Dance organisation Shaun Parker & Company has today announced the launch of a “landmark” new fellowship, which will award a leading Australian artist $100,000 per year for the development and premiere of a significant new dance work.

The inaugural recipient of the Shaun Parker & Company Choreographic Fellowship is Wiradjuri and Gamillaraay dancer, choreographer and actor Beau Dean Riley Smith.

Beau Dean Riley Smith performing in Bennelong by Bangarra Dance Theatre. Photo © Daniel Boud

Riley Smith will develop a major new work over two to three years to be premiered by Shaun Parker & Company’s nine dancers.

From 2013–2022, Riley Smith performed with Bangarra Dance Theatre, where he performed in over 22 major productions. He was awarded a Helpmann Award and Australian Dance Award for his performance in Bennelong, and also choreographed Miyagan for Bangarra’s OUR land people stories program, which earned a 2019 Helpmann Award for Best Regional Touring Program. In 2022, he made his musical theatre debut in Queensland Theatre’s The Sunshine Club, and in 2023, he made his Sydney Theatre Company debut in Jane Harrison’s The Visitors. He was also one of the choreographers selected to develop...