Choreographer behind Kylie's grand final show prepares to reveal final work

After nearly 20 years at the helm, Rafael Bonachela will premiere his final work as artistic director of Sydney Dance Company (SDC) for its 2027 season.

The Spanish-born choreographer, known as "Rafa", will present his as-yet-unnamed work as part of a triple bill called Wild Order.

"[My new work] will carry something of the shared history I have with collaborators like [composer] Nick Wales and the dancers, but also the curiosity and desire to create that brought me here in the first place," Bonachela says.

"I'm thinking a lot about, 'Why did I come here?' To create work and take a company into the future."

Bonachela's announcement of his final commission for SDC comes after he revealed in March he would leave the company in mid-2028.

"It just felt like, as a contemporary dance company, change is important; renewal is important," he says.

"For the love and care of the company, an organisation I've been so incredibly lucky to be guiding and curating and creating work for, it felt time for somebody else to take that on.

"I'm excited more than anything to be able to still have some time to share with the artists I'm working with, and with audiences."

The 2027 season reveal also follows the Australian premiere in September of his seminal 2004 duet E2 7SD, which won him the Place Prize for new choreography.

In the same month, he helped choreograph Kylie Minogue's AFL grand final performance, which featured 16 SDC dancers.

It's the latest collaboration between the choreographer and the pop star, who first worked together in 2002 on Minogue's iconic BRIT Awards performance Can't Get You Out of My Head. He then went on to choreograph her Fever concert tour.

The rest of SDC's 2027 season includes a collaboration between four choreographers, titled Future Reverie; the return of INDance, which spotlights independent choreographers; and a showcase of the company's Pre-Professional Year dancers.

It will also take SDC bills around Australia, to regional New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania, and overseas, to Spain, Germany and Serbia.

"For me, 2027 is about creative possibility, bold new work that's going to be created for us, fresh collaborations; but also, lineage and connections that have been there from the very beginning [of my time at SDC]," Bonachela says.

With such a busy year ahead, the artistic director hasn't had time to figure out what he will do after he leaves the company.

"It's as scary as it's exciting," he says. "I don't know where the next chapter of my career will take me.

"I know that I want to continue to choreograph. I want to continue to create work."

Looking back to look forward

Understandably, Bonachela has been thinking about legacy as he approaches his final full season as artistic director.

That's most pronounced in the first show, Future Reverie, which brings together choreographers Richard Cilli, Antony Hamilton, Sela Vai and Charmene Yap.

The artistic director recalls Hamilton's Black Project 1 was one of the first he saw after moving to Australia as part of Dance Massive in Melbourne in 2013.

"It was something I had never seen before," he says.

He was thrilled to see Hamilton, performing with Lane, seeming to combine his training as a ballet dancer with street dance, visual arts and graffiti.

"It was so urban and contemporary," Bonachela says. "It gave me great hope for my time here."

Hamilton, now artistic director of Melbourne dance company Chunky Move, would choreograph the award-winning Forever & Ever for SDC in 2018, which the company took to Finland last year.

"Sydney Dance Company has the capacity to perform the breadth of work of the incredible artists that we have here in Australia," Bonachela says.

Meanwhile, Cilli and Yap are former SDC dancers who continue to work with the company: Cilli as rehearsal director and Yap as rehearsal associate.

They have also choreographed for the company, including for the defunct emerging artist showcase New Breed.

Bonachela recalls them both joining the company early in his stewardship.

"There is a lineage of dancers that have dedicated significant time to Sydney Dance Company who are known worldwide," he says.

"People don't just think about me; they also think about Richard and Charmene. I could keep going with names of dancers … They're carrying the spirit of what we've built for Sydney Dance Company."

The final choreographer, Vai, has never worked with SDC, but Bonachela is excited to see how she draws on her hip hop and contemporary dance for the work.

"There's risk in bringing four different voices to collaborate on one work, but, for me, that's what contemporary dance is about," Bonachela says.

It reflects the artistic director's commitment to platforming Australian artists.

"Once I really knew the Antonys, the Melanies, the Stephanie Lakes, the Tra Mi [Dinh]s, I started to commission more Australian work because I knew the people, what they were doing, and that we could work together," Bonachela says.

"And then when we've gone to the world … [We are] lucky and privileged to be able to take [Australian] dance to the world."

Beyond the choreographers, Future Reverie also brings together the SDC ensemble with students from its Pre-Professional Year.

"It's about different generations sharing the same space, the same dancefloor," he says.

Making opportunities for dancers

Bringing Pre-Professional Year students to the main stage is one way Bonachela's final full season as artistic director creates opportunities for dancers.

Another is in Wild Order, which features the return of two works that premiered as part of New Breed: WOOF by Lane, the incoming artistic director of Lucy Guerin Inc, and From the Horizon Thereafter by SDC dancer Ngaere Jenkins.

From the Horizon Thereafter will be the first current ensemble member's work to be performed on the main stage and will join WOOF in the company's repertoire.

For Bonachela, highlighting these works as part of Wild Order is a way to pay tribute to the impact of development programs like New Breed.

"It had a huge impact on Australian dance because it's giving opportunity to independent choreographers and company members to create work for the company," he explains.

He recalls how important it was to him when he was in London working as a dancer for Rambert, the company created by Polish-born ballerina Marie Rambert, to be chosen for its choreographic workshop program.

"You sort of don't believe that's happening or you're even as good as you should be," he says.

Bonachela also knows how difficult it is to be an independent choreographer, having left Rambert in 2006 to run his own company.

"I know why I am where I am," he says. "Because the people that believed in me gave me those opportunities."

While New Breed is no more, INDance continues to platform independent choreographers, while the upcoming Orbit program offers the opportunity to tour independent works.

"That commitment to supporting independent artists is continuing, and I hope it does forever," he says.

"As a company, I think we have the responsibility to do that."