Access programs

Join Dance for Parkinson’s Australia and Sydney Dance Company for a high-quality digital dance class for people living with Parkinson’s disease, their families, friends and care partners. Filmed in the beautiful surrounds of Bennelong Restaurant within the Sydney Opera House this class explores the works of Sydney Dance Company and takes inspiration from the sculptural elegance and stunning location of the Sydney Opera House itself.

Participants are empowered to explore movement and music in ways that are refreshing, enjoying, stimulating and creative. All levels of ability and mobility welcome; no prior dance experience is required.

Annually, a Dancing Connections class is offered at the Sydney Opera House. For more information, click here.

Create Space Dance Residency. The Create Space Dance Residency is an initiative between the Sydney Opera House, Ausdance NSW and FORM Dance Projects to provide supportive residency space for artists with disability.

The 2022 recipient, Dancer and choreographer Georgia Cranko, used the two-week residency to develop her work 'The Doubling Of Presence'.

The Create Space residency is allowing me to start to grapple with concepts of care, consent, and bodily autonomy in the context of disability. Having dedicated time in a studio is always a joy, it gives me the mental space, and the actual space to cultivate my creativity and physically explore seemingly intangible ideas. It’s so nice to play, to devise and discover new ways of telling a story and challenging audiences.

For many years, the Sydney Opera House has been creating programs that bring the community together, regardless of background and ability levels. After community consultation, we partnered with The Australian Ballet and Lifestart to launch True Grit, our first-ever accessibility program targeted specifically to young adults. True Grit uses dance to grow employment skills, as well as to develop the participants' self-confidence and general well-being. Due to lockdown restrictions, the program went online while maintaining a high participant engagement and satisfaction.