Gay Filmmaker Luke Cornish Captures Every Savage Rejection As Ten Aussies Fight For A Single Spot In “Dance For Your Life”
Ten dancers. One spot. And a choreographer who’s worked with Janet Jackson isn’t going easy on anyone.
Dance For Your Life, the feature documentary follow-up to the hit Amazon Prime Video series Dance Life, opens in cinemas on 2 April 2026. Directed by Luke Cornish, the film follows 10 dancers from Sydney’s Brent Street Performing Arts School as they fly to London to audition for choreographer Dean Lee’s international company, Shapehaus Dance Theatre. Only a handful will make the cut.
We first covered Dance Life when it dropped on Prime Video in January 2024, and we’ve been watching this next chapter take shape. Cornish sat down with Matt Gallant to answer our questions about the film, and you can watch that full interview below.
The original Dance Life was a five-part docuseries that pulled back the curtain on Brent Street, one of the country’s most respected performing arts schools. It tracked a group of students through their final year as they trained, competed, and fought for spots at their year-end graduating performance. The show earned an 8.3 rating on IMDb and built a devoted audience worldwide.
Dance For Your Life picks up that thread and raises the stakes. Brent Street’s head choreographer Cassie Bartho and creative director Lucas Newland are tasked with cutting 40 dancers down to 20, then to ten. Those final ten are flown to London for a high-pressure audition with Dean Lee, a choreographer whose CV includes tours and live shows with Janet Jackson, Kylie Minogue, The Pussycat Dolls and Shania Twain.
“I idolise Dean so much, and I know that the rest of the cast do, too,” returning dancer Tiana Vassallo told FilmInk. “So as much as it can be intimidating, it’s also really fulfilling.”
Familiar faces, bigger dreams
Fans of the original series will recognise several names. Max Ostler, who reached the semifinals of America’s Got Talent Season 17, is back. So is Emily Smith, whose story of overcoming childhood trauma made her a standout in the series. Conor Bann-Murray has been busy since Dance Life wrapped, performing in an Australian tour of Wicked and dancing for Katy Perry and Meghan Trainor.
New faces include Jake Sergi, Espoir Alpha, Abby Faith White, and Savannah Rose Pillay. Max Simmons, one of the longest-serving dancers at Brent Street, also returns. “It was an incredible opportunity with the most incredible people,” Simmons told FilmInk. “Getting to share that experience in London with them is something I will cherish forever.”
Have you been following these dancers since Dance Life? Some of them were barely out of school when filming started. Now they’re auditioning on the international stage.
A queer filmmaker’s eye for belonging
Cornish brings more than technical skill to this film. He’s a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and that perspective runs through his work. His debut short documentary, Alone Out Here, told the story of a gay fourth-generation bull stud farmer in rural New South Wales. It won the Audience Award at the Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival in 2021 and was featured by The New Yorker, racking up close to half a million views. His first feature, Keep Stepping, was longlisted for Best Documentary at the 95th Academy Awards and won both the Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sydney Film Festival in 2022.
That sensibility carries into Dance For Your Life. Cornish understands what it means to fight for space in a world that wasn’t always built for you. The dancers in this film are doing exactly that.
“It’s a difficult industry because there’s a lot of talent, but there’s not a lot of work for the talent,” newcomer Zac De Gersigny told FilmInk.
What you need to know
Dance For Your Life is in cinemas from 2 April 2026. It runs 100 minutes and is rated PG. The film is a Perpetual Entertainment, Biscuit Tin and Creative Bubble production, with funding from Screen Australia and Screen NSW. Mushroom Studios is handling local distribution
Watch the full interview with Luke Cornish above, then catch Dance For Your Life in cinemas from 2 April.
