Stephen Page

Australian choreographer, film director and former dancer

Stephen George Page is an Australian choreographer, film director and former dancer. He is the former artistic director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, an Indigenous Australian dance company. Page is descended from the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali of the Yugambeh people from southeast Queensland, Australia.

Stephen George Page was one of 12 children, raised in the Brisbane suburb of Mt Gravatt. His mother did not celebrate her Aboriginal identity until she met Page's father. He was educated at the Cavendish Road State High School, Brisbane. He moved to Sydney when he was 16 and trained with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, which would later become the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA). He graduated from NAISDA in 1983.

Page first danced with the Sydney Dance Company. Bangarra's last performance with Page as director was Wudjang: Not the Past, which premiered at the Sydney Festival in January 2022 before touring to Hobart, and then Adelaide as part of the Adelaide Festival.

In 2015 his directorial debut film, Spear, was shown at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

His alma mater, Cavendish Road State High School, named one of its school houses "Page" in his honour. The house colour is purple. In 2016, the NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award went to Page for his work as Director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre. From February to August 2016, Martin Portus (former Director of Marketing and Communication at the Australia Council for the Arts) conducted an interview with Page, who discussed significant periods in the history of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, beginning with the nature of his access to traditional cultures, especially in north east Arnhem Land. In the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours, Page was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) "for distinguished service to the performing arts and contemporary dance, through enriching Australia's cultural environment, and by presenting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts to the world."