Australia Dancing - Adams, Phillip (1965

Adams, Phillip (1965 - )

Green, Jon: Portrait of Phillip Adams, 2004

Born in Melbourne, Phillip Adams spent his early years in Papua New Guinea, where he received his first dance training, Darwin, Brisbane and Canberra. Throughout these years he continued to dance but was also strongly involved with music studies, especially in Canberra where he was an undergraduate student at the Canberra School of Music. In Canberra he also took dance classes with Stephanie Burridge and her Canberra Dance Theatre. While working with Burridge he successfully auditioned for the dance program at the Victorian College of the Arts. In 1988, his final year at the Victorian College, he was awarded an ANZ International Fellowship for a graduating student, which allowed him to travel to New York to work and study. Over several years in the United States he encountered an eclectic range of dance styles and worked with choreographers such as Nina Wiener, Donna Uchizono, Bebe Miller, Dennis O'Connor, Amanda Miller and Irene Hultman.

Adams spent 1994 in Australia where he worked with Sue Healey's Vis-a-Vis Dance Canberra. With Healey he appeared in Fugue - in pursuit of flight and developed the first version of his Scherzo humoresque. He spent the next few years in the United States but returned in 1998 when he founded the Melbourne-based company BalletLab. Since its foundation BalletLab has toured widely. Adams has been commissioned by various companies including the Australian Ballet, Arena Theatre, Chunky Move, Dance Works Rotterdam (Nederlands), City Contemporary Dance Company (Hong Kong), Guongdong Modern Dance Company (China), Back 2 Back Theatre, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Tasdance and the One Extra Company. He regularly conducts workshops both nationally and internationally. In 2006, he created Platinum for the Australian Ballet's Bodytorque series.

Bibliography:

Stephanie Glickman, 'Destroying illusion or the unmasking of ballet: Amplification by Phillip Adams', Brolga, 15 (December 2001), pp. 7-21; Phillip Adams, 'Random thoughts: from an interview reorded in 1994', Brolga, 14 (June 2001), pp. 45-49.

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Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
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