Curious Beings - An Evocative New Work by Amelia Waller

This July, Queensland Ballet's contemporary season Bespoke returns with a bold new edge, and a powerful creative collision.

Enter Curious Beings - a genre-defying dance work that merges the visceral language of contemporary ballet with the provocative visual storytelling of Dead Puppet Society, one of Australia's most daring theatrical forces.

Choreographed by acclaimed former soloist Amelia Waller, Curious Beings explores the nature of identity and memory through the lens of artificial life. Inspired by elements of Alasdair Gray's Poor Things, this poignant new work imagines sentient creatives brought into being without memory, navigating a surreal world where time loops, reality morphs, and nothing is quite what it seems.

In a first-time collaboration with Dead Puppet Society, the creative minds behind inernational hits like Ishmael and The Wider Earth, Curious Beings brings these strange, beautiful characters to life with stunning puppetry, physical storytelling, and eerie worldbuilding.

The result is an immersive, theatrical dance experience that defies categorisation.

"Collaborating with Dead Puppet Society has been a fantastic experience, and we've gained valuable insights into bringing inanimate objects t life through dance," says Amelia.

"These beings begin with no memory or identity, and through movement, they discover the joy and chaos of being alive. There's something both tragic and beautiful in watching them try to make sense of their world. It's strange, raw, and a little bit unhinged - in the best way."

"This project has been an incredible opportunity to explore what happens when you fuse puppetry and dance as equals," says David Morton, Creative Director of Dead Puppet Society.

"There's something magical that happens when our puppets move alongside the dancers - it becomes unclear who's leading and who's following. This show lives in that liminal space between the human and the artificial, the elegant and the uncanny."

For fans of innovative live performance, whether your tastes lean towards pointe shoes or puppets, Curious Beings will scratch the itch for something different. Raw, reflective and visually arresting, this work is a bridge between the elegance of dance and the boldness of visual theatre.

Curious Beings is one of three world premiere works in this year's Bespoke program, joining choreographers Yolande Brown and Robert Binet in a season that celebrates storytelling beyond tradition. Now in its eighth year, Bespoke is Queensland Ballet's home of contemporary creation - where new voices, new forms and new ideas take centre stage.

Audience arriving at the Thomas Dixon Centre can also experience Dead Puppet Society's craft up close, with a free exhibition running until 22 August, featuring large-scale sculptures from their Collection and artefacts from their acclaimed productions - a rare look behind the curtain at their meticulous design process.