Perth Moves 2026 brings the grooves to the heart of the city
This summer, Perth’s city centre will pulse with movement as Perth Moves 2026 returns to Forrest Place, transforming the CBD into a vibrant, open-air dance hub. As part of Perth Festival, the show will feature internationally acclaimed choreographers creating unforgettable, free dance experiences with and for Western Australian dancers and audiences. Perth Moves 2026 hits Forrest Place from Saturday, February 21, to Saturday, February 28, with more information available from Perth Festival. NATASHA PAUL sat down with STRUT Moves co-director Sofie Burgoyne to find out more about the exciting 2026 program, the importance of Perth Moves and the Perth dance community, and advice for any newcomers eager to hit the dancefloor.
Congratulations on bringing Perth Moves, the free dance experience led by acclaimed choreographers, back to the heart of the city this year! Why do you believe this program is so important in bringing not only dancers but also the Perth community together each year?
Thank you! Perth Moves has at its heart movement, music and connection—all of which STRUT believes are good for the mind, body and soul. Bringing dance into the centre of the city, we want to invite people to interact with dance, whether they had planned to or not. Being in proximity to dance asks what movement, music and connection can offer each of us in our lives. Choreographing dance in the centre of the city and offering it free of charge diversifies who thinks dance is for them, who watches the dancing and, hopefully, somewhere down the track, who does the dancing. Peeling away the walls of the theatre aims to democratise access to dance, valuing that dance can bring joy and community to anyone.
You had a successful 2025, with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Manifest performance featuring twelve local dancers supported by a silent choir of fifty volunteers! How did you decide on the curation of choreographers for this year’s program?
Across the entire program of Perth Moves, it is important to James O’Hara, the STRUT co-director, and me to curate a mix of approaches to and styles of dance. We love dance and want to share it with people in diverse forms and ways.
For the choreographic commission in 2026, we are presenting Concrete Echoes by Ta’alili. James met Aloali’i and Tori Manley-Tapu—the artists behind Ta’alili—when he was working in Aotearoa/New Zealand between 2020 and 2022. James was immediately taken by them for their ability to lead with their values—building artistic worlds that included, cared for and built communities from diverse dance styles and cultures. We felt a strong alignment with their values and so invited them first to lead a workshop in STRUT’s 2024 and 2025 Perth Moves Workshop Series. These regular visits to Boorloo built relationships with people in different dance communities here in Boorloo. These relationships are the foundations for Concrete Echoes.
In addition to a choreographic commission, in Perth Moves, there’s always been one part of the program that is not quite a performance and not quite a workshop—but something in between. James and I have been watching the work of Boris Charmatz in Europe since we were younger dancers, and in recent years, we’ve been particularly drawn to the work that he does with his organisation, Terrain: a dance project without walls. CERCLES is an exciting choreographic emergence that builds day after day. Boris invites twelve professional dancers, eight from Western Australia and four from France, and 150 amateur dancers to share an open-air stage and undertake an XXL choreographic workshop together that does not prioritise technical mastery but instead demands full commitment from everyone. It reimagines existing choreographic material and expands dance into non-traditional spaces—a democratic, and therefore political, dance. Propelled by a soundtrack by Meute, a Hamburg-based techno brass band who reinterpret electronic music classics in their own unique way, this communal movement experience extends our perception of what dance can be.
This year’s program will feature an All-Styles, All-Ages Dance Battle, featuring a DJ, an MC, and an expert panel of international judges. Tell us more about this event—do you need to be a professional dancer to join in?
No! You don’t have to be a professional dancer to join in—whether you want to battle or watch, there will be an opportunity for everyone to have a boogie together at different stages throughout the night. The battle is always hands down the audience’s favourite event in Perth Moves. To open the event, people can expect cyphering in party format, which is cyphers—where one person dances in the centre of a group of people circled around them—open to all competitors and non-competitors. From there, those that want to compete will start to battle head-to-head in duos and then solo. There will be judges’ showcases and breaks for everyone to shake it out throughout the night. It’s such a fun night where everyone present collectively celebrates artistry, commitment and raw talent.
Concrete Echoes is the program’s second main event, featuring a collaboration of international artists from different movement origins. What kinds of dance styles, cultural influences, and experiences can audiences expect from this event?
The makers and performers from Concrete Echoes have passions in different styles of dance, including funk, krump, freestyle, electric boogie, popping, vogue and contemporary. Half of the dancers from Concrete Echoes are from Boorloo, and the other half are from across Australia and the Pacific. They were selected from 180 auditionees. Dancing together in Boorloo, Concrete Echoes will be almost ceremonial, dancing with the heart of Boorloo, as well as the soil, waters and landscapes in which they learnt to dance from and with.
The CERCLES event will also see French choreographer Boris Charmatz invite 150 amateurs to a six-day dance workshop. The project was first presented at Festival d’Avignon 2024, then at Grand Palais in Paris in 2025—how does it feel to have this exciting addition land in Perth?
When we approached Boris and his team at Terrain, they were both excited and cautious—they had one week off in their calendar for the season. The one week off just so happened to be the week we were looking to present CERCLES here in Perth. We thought that because of their busy schedule they might have to politely decline, but when they told us that they’d rather travel across the world to share CERCLES than rest, we were ecstatic! It’s really a dream come true for James and me to be able to share this project in the heart of our city—Forrest Place.
What’s your best advice to a newcomer or amateur dancer attending the Perth Moves program events for the first time, as some people may be quite nervous!
At Perth Moves, you can choose how you want to interact with dance—you can incidentally walk by, plan your visit down to the minute, or arrive and see what takes your fancy. Dancing is wonderful to watch, but if you can forget about what you look like, I think it’s even better to do! At the commencement of each night from February 26 to 28 in Forrest Place, Boris Charmatz, the choreographer of CERCLES, will invite everyone—the 162 dancers, as well as audience members—to join in a collective warm-up. You could join in the warm-up, watch CERCLES and stay late for Concrete Echoes.
Perth Moves 2026 hits Forrest Place from Saturday, February 21, to Saturday, February 28, 2026. For more information and tickets, visit perthfestival.com