Laura Boynes is an award-winning independent dance artist based in Boorloo/Perth, working nationally and internationally as a performer, choreographer, educator, and movement director. Her practice explores the intersection of social, cultural, and political happenings with individual experience, using the body as a metaphor and site of inquiry into human resilience, social responsibility, adaptability, and ecological change. Laura uses performance to inspire critical reflection on contemporary life, often collaborating across disciplines through live sound, installation, and visual media. This multidisciplinary approach allows her work to navigate fluidly between narrative and abstraction.
As a dancer, Laura has performed across Australia and internationally in dance, theatre, experimental music, site-specific works, and opera since graduating from LINK Dance Company in 2007. From 2009–2013, she performed with Buzz Dance Theatre and served as Artistic Associate in 2013 alongside Artistic Director Cadi McCarthy.
Laura has choreographed numerous short and full-length works, with commissions from Perth Festival, Fremantle Biennale, LINK Dance Company, CO:3 Australia, Buzz Dance Theatre, and the WA Academy of Performing Arts. As a movement director, she has collaborated with Black Swan State Theatre Company, Lost and Found Opera, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, Renegade Productions, Variegated Productions, Steam Work Arts, The Last Great Hunt, and Barking Gecko Theatre Company on operas, musicals, and theatre works.
Between 2015–2020, Laura worked with DADAA on experimental arts projects including Digital Dialogues (2015/16), Mixed Reality (2017), and Experience Collider (2018/19), collaborating weekly with over 40 artists with mixed abilities. She has also supported Julia Hales and Black Swan State Theatre Company as movement director on You Know We Belong Together, which continues to tour internationally. She continues to mentor artists through MY STUDIO at MY PLACE, with outcomes including public art exhibitions, live performances, film screenings and online broadcasts.
Laura’s films have screened at Reeldance and Electrofringe (Australia), Cinedans (Amsterdam), and two remain permanently in the Reeldance Moving Image Collection.
She recently completed her research period as the inaugural STRUT Dance and CO:3 Australia Mid-Career Fellowship recipient.
Awards
2024: Performing Arts WA Award – Outstanding Ensemble & Outstanding Contemporary/Experimental Performance, Equations of a Falling Body; Nominated for Best Production, Outstanding Choreography, Outstanding Sound Design, Outstanding Composition
2023: Inaugural STRUT Dance / CO:3 Australia Fellowship
2019: Australian Dance Award – Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance, WONDER WOMAN
2018: Performing Arts WA – Nominations for Best Production, Best New Work, Best Performer, Best Costume Design, WONDER WOMAN
2017: Shortlisted – Australian Dance Award, Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance, Dark Matter – PRAXIS; Nominated – Performing Arts WA, Choreography, Selkie
2016: Most Outstanding Dancer (Dance Australia Critics Choice) for Sous Vide (Adelaide Fringe 2015)
2014: Australian Dance Award – Outstanding Achievement in Youth and Community Dance, Look the Other Way, Buzz Dance Theatre (with Cadi McCarthy)