Raewyn Hill
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
ARTISTIC PHILOSOPHY
Dance – an education of deep self-knowing and interpersonal discovery; an embodied site for cross-cultural awareness, understanding and greater global interconnectedness. My pedagogy begins with a deep consideration of self, a growing awareness of our being in the world, of noticing, and of mindful attention. From this base of well-being, a layering of intentionality, emotionality, idea and concept can occur and then shaped, formed and expressed through conscious movement.
Dance – through the process of embodied education, a site for deepened cultural expression, cross-cultural understanding, and the potential for embedded life-long learning processes and curiosity about the world around us.
BIOGRAPHY
Raewyn Hill was born in Ōamaru, New Zealand, in 1972 and spent her childhood in the small towns of the South Island. At the age of 11, she took on a paper round to fund her own ballet lessons, an early indication of the determination that would come to define her career. At 15, she left home to train at the prestigious New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington, graduating in 1992 with the Best All Round Student Award. A decade later, she was named on the School’s distinguished Honours Board in recognition of her contribution to dance in New Zealand.
Classically trained, Hill has built a career spanning more than three decades as a dancer, choreographer, artistic director, educator and cultural leader. She has become one of New Zealand’s foremost contemporary dance practitioners, developing an international career distinguished by artistic innovation, ambitious collaborations and a sustained commitment to developing artists and contemporary dance practice.
From 2001 to 2009, Hill led her own company, Soapbox Productions / Raewyn Hill and Dancers, employing more than 150 dancers and leading artists. Her work during this period extended from stage to screen, performing and choreographing for television and film productions including Xena, TVNZ’s Rude Awakenings and the BBC’s The Lost World, and working as an advisor for New Zealand’s So You Think You Can Dance. Sue Healey’s 2012 documentary Virtuosi later profiled Hill as one of six New Zealand dancers who had established significant international careers.
Hill’s career has been marked by a series of significant firsts. When Love Comes Calling saw her become the first New Zealander to present a solo work at the Sydney Opera House in 2004. Five years later, she became the first New Zealand and only the second international choreographer commissioned by the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, creating Vespers in 2009. She was also the first New Zealander to undertake artist residencies at both the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, in 2009 and 2011, and the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York in 2010.
Hill was Artist in Residence at the School of Dance at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts from 2007 to 2009. Her work was commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Festival and presented as part of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens, while her growing international practice took her to leading institutions including The Juilliard School in New York, Beijing Dance Academy, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts as a teacher and choreographer.
Her work has since been presented extensively throughout Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, including at the Sydney Opera House, Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse, Ten Days on the Island, Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York and the National Arts Center in Tokyo, alongside major festivals and venues throughout Aotearoa New Zealand.
A major shift in Hill’s career came with her appointment as Artistic Director of Dancenorth in 2010, becoming the first New Zealander to lead a major government funded Australian contemporary dance company. During her five year tenure, she established a significant body of work and strengthened the company’s regional and national profile.
Following an international search, Hill was appointed Founding Artistic Director of Co3 Contemporary Dance in Western Australia in 2015. Over more than a decade, she has been instrumental in establishing and shaping the company’s artistic identity, repertoire, partnerships, artist development pathways and national and international presence.
Under Hill’s artistic leadership, Co3 developed collaborations and partnerships spanning the arts, education, health and architecture, including with the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Western Australian Institute of Sport, Edith Cowan University, WAAPA, and Hassell Architects. Her first year saw the establishment of a two year partnership with the Art Gallery of Western Australia, followed by a prestigious 12 week artistic residency at Tokyo Wonder Site in 2016.
A return to The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts as Visiting Artist followed in 2017, alongside travel to Japan as an Australia Council for the Arts delegate to the Tokyo Performing Arts Market. Later that year, Hill created and premiered the full length work THE ZONE, collaborating with renowned Japanese architect Satoshi Okada as set designer. Described as “a distinct spectacular” and “a mesmerising experience”, the work received five star reviews.
Hill’s commitment to the health, sustainability and development of professional dancers has also been integral to her leadership practice. Edith Cowan University undertook a year long postdoctoral study of her professional dancer training program, leading to Hill become a Co-author of “Sustaining dancer health and wellbeing in a casualised contemporary dance industry” Co-author: Hopper, Blevins, Longbottom, Hendry, Erskine, & Hill. Work, employment, and society, 2018 THE BRITISH SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.
Recognition at the 2018 Australian Dance Awards included three nominations: Services to Dance Education; Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for THE ZONE; and Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer for GOOD LITTLE SOLDIER with Ochre Contemporary Dance Company.
The critically acclaimed THE LINE, created with Mark Howett in 2019, further established Co3 as a distinctive voice in Australian contemporary dance. That year also brought Hill a prestigious Saison Foundation Fellowship and a 10 week residency in Tokyo, where she studied Butoh with the late Yoshito Ohno, son and artistic collaborator of Butoh pioneer Kazuo Ohno.
Following the challenging COVID period, Hill created ARCHIVES OF HUMANITY for Perth Festival in 2021. The production received eight Performing Arts WA Award nominations, winning Outstanding Ensemble (Dance), Best Mainstage Production (Dance) and Outstanding Stage Design.
ARCHITECT OF THE INVISIBLE followed in 2023, devised and directed by Hill and premiering at the Heath Ledger Theatre at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. The production received five Performing Arts WA Award nominations.
The following year, Hill created Carnivale.6, bringing together dancers from West Australian Ballet and Co3 Contemporary Dance for West Australian Ballet’s Genesis season at the State Theatre Centre of WA.
Hill continued to expand the framework of contemporary dance presentation with GATHERING.1 in 2025, an immersive format she conceived and curated for Co3’s IN.RESIDENCE season, bringing choreographers and live DJs into a shared performance environment.
Later that year, she devised and directed IN THE SHADOW OF TIME in collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, with costume design by internationally acclaimed designer Akira Isogawa. The work toured regional Western Australia before travelling internationally to World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. Hill received the 2026 Performing Arts WA Award for Outstanding Choreography for the work.
Her 2026 program continued with A MOVING PORTRAIT, presented as part of GLORIA – A TRIPLE BILL, a season created in collaboration with The New Zealand Dance Company. The production toured Aotearoa New Zealand, including sold out performances at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, and regional Western Australia before concluding with a limited Perth season at His Majesty’s Theatre featuring the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and St George’s Cathedral Consort.
GATHERING.2 followed in June and July 2026, with Hill commissioning four Western Australian choreographers alongside DJs, street dancers and live visual artists for Co3’s IN.RESIDENCE season.
Across her career, Hill’s practice has moved between choreography, performance, artistic leadership, education and cultural development. Central to her work is a belief in dance as a way of communicating human experience and in the responsibility of artistic leadership to create the conditions in which artists, ideas and communities can flourish.
Hill’s contribution to Australia’s cultural history was recognised in 2023 when her life and career were included in the National Archives of Australia. The following year marked another significant personal milestone when, after more than two decades of artistic contribution in Australia, she proudly became an Australian citizen.
