About This Event

🔥 DanceRites 2026 is taking place on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt, the biennial celebration of First Nations dance, song and culture, DanceRites, will present more than 320 dancers across the weekend’s competition and special guest performances.

🎉 This year’s program includes two special tributes to the late Rhoda Roberts AO and her work to safeguard vital cultural practices on a national stage, which included founding DanceRites as part of the Homeground Festival in 2015.

☀ The weekend will open with a performance from Jannawi Dance Clan, a piece created and choreographed by Peta Strachan (Dharug) and Matthew Doyle (Muruwari, Yuwalarray) to honour Roberts.

☑ A group of Canadian Powwow performers, Wabanaki Dancers, will close the first day of DanceRites as the inaugural participants in a new donor-funded initiative – Walking Together: The Rhoda Roberts AO Cultural Exchange – established by the Opera House to cement collaboration between international and Australian First Nations artists.

✨ Across the weekend, 20 dance groups will take to the sand circle stage in Australia’s only national competition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, representing the unique dance traditions and songlines of more than 50 nations and clans across the continent.

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