ABOUT
Alisdair Macindoe is an Australian independent choreographer, director, performer, composer and sound designer who extends the boundaries of dance by building conceptual frameworks for new ways of moving, making and thinking—using each new work to push his practice into fresh terrain. Based in Melbourne, he works on stolen, unceded Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung land. His practice moves across mediums, collaborators and places, treating choreography as an experimental laboratory where movement and ideas are inseparable, and where the body tests how contemporary life is shaped by language, technology, social systems, and inherited cultural narratives.
Alisdair respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which he lives and works, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People and pays respect to their Elders, past and present.
Concept driven dance works with embedded value systems
Between 2004 and 2026 Alisdair Macindoe operated as an Australian independent choreographer, director, performer, composer and sound designer. He extended the boundaries of dance by building conceptual frameworks with embedded value systems for new ways of moving, making and thinking, with each new work pushing his practice into fresh terrain. His practice moved across mediums, collaborators and places, treating choreography as an experimental laboratory where movement and ideas were inseparable, and where the body tests how contemporary life is shaped by language, technology, social systems, and inherited cultural narratives.
Trained in ballet and contemporary dance at South Yarra Ballet School, Victorian Ballet School, the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, The Space, and the Victorian College of the Arts, Macindoe’s work was grounded in rigorous physical craft and a strong musical sensibility. While active in dance he performed in 40 new dance works building an expansive career as an original-cast performer and long-term collaborator with many of Australia’s leading contemporary dance artists and companies including Lucy Guerin Inc, Chunky Move, Antony Hamilton, Stephanie Lake Company and DanceNorth, touring nationally and internationally as both performer and sound designer. To view some of his older work as a collaborator please click HERE.
Macindoe’s last five years of independant choreographic works included Australian Muscle (commissioned by INTERCONNECT STUDIO, 2026), The Shepherds (commissioned by the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship Alumni Commissioning Program; Rising Festival @ Arts House, 2026), Plagiary (Arts Centre Melbourne / UnWrapped, Sydney Opera House / Noorderzon Festival / Playing Australia, 2025-2026), A Figure of Speech (Korea/Australia tour, 2025), Depth Perception (Science Gallery Melbourne, 2025), Progress Report (Vitalstatistix / The Substation / Sydney Dance Company, 2021-2025), OBEY (City of Melbourne, Red Stair Amphitheatre, 2022), Reference Material (Darebin Speakeasy, Northcote Town Hall, 2021) and SYSTEM_ERROR (ARTSHOUSE, 2021), alongside commissions for Dance Makers Collective (Counterfeit - Bankstown Arts Centre - 2025), Your DNA (Accessibility X AI - City of Melbourne 2025, Lucy Guerin Inc (“OK, bye!” - PIECES @ UMAC, 2024), QL2 (Alpha Beta - The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre, 2024), Australasian Dance Collective (Forgery, Brisbane Festival @ QPAC, 2021 / Dull Boy, OHM Festival Powerhouse, 2024) and Dancenorth (TEST SUBJECT, 2021; A Preemptive Requiem for Mother Nature, 2015). His parallel output as a composer and sound/technology designer for his own and others works spans 70 dance pieces, often featuring bespoke systems and tightly integrated musical structures.
Macindoe’s awards and fellowships include the Chloe Munro Dance Artist Fellowship (2022), Myer Foundation Creative Fellowship (2020/21), Ausdance Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship (2019/20), a New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design (2017), a Helpmann Award for Best Male Dancer (2013), and six Green Room Awards (2012–2024). He also contributed to the field through mentorship and sector leadership, including studio secondments with emerging dancers and choreographers, his placement on the board of directors at Ausdance VIC (2020-2025), participation in advisory panels for commissioning programs and roundtables across the dance sector.
Despite Alisdair’s longstanding dedication to dance, and his deep desire to sustain a lifelong career as a creator, he left the sector in 2026 when continuing his artistic practice became financially and structurally unviable. This occurred during a period of significant activity and achievement: he toured Plagiary across Australia, premiered both The Shepherds and Australian Muscle in Melbourne, presented his solo work A Figure of Speech across Korea and Australia, and saw Dull Boy tour China.
Over the same period, however, eighteen months of applications for government, organisational and philanthropic support produced no successful outcomes. These included repeated applications for artistic director positions, commissions, fellowships, touring opportunities, residencies and every round of project funding through national and state government for two years. Removing decision making from the equation a statistical analysis of these results revealed that the zero positive outcomes had an estimated probability of 11.5%, corresponding to an 88.5% confidence level that at least one positive outcome would have occurred if left entirely to chance.
Despite his sustained artistic output and extensive efforts to establish a viable future, Alisdair was left without the financial support, employment pathway or institutional foundation required to undertake further activity. His departure did not reflect any diminished commitment to his practice or to dance, but the practical reality that he no longer had a sustainable means of continuing his career and artistic work.
““Alisdair Macindoe is one of the most significant choreographers working in Australia at the moment. I have been following his work for over a decade and am consistently delighted by the rigour and intelligence of his enquiry. He has an open and curious mind and takes his research into contemporary concerns with a sidelong approach that fills his works with discoveries and surprises. As an exceptional dancer, composer, maker and coder, he has a complete vision for his work that makes it coherent and compelling. He brings out rare idiosyncrasies in his dancers and understands the power of the well-tuned ensemble. I am always energised and enthusiastic after experiencing his work and follow his trajectory keenly.””
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