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Artistic Director Ruth Osborne
 Ruth Osborne has devoted her professional life to youth dance, challenging old ideas and developing new methods. She is nationally respected for her teaching and choreographic work. She has developed dance in primary and secondary schools, tertiary institutions, private dance studios, summer schools and regional outreach tours. She has mentored choreographers and dancers, including both young emerging artists and senior dance professionals.
Her professional dance career extends over 40 years and includes performing, teaching, choreographing, directing, collaborating and mentoring. She has served on many arts related boards including Ausdance WA (President), The West Australian Ballet, WAAPA Advisory Panels, Arts WA Peer Assessment Panel, STEPS Youth Dance Company and Youth Arts Incorporated.
After extensive training and experience across all dance sectors in Sydney, Ruth moved to WA and in 1976 established the Contemporary Dance Centre, where she was Artistic Director until 1999. She taught at WAAPA from its inception; and was a founding board member, choreographer and Artistic Director of STEPS Youth Dance Company for 10 years.
She has choreographed for local, national and international television and film; and many large scale events including the Opening Ceremonies for the 6th and 8th World Swimming Championships; the Pacific School Games; collaborations for the Festival of Perth in 1995 and 1997; and Australia Day celebrations.
Ruth joined The Australian Choreographic Centre in Canberra as Manager of Youth Dance Practice in 1999, under Director Mark Gordon. She established the highly successful Quantum Leap youth choreographic ensemble, and developed ongoing programs, focused on choreographic literacy, for young people auditioned from Canberra and the region. These bridged community and professional practice, with professionally produced performances in major theatres and institutions in Canberra, and regional and interstate tours.
Ruth established the Licence to Move program to encourage boys into dance, and directed the highly acclaimed Industrial Hardware dance project series for young men and boys.
In 2003 she won the Canberra Critics Circle Dance Award for her ongoing work with Quantum Leap and in particular “boys in dance”. In 2005 she was short-listed for the prestigious Australian Dance Awards ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’, and for Services to Dance in 2008, 2009, and 2010 . In 2008 served as an adviser to the Dance Board of the Australia Council.
She won the Australian Dance Awards' 2011 Award for Services to Dance — "for her superlative teaching and wide-ranging services to dance for over four decades; for an outstanding contribution to dance education and to the development of youth dance practice in Australia."
She is Artistic Director of the Australian Dance Awards in 2012 and 2013.
Associate Directors
Our Associate Directors are involved with QL2 over several years: planning, developing and evaluating our artistic program in collaboration with the Artistic Director, as well as working in projects and classes.
Brian Lucas is a nationally celebrated and respected dance and theatre artist based in Brisbane, and a recent recipient of an Australia Council Fellowship.
Solon Ulbrich is an Australian independent performer, choreographer, teacher and arts producer.
Liz Lea is an experienced dance artist with a contemporary and Indian Classical movement practice, who divides her time between Australia and the UK, choreographing, performing and teaching.
Artistic Advisors
Alice Lee Holland is a Perth-based independent choreographer, and AD of STEPS Youth Dance Company. She presented Preparing to be Beautiful in 2008, and has made works for Strut Dance, Buzz Dance Theatre, STEPS, Quantum Leap, WAAPA, and Tasdance. She created work for The Yard in Massachusetts and Labor Force Dance in New York (2008). She is passionately committed to working with young people as the next generation of Australian dance artists and representing the sector at daCi 2012.
Jeff Meiners has worked widely in dance, teaching extensively in schools, as leader of a dance education team, as a university lecturer and a guest tutor. His work has included projects with young children, youth dance and people with disability, and partnerships with councils, NSW Department of Education, NAISDA and Ausdance NSW. Jeff is currently a lecturer at the University of SA, and received an ADA for Services to Dance Education (2009).
Rebecca Hilton is a Melbourne based performer, teacher, choreographer and director. She was a member of Dance Exchange and Dance Works before moving to New York in 1987, where she toured extensively with Stephen Petronio Company and featured in the work of Michael Clark, Tere O’Connor, DD Dorvillier, John Jasperse and Jennifer Monson. Her work has been presented by Lucy Guerin Inc, BalletLab, Chunky Move, Laborgras (Ger), Mestizas (Arg) and La lagrima (Mex). She received a 2010-11 Fellowship from the Australia Council Dance Board.
Guest Choreographers & teachers
Dramaturg Paschal Daantos Berry is an independent Filipino/Australian writer and dramaturg whose practice is focused on interdisciplinary, cross cultural and collaborative processes. As a writer/dramaturg, he has worked for Urban Theatre Projects (UTP), Radio National (ABC), Griffin Theatre, the Australian Choreographic Centre and Quantum Leap Youth Choreographic Ensemble, Belvoir Asian Theatre Festival, Performance Space, Blacktown Arts Centre, ATYP, Multicultural Theatre Alliance, Platform 27, Canberra Youth Theatre, Tuggeranong Arts Centre and Norpa.  He wrote the critically acclaimed The Folding Wife, a co-production between UTP, Anino Shadowplay Collective and Blacktown Arts Centre; which received a national Mobile States Tour through Performing Lines in 2010.  His latest work was the critically acclaimed cross-artform work Within and Without, which was presented by Performance Space in partnership with Blacktown Arts Centre in 2011.  Currently he continues his collaboration with Anino Shadowplay Collective through an untitled new work for children at Museo Pambata in Manila, Philippines.
Daniel Riley McKinley’s bloodline runs through the Riley clan of the Wiradjuri people in NSW. From 1998–2003 he was a member of QL2’s Quantum Leap. In 2005 he performed in Like No One Is Watching and Petroglyphs-Signs Of Life with Leigh Warren & Dancers. He joined Bangarra in 2007, and has toured Australia and internationally with Clan, True Stories, Mathinna, Rites, Awakenings, and Fire: A Retrospective. In 2010 he made his choreographic debut, with Riley in of earth & sky.
Dean Cross began as a gymnast, and started dance in 2000 with Quantum Leap. He has performed nationally and internationally with Lucy Guerin Inc, Shaun Parker and Company, Theatre of Image, Buzz Dance Theatre, Legs on the Wall, Opera Australia and independent choreographer Anton. He is a founding member of Autumnal, and is touring with Lucy Guerin’s Untrained.
Deon Hastie trained at Naisda Dance College and completed a Diploma in Dance in 1998. Undertook the Emerging Artist Program in 1999 with Leigh Warren and Dancers before joining and performing with LWD from 2000-2010. Deon has choreographed numerous works with young people and has taught contemporary dance both Nationally and Internationally. He is currently the Artistic Director of Kurruru Youth Performing Arts in Adelaide and is a strong advocate for youth development in dance. He continues to mentor and teach dance to young Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
Amelia McQueen graduated from AC Arts and formed ‘dropArt’. She developed a role under Tanja Liedtke for Twelfth Floor that she has performed in Australia, the UK and Germany. She has performed with Tanz Atelier Wien (Vienna), Tasdance and Stalker and tours with Strange Fruit. She has done extensive study in Europe under Julyen Hamilton, Deborah Hay, Katie Duck, David Zambrano, Anouk van Dijk and Les Slovaks. Her collaboration Soft Targets with Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal and Bilwa was commissioned for the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010.
Adelina Larsson studied at Danshogskolan (Stockholm,) and Rotterdamse Dansacademie CODARTS (Rotterdam). Her recent works include Remote Real with Sarah Neville and Joanna Pollit, and Waste Land with Elena Näsänen.
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