I want to change the mindset of young girls and boys growing up in Australia, to show them they can be the best in the world Sam Kerr

TROPHY is about women and sport, and women as sport.

Following the award-winning success of their first co-creation JULIA, Natalie Allen and Sally Richardson collaborate to create an dynamic new dance theatre performance.

In conversation and through the sharing of stories, the team are generating a responsive work creating an audience experience that offers fresh perspectives on women’s’ experience on and off the field, in public and private realms.

Collaborating with local communities in lutruwita/Tasmania, SA and WA, and exploring site specific sporting locations the creative team will be developing the work through a series of residencies in 2025-26.

I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall Serena Williams

The 2024 Paris Olympics featured the highest number of competing mothers to date, a powerful symbol of strength, resilience, and the complex intersection of elite performance and motherhood. The team investigate the role of sport in women and girls’ lives, as a source and a force for inspiration, independence, strength, and empowerment. How do we engage with competition, the dream and pursuit of being a ‘champion’, deal with recognition and achievement? The politics, the sexism, the pressures, the highs and lows.

There is much to champion and celebrate as more women from all walks of life seek leadership roles in professional sport and public life, pursuing careers on and off the field. Concurrently, domestic violence by men directed towards women is escalating. Here the silent conversation around women as ‘trophies’, enduring grooming, subject to coercive control and abuse. We are at a critical moment where issues of sexual and gender-based violence, partner abuse and harassment is front and centre in our communities. This figure is much higher in regional communities, and in this space, there are no winners.

TROPHY represents a continuation and amplification of the impact Sally and Natalie and their collaborators have made in regional Australian communities. By consistently generating creative outcomes that reflect diverse life experiences, they aim to bring new stories, forms, and genres to local audiences. Their track record of community outreach demonstrates a strong and genuine commitment to engaging with and nurturing local talent, thereby fostering a richer cultural environment.

With 78% of regional Australians participating in weekly sporting activities,TROPHY has strong potential to be staged in sports centres across the country. We see future touring opportunities for regional venue/presenter collaboration in development and presentation outcomes.

TROPHY will bring contemporary Australian life into focus, offering shared cultural experiences that foster visibility, strength, and connection, particularly for women whose stories often go unheard.

TROPHY will be ambitious and tender, funny and playful, raw and compelling.

...My background is one of being a high achiever, growing up in a sports-centric family. Ultimately, I chose the path of an artist, but what fuels my curiosity is what motivates us to strive for excellence. While trophies once symbolized success for me, I discovered a deeper fulfillment in connecting with others and effecting change through art not sport. It's the power of ideas, narratives, connections, and the expressive physicality of dance to tell stories that resonates for me.

My aspiration is to draw inspiration from the towns and individuals, the trophy cabinets, ribbons, and honour boards we encounter along the way. I know this experience of place and people will evolve and transform the piece into a collaborative endeavour where members of a community become an integral part of the work. Be that as duet partners, storytellers, or as co-contributors to the design. Let's weave our stories together and create something captivating. Our desire to achieve, do our best, individually or as a team and represent who we are and what we are is universal. I want the performance to be accessible, whether it is staged on the main street, on a cricket pitch, footy field, basketball court, as the performance space, it’s all possible! Natalie Allen, co-creator/performer

RAWspace 2025

Captivating..raw..fierce...powerful..it was very beautiful... theatrical, sexy, spectacular...evocative..Natalie has as physicality that demands respect..‍

Showing Audience

In TROPHY, embodied by the extraordinary Natalie Allen, women's sport functions as a framework through which to explore the emotional extremities of a range of human scenarios - triumph, defeat, crowd behaviour, ferocity, competitiveness, endurance. Sally and Natalie’s creative partnership allows them to skillfully deconstruct familiar imagery and sequences from this world we know so well, and turns them into intense, often painfully relatable and sometime s very funny archetypes. It’s mythic at times, observing the momentary transcendence of sport to strive beyond mere human limitations, emotionally moving - the pain of defeat - but also entertaining and full of surprises as the movement encompasses the stage and seating, and Natalie interacts fearlessly with the audience. This is an area of exploration that Sally plans to take further in sports venues, which is fun.

I believe that TROPHY, when finished, will be immediately accessible to audiences of all kinds, bringing two worlds - dance and sport - together in an unexpected and exciting way. We all loved what we saw in Hobart and I look forward to watching its progress to realisation and seeing how audiences respond to it!

Dr Lindy Hume AM, Former Artistic Director Perth, Sydney, Ten Days on the Island Festivals

The pieces are already carrying the hallmarks of being incredibly well constructed and emotive...Sally and Natalie are clearly committed to developing and presenting a very high-quality work, this is abundantly evident watching Natalie perform onstage, but it also manifests in their generous, transparent and thoughtful approach to the work as they talk about and wrestle with it... I am excited to see where this work goes..‍

Steve Mayhew, Program Manager, Theatre Royal, Hobart

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