There was something in the air when Kate Champion wrote to Geordie Brookman, Artistic Director of State Theatre Company South Australia, to tell him she was keen to move into directing plays rather than the movement works for which she was known. “He said ‘funny you should contact me, I’ve been thinking of you for this,’” recalls Champion.

“This” is STCSA’s production of That Eye, The Sky adapted by Richard Roxburgh and Justin Monjo in 1994 from Tim Winton’s novel.

Having begun her career as a dancer, Champion spent time as a performer and production assistant at Lloyd Newson’s DV8 Physical Theatre in London. In 2002, she founded Force Majeure, a dance theatre company in Sydney, where she created movement works such as Same, same But Different and The Age I’m In that embraced dialogue and multimedia. Her other credits include choreographing Brett Dean’s opera Bliss and the musical Dirty Dancing, and working as Associate Director to Neil Armfield on OA’s Melbourne Ring Cycle. Crucially, she also worked as choreographer on Armfield’s internationally renowned, epic production of Cloudstreet, adapted from Winton’s novel by Monjo and Nick Enright.