Dr Rachael Swain is an ARC Future Fellow and research artist. She is a director and dramaturg of collaborative intermedial and intercultural dance and theatre and a performance researcher and scholar.

Born on the lands of the Ngāi Tahu, Aotearoa, I have lived, studied and worked as an artist and industry based researcher, moving between Australian and Northern European dance and performance sectors as well as remote communities in West Arnhem Land and the Kimberley. As an Anglo-Pākehā artist, I am committed to intercultural performance as a significant site of knowledge production for a nation still understanding itself through processes of Makarrata while navigating its position within the Asia-Pacific region. I collaborate on multi-modal performance projects that research, rehearse and stage a meeting of diverse Indigenous and settler/diasporic perspectives within colonial aftermaths to dismantle hierarchies of knowledge and share alternative pathways to ways of knowing and being in Australia.

I have directed twelve competitively-funded major creative works that have been presented at over 150 top tier festivals and venues worldwide, including Venice Biennale Danza; Tanz Im August, Berlin; Centre Jean Marie Tjibaou, Nouméa; Harborfront Centre, Toronto and all Australian major performing arts festivals. Each of the works have attracted national and international commissions from top-tier venues including the European Capital of Culture (2007); Théâtre de la Ville, Luxembourg; KVS, Brussels; Chaillot National Centre for Dance, Paris; Sydney Opera House; the OzAsia Festival and Kampnagel, Hamburg.

My first monograph Dance in Contested Land —new intercultural dramaturgies (Palgrave Macmillian, 2020) situated methodologies for choreographic truth-telling, identified neo-expressive and uncanny aesthetics in Indigenous-intercultural dance and established 'contested land' and as inclusive framework for Indigenous and diverse settler dramaturgies. Dance in Contested Land is held in 174 libraries worldwide and on the syllabus of all Australia's leading dance training institutions with impact on a generation of emerging Australian choreographers. My scholarly practices include a long term commitment to co-authored, multi-vocal publications with collaborating artists and cultural knowledge holders to engage multiple literacies in writing about dance and performance. A highlight of this has been the retrospective anthology Marrugeku —Telling That Story: 25 years of trans-Indigenous and intercultural performance (Performance Research Books, 2021), co-edited with Helen Gilbert and Dalisa Pigram. Telling That Story features yarns, essays, interviews and 140 colour photographs. I am a member of the working group leading Dance Research Australasia (DRA) and was one of the co-editors DRA's Southern Oceanic Special Edition of Choreographic Practices V.14/1, (2023), for which we established a new multidisciplinary, collaborative and cultural diverse editorial model.

Industry Experience—Live Performance

I was a co-founder of the collective Stalker Theatre in Sydney (1989). Initially a co-devising performer and co-producer of Stalker (until 1995), I synthesised techniques and trainings from physical theatre, improvisational dance, butoh and performance art, frequently working with bodily extensions and aerial apparatus. The early mobile outdoor physical theatre/performance art works toured throughout Australia, Europe, Latin America and Asia, opening new markets for other Australian companies to follow. I became Co-Artistic Director of Stalker (with David Clarkson) in 1994 and began directing Stalker's productions as a leading exponent of Australia'a 1990-2000s large scale outdoor physical theatre performance art movement that toured worldwide. Each intermedial project that I conceived and directed for Stalker, sought new approaches to interdisciplinarity combining installation, physical theatre, improvisational dance, new circus and video art and all were commissioned by Australian Major Festivals.

I am one of the co-founders of Marrugeku (1994-) now Australia's leading intercultural dance and theatre company. Marrugeku's early large scale outdoor productions Mimi (1996) and Crying Baby (2000) were created in Kunbarlanja, West Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. I co-wrote the works with Kunwinjku painter and storyman Thompson Yulidjirri and directed the productions, facilitating the Indigenous-intercultural co-devising process in collaboration with a large and diverse team of 26 co-devising artists, technicians, designers, composers and film makers. Each work was commissioned and presented by Australian Major Festivals, touring extensively worldwide. Marrugeku relocated from Kunwinjku Country to Yawuru Country, Broome, north Western Australia in 2004 where I became Co-Artistic director of the company with Yawuru/Bardi/Malay/Filipina movement artist Dalisa Pigram. We co-conceive each of Marrugeku's productions, collaborating with large interdisciplinary teams of diverse Indigenous and settler/diasporic artists, cultural leaders from the Kimberley and international guest artists. Within these projects I specialise in facilitating collaborative concept development, directing co-devised dance and theatre processes, initiating and directing the intermedial visual collaborations and facilitating platforms for new intersectional dramaturgies.

Outside of established companies I have been commissioned to conceive and direct intercultural dance works including Sugar (2007) commissioned by the European Capital of Culture 2007 to explore the histories of of sugar and the slave trade for the port cities of Marseille, France and Liverpool, UK and The Demon (2022), co-created with writer Michael Mohammed Ahmed, commissioned by Sydney Opera House and OzAsia Festival.

Training

After initially completing a Diploma in the theatre of movement and gesture of Jacques Lecoq (1986-87) I trained in postmodern improvisational techniques at the European Dance Development Centre, Arnhem, the Netherlands (1995). I undertook a MA in Performance Studies at Sydney University (1998-2000), completed a Diploma in Advanced Theatre and Dance Research at Das Arts, Amsterdam (1999-2001) and studied post graduate Film and Video Production at UTS Sydney (2001-2002). My Doctorate in Theatre Studies from Melbourne University (2010) titled Ways of Listening— dramaturgy as deep mapping in intercultural-Indigenous performance won the Australasian Drama Studies Association (ADSA) Phillip Parsons Prize for Excellence in Performance as Research.

Research Fellowships

Across my industry based research career I have extended the academic reach and industry benefit of the projects I have directed, working in dialogue and collaboration with a range of national and international artistic and cultural collaborators to curate and convene multi-modal performance research and industry development platforms. My ARC funded early career research fellowship (DECRA) at Melbourne University (2013-17) was a 'first in field' for FoR: Theatre and Performance. Since completing the DECRA I have worked as an independent, industry based researcher alongside my professional work with Marrugeku, publishing solo and co-authored journal articles and book chapters and co-curating practice led research laboratories. I held an Adjunct Senior Lecturer position at UNSW, Sydney from 2022-2024 where I was awarded a Future Fellowship for Visualising Intercultural Futures to research intercultural methodologies of collaborative visual dramaturgies and analyse their international impact as artist led cultural diplomacy.