The Sydney Festival for 2027 is set to feature a significant dance program with 11 international performances marking their Australian premieres. These include renowned choreographer Rachid Ouramdane's "Outsider," which will be performed in a specially constructed theater at Barangaroo, alongside works by Tao Ye and (La)Horde. The festival, under the Dance Reflections banner funded by Van Cleef & Arpels, aims to triple the previous scale of dance offerings seen in Sydney festivals. Festival director Kris Nelson highlights this as an unparalleled opportunity for Australian audiences, noting a decade since the last major dance festival in the city and pointing to increased global interest in dance through platforms like TikTok.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
The Sydney Festival announced its full program on 19 October, featuring an expanded dance lineup described as a "once-in-a-lifetime" event. The highlight includes 11 international dance works making their Australian debut, coming from countries such as France, Belgium, and South Africa. Notably, the festival will showcase French choreographer Rachid Ouramdane’s Outsider, featuring 21 dancers and four elite athletes performing in a specially built 720-seat theatre at the Cutaway at Barangaroo. This performance will be accompanied by other works from choreographers like Christos Papadopoulos and Tao Ye, with artists known for collaborations with pop stars such as Madonna and Rosalía also contributing. The program aims to triple the scale of previous Sydney Festival dance offerings, bringing a total of 174 performers and crew to the event.
Written for “Sydney Festival Programming” on 2026-10-09,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
A “once-in-a-lifetime” program of dance works of scale will be coming to Sydney in January, including 11 international works from France, Belgium, South Africa and beyond making their Australian premiere.
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program → come → premiere
The program, which triples the scale of the dance offering at the last Sydney festival, will bring 174 performers and crew to Sydney, with the crowning jewel being the acclaimed French choreographer Rachid Ouramdane’s Outsider.
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jewel → triple → Sydney
The 2024 work features 21 dancers from the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and four elite athletes, navigating a “cat’s cradle” of high wires and slack lines, to the mesmerising, minimalist music of the avant garde composer Julius Eastman.
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Outsider will be performed in a purpose-built 720-seat theatre in the recently renovated Cutaway at Barangaroo – the first time the space has been activated for theatrical performance.
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The venue will also host Christos Papadopoulos’s My Fierce Ignorant Step; a double bill of works by the Chinese choreographer Tao Ye with his company TAO Dance Theatre; and a new work by genre-defying collective (La)Horde, best known for their work with pop stars such as Madonna, Sam Smith and Rosalía.
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Under the banner of the Sydney festival, which announces its full program on 19 October, this is the first southern hemisphere outing for Dance Reflections, an international festival funded by French jewellery maison Van Cleef and Arpels, which has previously been staged in cities such as London, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul.
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which → announce → London
“Dance Reflections has been a real gamechanger in the creation and dissemination of dance on this scale,” says the Sydney festival director, Kris Nelson, who witnessed first-hand the impact the inaugural festival had in London, where he was working at the time.
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In Sydney, he says, it will be a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for dance lovers, including the Australian debuts of Ouramdane, (La)Horde and the rising star Leïla Ka, who has choreographed for Beyoncé.
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who → say → Beyoncé
The Belgian master Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will return to Australia with her company Rosas, and, from Australia, there’s a brand new work from Indigenous and intercultural dance company Marrugeku.
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Launched by the Sydney Opera House in 2009, it ran for four years and featured superstars such as Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, before being dropped in 2013 for financial reasons.
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At the time, the Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron described the city’s dance audience as “relatively small but passionate”.
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Nelson is hoping that’s changed.
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“I’m not daunted,” he says, pointing to the viral popularity of dance on TikTok, and the pop cultural work of choreographers such as (La)Horde and Leïla Ka, who draw from queer club culture and street dance.
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who → daunt → culture
The festival is offering 10,000 A-Reserve tickets across the program at $49, and two works will be free: Trisha Brown’s seminal Roof Piece, in the gallery spaces of the Art Gallery of NSW; and the Belgian choreographer Cassiel Gaube’s tribute to house music, Soirée d’études, in the public space at Carriageworks.
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“I’m really excited because we’re presenting a massive sampler of different kinds of dance, from the super classical to the acrobatic, to clubby and queer, personality-driven dance with big characters on stage, and works where you’re watching these incredible bodies do amazing geometry,” Nelson says.
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“This is your chance to test it out.”
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The Aporia
