Team

Photo: Pedro Greig

“One of the country’s most distinctive and probing choreographers”

— The Australian

Stephanie Lake

Artistic Director

Stephanie Lake was born in Saskatoon, Canada, raised in Launceston Tasmania and is now based in Melbourne (Naarm), Australia. She is a multi award-winning choreographer, dancer and artistic director of Stephanie Lake Company. She was appointed Resident Choreographer of The Australian Ballet in 2024 and Artist in Residence (AiR) of Semperoper Ballet, Dresden in 2025.

Her major works, including The Chronicles, Manifesto, Colossus, Replica, Pile of Bones, Double Blind, DUAL, A Small Prometheus, AORTA and Mix Tape, have been performed across Australia and toured internationally to Theatre National de Chaillot (Paris), Ruhrfestspiele and Theater im Pfalzbau (Germany), Antigel Festival (Switzerland), Place des Arts, Danse Danse (Montreal), TOLive (Toronto), Dublin Dance Festival, Tramway (Glasgow), M1 Contact Festival (Singapore), Aarhus Festival (Denmark), Beijing Dance (China), Theatre de la Ville (Luxembourg), Concertgebouw Brugge (Belgium), Hong Kong Arts Festival, Taipei National Theatre and Concert Hall, Seoul, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Chalon-des-Champagne among others.

Stephanie has been awarded the Helpmann Award, two Australian Dance Awards, two Green Room Awards and the Melbourne Fringe Award for Most Outstanding Choreography. In 2013 Stephanie was appointed inaugural Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc, which included working as Guerin’s choreographic assistant at Lyon Opera Ballet. Stephanie received a prestigious Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship in the same year and the Dame Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship in 2012. She was the recipient of the Australia Council Fellowship for Dance for 2018-2019 and Chloe Munro AO Fellowship in 2022.

Stephanie has been commissioned nationally and internationally to create works for Nuremberg Ballet (Artefact), Sydney Dance Company (The Universe is Here, Dream Lucid, Elektra), Chunky Move (AORTA, Mix Tape, The Loop, Our Golden Cages, Broken Wing), The Australian Ballet (Circle Electric and Circle Electric Prologue), Queensland Ballet (Biography, Chameleon), Dancenorth (If Never Was Now), New Zealand Dance Company (If Never Was Now), Tasdance (The Howl), Expressions Dance Company (Ceremony), Australasian Dance Collective & Beijing Dance/LDTX (Auto Cannibal), Stompin, Frontier Danceland - Singapore (White Noise) and the Victorian College of the Arts.

She collaborates across theatre (Monsters, Lazurus, Black Rider, The Effect), film and TV (Guilty, Picnic At Hanging Rock, TVC’s for Myer, Neighbours), visual art (Giant Theremin, How to Feel, GAPS) and music video (Missy Higgins, Clare Bowditch, Augie March) and has directed several large-scale public works involving over 2500 participants including Pop Up Project, Moving 100, Multiply and Mass Movement in 2025.

Her performance career spanned twenty years dancing with Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin Inc and Phillip Adams’ BalletLab. Stephanie is also a mentor and teacher and sits on the Victorian College of the Arts Advisory Board.

Read more about Stephanie’s life and work here.

Listen to her interview with Radio National here.

Beth Raywood Cross

PRODUCER

Beth Raywood Cross is a producer for dance and theatre. Since 2021, Beth has worked as Producer for Stephanie Lake Company. Beth previously worked as Associate Producer at Insite Arts, working across their suite of artists and projects (including Justin Shoulder, Alison Currie, Sally Chance, ACMI, and Philipa Rothfield and Priya Srinivasan). In addition to her work at Insite Arts and Stephanie Lake Company, Beth has produced and supported the Emerging Choreographers Program with Dancehouse, an annual capacity building program for 20 emerging choreographers in Melbourne/Naarm, for the past 3 programs. Beth has also directed and produced a number of independent theatre works.

Annabel Shaw

Company Administrator

Annabel Shaw joined Stephanie Lake Company in July 2025, after graduating from The University of Melbourne with a masters in Arts and Cultural Management. Annabel grew up dancing in Nairobi, Kenya and was lucky enough to continue dancing alongside her studies in Scotland, England, and Australia. She has a deep-rooted passion for dance and is excited to contribute to bringing Stephanie’s creative vision to life through her role with the company.