Sydney Dance Company announces new dancers

Sydney Dance Company welcomes four new dancers to the company in January 2012 - Tom Bradley, Alana Sargent, Jesse Scales and Chris Aubrey - each of whom represents the best in the next generation of contemporary dancers.

Tom Bradley, who hails from country NSW, has been awarded the second annual Sydney Dance Company Foxtel Scholarship*, which offers him a three-month internship with the company, including a spot in the first season, 2 One Another**. Tom won Best Emerging Male Performer and was nominated for Most Inspiring Performance and Best Choreography by an Emerging Artist at the 2010 New Zealand Festival of Dance. He is also the recipient of two previous scholarships to the Victoria College of the Arts Secondary School and the New Zealand School of Dance.
New Zealander Alana Sargent performed in Sydney Dance Company's 2010 New Creations 2 Season after receiving the inaugural Sydney Dance Company Foxtel Scholarship in 2010. She has been training at the New Zealand School of Dance since she was 13 when she began as a junior associate before commencing full time study in 2008. Due to previous engagements, Alana will commence with Sydney Dance Company in April.

Born in Tasmania yet South Australian-bred Jesse Scales completed her training in Adelaide with Terry Simpson where she gained the Royal Academy of Dance Solo Seal Award at 16. Jesse went on to study at the New Zealand School of Dance majoring in Classical Ballet and graduated in 2011. In 2010, Jesse performed in Melbourne Ballet Company's Project Six: Moment of Inertia for which she was awarded the Artistic Director's Young Dancer Award. As a child, Jesse also appeared in Meryl Tankard's 1998 (ADT) and Graeme Murphy's Swan Lake (TAB).

Originally from Sydney, Chris Aubrey graduated from Adelaide Centre for the Arts in 2007 with a Bachelor of Dance Performance. Chris joined ADT in 2007 where he performed in G and Be Your Self. He also worked with Leigh Warren Dancers to perform Maria de Buenos Aires at the opening of the Brisbane Festival 2011.
Of the new blood, Sydney Dance Company Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela says, "We are so pleased to welcome these four uniquely talented dancers to the company, each of whom brings different experience, skills and perspective. Their appointment indicates the serious talent currently coming up the dance ranks, which I think heralds an exciting and refreshing time for the industry as a whole."

And, in a changing of the guard, in 2012 the company bids farewell to Company Dancers Kynan Hughes, Lauren Langlois and Wayne Parsons (Wayne after 2 One Another).