“Sam is an extraordinary practitioner—disciplined, inventive and deeply human.”

— Declan Donnellan, Cheek by Jowl

As a movement director and consultant, Samantha has worked with Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Griffin Theatre Company, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Monkey Baa, NIDA, Black Swan State Theatre Company, The Last Great Hunt, Perth Festival and Sydney Festival. Her recent credits include Amadeus with Michael Sheen at the Sydney Opera House (2022), and Cheek by Jowl’s Antigone WAAPA (2025).

As an educator, from 2015–2024 Samantha was a Senior Lecturer in Movement and Performance training at WAAPA where she devised and directed new work, contributed to more than 30 theatre productions, and taught generations of emerging performers. She was previously Head of Movement and Associate Director at Actors Centre Australia (2008–2015), and has also worked internationally as Movement Director forThe Jungle Book at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

“The depth and breadth she has encouraged me to explore within myself — not just as an artist, but as a human being — are immeasurable”
— Sam Corlett, WAAPA Graduate 2018

As a maker, her independent theatre works include The Astronaut, HIRO: The Man Who Sailed His House, and Safety in Numbers, developed through Force Majeure’s inaugural Cultivate/Culminate program. As a Space Maker for artists she was co-founder of Queen Street Studio (now Brand X) and founder of ReadyMade Works

Her practice is informed by training with The SITI Company, Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints https://www.sixviewpoints.com, Iyengar Yoga and contemporary devised-dance theatre methodologies. A Churchill Fellow, Samantha researched devising practices across Spain, Belgium and the UK. Her research on choreography, consent and actor training was published in Australasian Drama Studies in 2023. She is an ISTA artist https://www.istaglobal.org/ working with young people internationally and is currently undertaking a mentorship with Fighting Monkey https://fightingmonkey.net/ from Athens. These influences support a process-led practice grounded in attention, physical intelligence, play and insight.

Samantha holds qualifications in Dance (UWS), Arts Management (UTS) and Movement Studies (NIDA), and is committed to liberating performers through embodied intelligence, creative risk and the courage to be seen.

Samantha is currently Residency Director at Shark Island Institute, Kangaroo Valley, where she leads its residency program and delivers Story Assembly, an innovative program for artists and storytellers in the first 10 years of professional practice. An outcome of this program in 2026 was “Solastalgia” for Shark Island Kangaroo Valley – a new theatre work on the intimacy of grief and climate catastrophe.

If you are interested in Samantha consulting, directing or teaching for you, please: