Tasmanian youth dance ensemble DRILL Performance Company has announced Isabella Stone as its new artistic director.
A West Australian based dance artist, Isabella Stone is an alumna of STEPS Youth Dance Company (which was amalgamated into Co3 in 2014) and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. In 2019 she was a member of the Tasdance ensemble and has worked with choreographers such as Sue Peacock, Aimee Smith, Didier Thèron, Alice Lee Holland, Laura Boynes and Shona Erskine.
As a choreographer she has made works for STEPS Youth Dance Company, LINK Dance Company, Co3 Youth Ensemble, STRUT Dance’s “Short Cuts” and “In Situ” seasons, and Tasdance’s “BREW” season, and has presented her work mouseprint independently at the State Theatre Centre of WA.
“I am extremely excited and grateful to be the incoming artistic director of DRILL Performance Company. I have had the pleasure of seeing DRILL’s past two major performance seasons and both times I left completely elated, in awe of the bravery, rigour, energy and whole sense of spirit with which the company performs. Youth dance was the beginning of what has become my career, it’s a transformative space and I feel privileged to be able to work with the future generation of creators, thinkers, performers, carers and leaders.
“What Josh [Lowe] has established is truly extraordinary, he leaves behind a great legacy and I’m extremely grateful for the kindness and leadership he’s laid down.
“Having worked in lutruwita/Tasmania for the past two and a half years I have really fallen in love with the place, the land, the people. I am thrilled at this as both an opportunity and a challenge but mostly an opportunity to expand on the community I have built there, to continue learning and reflecting, to continue investing in dance; in desired effort to contribute to a place and culture of caring and courageous people and artists, always inspired by and working with the energy of inspirational young people.”
Stone commences in the role of DRILL artistic director February 24, beginning with a callout for dancers for the company’s 2020 major season Leviathan.