett, Yvonne Strahovski and Dominic West
Footnotes
^The Klein Technique is a method invented by Susan Klein in the 1970s.[19]
References
^ abcd"Stewart, Garry (1962 - )". Australia Dancing. 6 August 2007. Archived from the original on 6 August 2007. Retrieved 12 July 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^"Vocabulary". AusStage. Retrieved 7 January 2022. Two works: "Present Tense" choreographed by Garry Stewart and "Unspoken Outloud" choroegraphed by Kat Worth.
