Dean Walsh

Dean Walsh has been an influential member of the Australian dance and contemporary performance communities for the past 19 years. He has worked/collaborated with many reputable Australian and international companies, individuals & festivals in performer / collaborator / choreographer / director / mentor & teacher capacities. He has a repertoire of 25 short solo works (up to half hour) and 3 full-length solos (up to 80 mins) with many of these touring nationally and/or internationally. His first large-scale dance and multi-media group work, 'Back From Front', premiered at Performance Space in 2008 attracting acclaim and an incredibly diverse audience, many who had never attended a dance performance before.

He has just completed a three-week choreographic residency at Performance Space in Sydney for a both solo and future group works. In April he choreographed a 30 min work, 'In-habit (version 1)', for Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and toured his collaborative dance/aerial duet work 'MirrorMirror' to Europe. This work premiered in October 2009 in Sydney after completing a sell-out ‘avante premiere’ at the Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival in Holland. In March he worked with Sydney Theatre Company & London’s Frantic Assembly as assistant choreographer / movement advisor on the acclaimed work 'Stockholm', which is currently on a national tour.

In 2002 he was awarded the prestigious Robert Helpmann Scholarship enabling collaborations with individuals in Europe leading to an extensive engagement over two years with DV8 Physical Theatre (London) then touring to Eastern Europe and Seoul. The Helpmann Scholarship program included working extensively with Amsterdam-based choreographer, Paul Selwyn Norton and a group of ex-Ballet Frankfurt and Batsheva dancers workshopping choreographic language appropriate for constructing their highly successful piece 'Luxury Item'.

In 2002 he choreographed Opera Australia’s premiere season of Andrea Chenier, directed by Elke Neidhardt. Also in 2002 he won the Australian Dance Award for Most Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer for his role in Australian Dance Theatre’s 'Age Of Unbeauty'. In 2005 he was nominated for this same award for his solo work 'Grounded on Air'. Dean has taught dance & composition and made numerous works for institutions / organisations throughout Australia and in the UK and Holland.