Commissioned by: Momentum Dance Perth, July 2026
Dancers: Barbara Adler, Catherine Antulov, Lynn Boon, Liz Cornish, Julie Doyle, Andrea Foston, Kim Gibson, Lisa Hinton, Andrew Hull, Fiona Hull, Yvette Khoo, Toni Mason, Virginia Norris, Caroline Stevenson, Cherylyn Vickery
Lighting Designer: Dave Spooner
Venue: Upper Theatre, All Saints' College, Bull Creek

PENGUIN is a contemporary dance work exploring human behaviour, social mimicry and the ways we adapt in order to survive, belong and move through the world.

Drawing parallels between human social structures and the collective behaviours of penguins, the work examines how individuals respond to vulnerability, grief and trauma. It considers how we observe and mirror those around us, conceal what sits beneath the surface, and adopt behaviours that allow us to function within a group.

At its heart, PENGUIN considers the tension between the individual and the collective. Within shifting relationships of support, conformity, isolation and empathy, bodies gather, separate, imitate and reorganise. What begins as a mechanism for protection can become a form of masking, an outward performance of normality while an entirely different experience exists underneath.

Through a distinctive physical and theatrical language, PENGUIN moves between absurdity, tenderness and vulnerability, using the familiar image of the penguin as a lens through which to examine something deeply human. Beneath the humour and collective behaviour lies a work about carrying experiences that may be invisible to others, the instinct to protect ourselves, and the possibility of being witnessed and supported without having to disguise what we are experiencing.

Ultimately, PENGUIN asks how we continue after experiences that alter us. It considers survival not simply as endurance, but as a process of adaptation, connection and gradual re-emergence, and the role empathy can play in allowing an individual to find their way back into the world.