Co-presented with Vancouver New Music
Manifesto
April 16-18, 2026 | 8pm
Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton Street)
Running time: 60 minutes (no intermissions)
Stephanie Lake Company (Australia)
Nine dancers, nine drummers, thunder unleashed.
Channeling ancient rituals of catharsis, Australia’s Stephanie Lake Company fuses different dance styles to create choreographic fission. A kind of performative ordnance, explosive in its sheer power, Manifesto takes inspiration from the primeval connection between drumming and dancing, combining attack and rhythm, chaos and order to create obliterating dynamism.
In this ‘tattoo to optimism’ musicians and dancers fuse their respective instruments to offer up a collective call for radical joy. Against the backdrop of a towering velvet curtain, Manifesto sets loose a cacophonic wall of sound, grounded in effort and soaring on human energy. Pairing performers into units, the work ratchets up in intensity, adding complex rhythms with choreographic phrases, blurring the lines between cohesion and bedlam into a capering brand of wild rebellion.
Stephanie Lake’s ability to marshal a maelstrom is met by composer Robin Fox, who channels the glittering energies of old time Hollywood extravaganzas. The result is a dance work you feel in your gut, radiating out in lay lines of syncopated rhythm. Composed of heartbeats, breath, and percussive forces building to a cataclysmic crescendo it is a fusion of sound and fury, signifying everything.
Confederation of Australian International Arts Festivals Inc, commissioned by Rising, Adelaide Festival, Brisbane Festival, Perth Festival, and Sydney Festival.
Manifesto has been supported by Creative Victoria, Australia Council for the Arts, City of Moreland, City of Melbourne and Creative Partnerships Australia though Plus 1. Manifesto has also been assisted through the generous support of Canny Quine Foundation, Humanity Foundation, Linda Herd, Chloe Munro AO, Barry and Deborah Conyngham, Michael Kantor, Monica Lim and Konfir Kabo, Anne Runhardt, Ziyin Gantner, Gillian and Ian McDougall, Zoe and Vafa Ferdowsian, James McCaughey, Fiona Sweet, Fiona and Tony Osmond, Jenny Kinder, Carole Lander and Anonymous.
“For the furious final image, the drummers create unbelievable sound patterns, ending in an orgiastic crash and thunder. More climax is not possible.” - Manifesto Germany
“So exhilarating, it borders on the liturgical.” - Australian Pride Network
“A stunning demonstration of the visceral relationship between rhythm and dance.” - The Advertiser
Stephanie Lake Company is a multi-award winning contemporary dance company based in Melbourne. Known for a gutsy, original choreographic style and striking visual aesthetic, Stephanie Lake Company’s highly acclaimed works include Manifesto, Colossus, Monsters, Skeleton Tree, Replica and Pile of Bones. Working in collaboration with Australia’s leading dancers and designers, the company has performed in major festivals and venues across Australia and the world, touring internationally to France, Germany, Hong Kong, Denmark, Singapore, Scotland, Ireland and Taiwan.
Stephanie Lake
Stephanie Lake was born in Saskatoon, Canada, raised in Launceston Tasmania and is now based in Melbourne (Naarm), Australia. She is a multi award-winning choreographer, dancer and artistic director of Stephanie Lake Company. She is also the Resident Choreographer of The Australian Ballet.
Stephanie has been awarded the Helpmann Award, two Australian Dance Awards, two Green Room Awards and the Melbourne Fringe Award for Most Outstanding Choreography. In 2013 Stephanie was appointed inaugural Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc, which included working as Guerin’s choreographic assistant at Lyon Opera Ballet. Stephanie received a prestigious Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship in the same year and the Dame Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship in 2012. She was the recipient of the Australia Council Fellowship for Dance for 2018-2019 and Chloe Munro AO Fellowship in 2022.
Stephanie has created multiple works for Sydney Dance Company (The Universe is Here, Dream Lucid, Elektra), Chunky Move (AORTA, Mix Tape, The Loop, Our Golden Cages, Broken Wing), The Australian Ballet (Circle Electric), Queensland Ballet (Biography, Chameleon), Dancenorth (If Never Was Now), New Zealand Dance Company (If Never Was Now), Tasdance (The Howl), Expressions Dance Company (Ceremony), Australasian Dance Collective & Beijing Dance/LDTX (Auto Cannibal), Stompin, Frontier Danceland – Singapore (White Noise) and the Victorian College of the Arts.
Stephanie sits on the Victorian College of the Arts Advisory Board and is Ambassador for Stompin youth dance company based in Tasmania. Her performance career spanned twenty years, touring and dancing extensively with Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc and Phillip Adams’ BalletLab.
Top image: Stephanie Lake Company, Manifesto © Roy VanDerVegt.
