About Belloo

Belloo is a female-led, award-winning contemporary performance company committed to long-term collaboration, innovative storytelling, and deep artist and audience engagement. Our strength lies in nurturing projects and partnerships across years, states, and countries, ensuring our work remains artistically rigorous, inclusive, and deeply relevant.

Founded in 2013 by four extraordinary women — Danielle Shankey, Caroline Dunphy, Katherine Lyall-Watson, and Kathryn Kelly — Belloo was established with a clear commitment: to create work through a feminist lens and to embrace diversity and participatory storytelling in all our projects. Our practice is grounded in true stories and built in partnership with people and communities, alongside leading companies and organisations.

We are known for our bold, interdisciplinary approach — blending text, movement, and design to create original, dynamic performances, installations, and digital works that resonate across cultures and contexts. We work inclusively with diverse artists and communities, guided by the principle of First Nations first.

What sets Belloo apart is our dedication to deep engagement. Our works don’t just entertain — they activate communities, forging lasting relationships with audiences and artists. This commitment is reflected in our foyer installations that extend the conversation beyond the stage; our digital storytelling, spanning SBS On Demand, large-scale building projections, and intimate micro-cinema experiences; and our mentorship programs that cultivate the next generation of artists.

We build sustained collaborations with exceptional artists, including Helpmann Award-winning dancer Waangenga Blanco, emerging Tamil Australian performers Janaki Gerard and Sudhesh Somu, and Japanese company Idiot Savant Theater Company with artist Noriaki Okubo.

Belloo has co-produced and presented work with major partners including NORPA, Brisbane Festival, Queensland Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse, and Critical Stages Touring, and has toured nationally and internationally across Japan, Queensland, New South Wales, and Canberra. The company was Company in Residence at Queensland Theatre (2019–2020) and continues to build partnerships across Australia and the Asia–Pacific region.

I believe in the collaborative power of theatre. Creating an ensemble and learning a shared vocabulary that transcends cultural differences and finds common ground to create something original and dynamic. — Caroline Dunphy, Co-Artistic Director

VISION

To bring people and stories out of the shadows

How We Work

We work through partnership and relationship, guided by a collaborative framework that traverses both text and physical form to:

• Produce diverse, original, and contemporary theatre

• Develop performance-based works across artforms

• Create transcultural projects

• Advocate, mentor, innovate, and inspire creative practice and positive change

• Strengthen artistic ties between Australia and the Asia–Indo Pacific region

Our processes are shaped by each partnership. Every project draws on the specific skills and expertise of its collaborators, combined with an intuitive understanding honed through experience, practice, and relationship.

OUR VALUES

Respect.
We work inclusively with diverse, intergenerational artists and communities, guided by the principle of First Nations first.

Engagement.
We create new models for working with communities through advocacy, leadership, and mentorship.

Collaboration.
We forge long-term partnerships to create original, dynamic performance, installation, and digital works.

Practice.
We are dedicated to rigorous processes and sustained creative development over time.

Global Connection.
We value transcultural collaboration and propel our stories and art into new national and international contexts.

Innovation & Sustainability.
We pioneer new ways of working across boundaries of company, institution, and artist — investing directly in people rather than infrastructure. Across all our artistic and business practices, we repurpose, recycle, and upcycle to ensure sustainability.

Our Awards & Achievements

WINNER Best Independent Production, Matilda Awards 2013 (Motherland)

WINNER Best Overall Production, Groundling Awards 2013 (Motherland)

WINNER Barbara Lowing, Gold Matilda Award AND Groundling Award 2013 (Motherland)

WINNER The Lord Mayor’s Award for Best New Australian Work (Katherine, Lyall-Watson), Matilda Awards 2022 (Boy, Lost)

FINALIST Patrick White Playwrights’ Award 2013 (Katherine Lyall-Watson)

FINALIST Best Independant Production, Matilda Awards 2016 (HANAKO)

FINALIST Best Sound Design (Dane Alexander), Matilda Awards 2016 (HANAKO)

FINALIST Best Actress (Kimie Tsukakoshi), Matilda Awards 2016 (HANAKO)

FINALIST Best Emerging Artist (Masako Mizusawa), Matilda Awards 2016 (HANAKO)

FINALIST Best Director (Caroline Dunphy), Matilda Awards 2016 (Motherland)

FINALIST Best Independent Production, Matilda Awards 2022 (Boy, Lost)

FINALIST Best Emerging Artist (Morgan Francis), Matilda Awards 2022 (Boy, Lost)

FINALIST Best Ensemble, Matilda Awards 2022 (Boy, Lost)