Amy Hollingsworth

Amy Hollingsworth is an award-winning dancer, director, choreographer and mentor and was appointed Artistic Director of Australasian Dance Collective in January 2019.

Classically trained at The Australian Ballet School, Hollingsworth rose to the rank of principal dancer by the age of just 20, dancing numerous leading roles with both Royal New Zealand Ballet and Peter Schaufuss Balletten in Denmark.

Drawn to contemporary work, Hollingsworth went on to carve out a critically acclaimed global dance career that included working with some of the world’s leading companies, including legendary British contemporary dance company, Rambert, Michael Clark Company, BalletBoyz, Hofesh Shechter Company and Sydney Dance Company. 

Described by the UK Observer as one of “the most compelling and intelligent dancers on the world stage”, she won the United Kingdom’s prestigious Critics’ Circle Dance Award, twice - for Most Outstanding Female Artist in 2004 and Most Outstanding Female Performance in 2009.
Rambert also commissioned Hollingsworth to develop two pieces for its emerging choreographers’ season: Singh Language (2001) and Suspect (2002).

Hollingsworth departed Rambert in 2006 to be a founding member of Bonachela Dance Company, taking on the added role of Assistant Artistic Director in 2007.

Balanced alongside her performance career work, Hollingsworth choreographed music videos, commercial events and produced and performed in several films, documentaries and live art collaborations. Highlights included Assistant Choreographer for Kylie Minogue’s Fever Tour, appearing in Finding Neverland, stunt doubling in Primal Scream’s Miss Lucifer pop promo and starring in Bare Rooms, an art house film celebrating Lucian Freud, installed at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. 

Hollingsworth returned to Australia to join Sydney Dance Company in 2010 and received an Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer (2010) in her final performance before being appointed the company’s Dance Director. 

In 2015 she choreographed Deeper Than Ink for then Expressions Dance Company, now ADC, Til Enda for Queensland Ballet’s Pre-Professional Program and Two Bars of Isolation and Hazed for Melbourne’s Transit Dance.

In 2016, Hollingsworth was appointed Queensland Ballet’s Creative Associate and Ballet Mistress, where she created Cadence, Interrupted for Dance Dialogues and NOOSA Alive! and Flux for the Bleach Festival, which was performed on a floating stage in the Currumbin Estuary on the Gold Coast. As part of QB’s Bespoke program, she choreographed Glass Heart in 2017 and From Within in 2019. Hollingsworth also assisted in the creation and production of Queensland Ballet’s 80-strong cast of professional and youth performers for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony.

Since taking over the reins at ADC, she has continued to create – choreographing Arc, the large-scale outdoor work for Brisbane Festival in 2020 and Aftermath, which premiered at Brisbane Powerhouse in February 2021. A collaboration with Jack Lister and The Kite String Tangle’s, Danny Harley, Aftermath drew rave reviews and a sold-out season, with Dance Australia extolling "From its initial blistering explosion of light, sound and movement this bold, audacious work positively thrills… Part gig, part performance, Aftermath is exceptional”.

Hollingsworth’s skills in coaching, mentoring and developing both dancers and choreographers has been widely praised. She is a sought-after keynote and motivational speaker, panel member, industry mentor and creative consultant.