Choreographer, dancer, theatre maker, and MOVE IT Heartthrob, Rosebank’s Philip Channells is preparing for his latest creative venture – an exciting new workshop with the Queensland Ballet. It’s a perfect example of how the Hinterland-based founder of Dance Integrated Australia creates opportunities and shapes narratives through creative thinking and collaboration.
During a recent spur of the moment trip to Brisbane to take in a ballet matinee, Philip, the ever provocative and proactive hustler, messaged one of the executives of the Queensland Ballet – a friend of a friend, to say hello. “He popped down to meet me in the foyer on his way out and we had a good old chat,” says Philip, whose charisma and ability to connect with just about anyone have scaffolded an impressive global career. By the end of the meeting, the pair were laughing together and farewelled each other hugging like old friends, with the promise of keeping the conversation about a proposed event going. “That’s my strategy: No-one likes a bore, just be charming, and the next thing you know, you’ve got a gig.”
This spontaneous meeting would soon evolve into something extraordinary. The conversation led to the creation of Inspire Movement // Build Unique Expression (IM//BUE), a dynamic, intergenerational workshop for adult dancers scheduled for February 5-6 at the Thomas Dixon Centre, the home of Queensland Ballet. The event invites participants to collaborate and devise original choreography that reflects their personal stories.
“I’m very interested in intergenerational work and what we can learn from each other,” says Philip. “It’s always been part of my interests to work with people from different backgrounds. When you surround yourself with exceptional artists and mix people who not necessarily have had any performance training, it is much more exciting because the outcome is that you get wildly different variations of the same response.” This speaks to Philip’s own early experiences as an untrained outsider, which he shares were sometimes exclusionary and unwelcoming.
Philip’s journey into dance, coupled with his unrelenting drive to create spaces of inclusion, has not only shaped his career but also had a transformative impact on the Northern Rivers arts scene. Since settling back in the region in 2013, Philip has been a vital force in fostering collaboration and innovation. Programs such as ‘Pitch Lab’ (a project of Sydney-based company, Dance Makers Collective) and PH(R) ASE show his commitment to empowering diverse voices and enabling others to step into creative leadership roles.
“Living in the Northern Rivers has deepened my commitment to community-driven work,” says Philip. “Throughout my career, the arts have always been about more than individual achievement – they’re about bringing people together, weaving stories, and responding to the times we’re living in. This region amplifies that beautifully.”
Philip’s love of dancing took shape on dark nightclub dancefloors in the late 1980s. One part camp kitsch and nine parts sinewy showman in short shorts, it’s perhaps no surprise to learn he was a runway model in his early career. But by the late 1990s, Philip sought to solidify his natural talent in movement with a grounding in theory and technique. He had his sights set on studying dance at the Conservatorium in Lismore. “I had done a class at Sydney Dance Studios called ‘Free and Wild’ led by the late Janice Claxton. It was so much fun. After the class, I went up to the teacher afterwards and said: ‘I’m thinking about applying to study dance at the Con in Lismore, what do you think?’ And she said: ‘You can shake your sugar, honey. Go for it!’” That was all the encouragement Philip needed to apply.
Fate, however, had other plans. Just 10 days before the auditions, he was involved in a serious, life-changing car accident. “I said to the surgeon who had to fix me up: ‘Whatever you do, just make sure I can dance.’ And he said: ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be dancing with the Australian Ballet.’ And then I went under and when I woke up, I thought: ‘Oh, I’ve really done it this time.’” The accident had left Philip unable to walk, let alone dance.
“It was a bit like giving a child a lollipop, then taking it out of his mouth saying, no, you can’t have that. That kid will scream and kick and pull your hair out and do anything to get that lollipop back. So that’s what I did. I just used that desire to dance to rehabilitate and to learn to walk again.”
Part of his rehab was joining a men-only dance class in Bellingen, comprised of an extremely diverse cross section of the community, from a nightclub owner to an electrician and a builder. “The class structure was quite free. They had music and the teacher would give us a theme to explore, and after dancing, we’d sit down and discuss what we observed in watching and what we observed in the doing as well.” A lasting memory from the class is the cathartic confession of a classmate, who sobbed openly: “All I’ve ever wanted to do is dance.” It was through participation in this group that the power of dance to transform and heal began to crystallise for Philip. And as predicted by the surgeon years earlier, he did go on to perform with the Australian Ballet as the horse’s head in Don Quixote.
Today, this unintended healing ethos is a sparkling thread that runs through Philip’s classes and art practice. He is passionate about dispelling stereotypes about who can dance, how performance should be created and who gets to tell stories.
“The Northern Rivers is such a creative melting pot,” he reflects. “For me, it’s not just about making work here; it’s about contributing to a larger conversation about who gets to participate in the arts and whose stories we choose to tell.
“I love the work that I do because I get to connect with real people. I love stories and I love storytelling. When I’m in that place where we are generating ideas and generating movement, generating visual landscape, knowing that an audience is going to see it, I think: ‘Oh my God, I’m just in heaven. Nothing else matters. This is how I want to live my life – being the conduit for these stories to be told. If I could do this every day, then I’d die a happy man.”
philipchannells.com
Sally Schofield
Feature image by Maurizo Viani