Larissa McGowan was born in Brisbane and began her dance training at the Queensland Dance School of Excellence (QDSE), where she won the Queensland Ballet Scholarship to the Victorian College of the Arts(VCA), as well as the prize for ‘Most Outstanding Dancer’. In her graduating year at VCA, Larissa won the award for ‘Most Outstanding Talent’.
Larissa joined Australian Dance Theatre (ADT) in 2000 and has toured extensively worldwide performing in Be Yourself, G, Devolution, HELD, Vocabulary, Nothing, The Age of Unbeauty, Birdbrain and Attention Deficit Therapy. In 2008 Garry Stewart named Larissa, Associate Choreographer. Larissa was also co-choreographer of Habitus for 2016 Adelaide Festival.
Following winning the 2003 Green Room Award for Best Female Dancer, Larissa won multiple awards in 2004, including Best Female Dancer in a Ballet or Dance Work at the Helpmann Awards and the Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer.
Her work, Zero-sum, made its world premiere at WOMADelaide 2009. She followed this up with a highly successful appearance as a guest choreographer on two seasons of So You Think You Can Dance. Her work Slack was part of the Sydney Opera House’s New Breed season & remounted in 2012 for Link Dance Company WAPPA’s Pre-Professional Dance Company. She has created Transducer as part of Tasdance’s double bill ‘Voltage’ & made Fanatic on Sydney Dance Company which premiered in Spring Dance, Contemporary Woman and recently toured nationally as part of SDC’s triple bill season De Novo. Her work Skeleton premiered in the 2013 Adelaide Festival and Dance Massive. It also toured to the Dublin Dance Festival and nominated for the 2014 Australian Dance Awards. Her work Transducer was remounted as part of Co:3’s launch premier.
She has made a work for students at VCA A Ceremony of Senses, AcArts Inconsolable Robots In Search of Distraction & Causal Nexus, Ev & Bow, ADT Youth Ensemble. Additional movement direction includes, Slingsby Theatre Company’s Wolf, State Theatre Company South Australia’s Romeo & Juliet, Mneumonic and Little Bird, Brink Production’s Harbinger, Mass presented by State Opera of South Australia. Rehearsal Direction for Tasdance, Physical theatre & circus group Gravity & Other Myths and Assistant Choreographer for The Boy Castaways by Michael Kantor. From 2015-16, Larissa was curator of DanceXtend for Country Arts SA and most recently works as Associate Artist, rehearsal director and choreographer for Restless Dance Theatre.
Notable works choreographed by Larissa include Mortal Condition premiered in 2016 at the Adelaide Festival Centre, Playlist, which performed at PYT Fairfield 2018 and Festival Unwrapped, Sydney Opera House 2019. She has been Adelaide Fringe Festival’s Parade choreographer. She performed in Jérôme Bel: Gala at the 2017 Adelaide Festival and Brink Productions Memorial in 2018. Larissa choreographed and performed CHER which was a journey of self-discovery and transformation as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2019, Adelaide Festival Centre 2020, and Melt Festival 2022. She also choreographed Dance Nation for State Theatre Company South Australia and Adelaide Festival 2020.
In 2022, Larissa choreographed Action Star for PYT Fairfield and OzAsia Festival. In 2023, she choreographed Hans + Gret for Windmill Theatre co and Adelaide Festival, and Counterpoise for Restless Dance Theatre. Larissa’s choreography will be featured in the upcoming film How to Make Gravy, Binge’s first original feature film, set to premiere in 2024.
Video clip choreography includes Megan Washington’s Saint Lo & Claws, Sheppard’s Edge of the Night & Coming Home, Jessica Mauboy’s Sunday, Montaigne’s Ready.
“McGowan is a choreographer who refuses to shy away from the uncomfortable” – Jordan Beth
