School Immersion Experience 2026
Garry Stewart's Elastic Hearts: A Practical Exploration of Context and Meaning
Term 2, Week 2
Thomas Dixon Centre
#Program Overview
Garry Stewart’s Elastic Hearts – A practical exploration of Context and Meaning
Queensland Ballet invites students to an inspiring, curriculum-aligned workshop exploring Garry Stewart’s Elastic Hearts — a powerful new work examining community, resilience, vulnerability, and interconnectedness.
This experience offers students the opportunity to engage with professional repertoire, explore choreographic processes, and create original movement inspired by Stewart’s creative process and movement philosophies.
What to Expect:
- View a Company Class or Rehearsal: Witness Queensland Ballet’s Company dancers in action, applying their refined technical and expressive skills. This experience offers students a rare insight into the discipline and artistry involved in professional dance, enhancing their understanding of the art form.
- Exclusive Access to the Thomas Dixon Centre: Students explore the home of Queensland Ballet, including rehearsal studios and production spaces where Elastic Hearts has been created. This behind-the-scenes access provides insight into the collaborative environment that supports large-scale contemporary works.
- Curriculum-Aligned Dance Workshop: Participate in a hands-on contemporary workshop inspired by Elastic Hearts. Following a guided improvisational warm-up, students learn an excerpt of adapted repertoire and collaborate in small groups to create original choreography exploring themes of connection, tension, and resilience. This practical session directly supports curriculum outcomes in both ACARA and QCAA Dance.
- Personalised Q&A with Industry Professionals: Students take part in a Q&A with Queensland Ballet artistic and production staff, discussing the making of Elastic Hearts, the creative process, and the collaboration between choreographer, dancers, and designers. This session highlights the range of career pathways within the performing arts.
- Inspiration for Aspiring Artists: Immersion in the creative and professional environment of Queensland Ballet provides students with a unique opportunity to connect their classroom learning to current professional practice, inspiring confidence, creativity, and curiosity.
Student Benefits:
- Aligned with ACARA Version 9 The Arts: Dance strands, content descriptors, and elaborations, and mapped to QCAA General and Dance in Practice syllabus content.
- Students will refine technical and expressive skills through performance of repertoire, apply safe dance practices and develop ensemble awareness, explore production elements to enhance context and meaning. And engage in collaborative creative processes reflecting ideas of community and interconnectedness.