Before coming to Canberra in October 2020 to take up the role of Director at Ausdance ACT, Dr Adamek was President of Ausdance SA and is currently Vice President at Ausdance National. Cathy has experience of governance prior in the not-for-profit sector. For Ausdance SA, she was elected by member vote onto a new skills-based board in 2015 and then as secretary in 2016, to steer the organisation from the brink of collapse when federal and state funding ceased. As a voluntarily run defunded organisation this made Ausdance responsive to serving the needs and issues of the local dance community, running workshops and children’s events, auspicing Creative Gatherings for the Panpapanpalya World Dance Congress 2018, overseeing 12 dance leaders creating 12 site specific works performed in the RAH and SAHMRI, nominated for a Dept of Cabinet and Premier Ruby Award for Best Community Event. Cathy worked on the aligned interdisciplinary health science research project at UniSA with Dr Jeff Meiners “How the creative process of dance teaching enables resilience and well-being across generations”. In 2020 she advocated for dance directly to State government, accelerating during the COVID outbreak, for the Safe Return to Dance Guidelines to be accepted as a measure for the easing of restrictions for dance studios. Cathy also re-established programming of local independent work by the Adelaide Festival Theatre with local dance organisations The Mill and Dance HubSA where she was associate artist.

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Cathy has 30 year career as an actor, dancer and choreographer across theatre, feature film, television and voiceover, (AACTA awarded and nominated features: The Nightingale, The Babadook (Essie Davis), Cargo (Martin Freeman), Cut (Kylie Minogue, Molly Ringwald). Recent highlights include choreographer on the Stan series The Tourist and live vision mixer on the 24-hour installation Second Woman for the Adelaide Festival. She’s performed with State Theatre SA, State Opera SA, Australian Dance Theatre and Country Arts SA. She produced and choreographed children’s television (Here’s Humphrey) and was a presenter for NWS Channel 9. Cathy is a dance theatre maker and director instigating many award-winning projects and events (Dance Australia Award for Innovation, The Advertiser Weekly Fringe Award for Best Show, Renew Adelaide award for Best Community Event), working on site specific as well as theatre projects and regional and national tours. Alongside, she taught screenwriting, media and communication at UniSA Creative for 15 years. She was awarded a doctorate for her thesis on Adelaide Dance Music Culture which is being published as a book by Routledge UK and has presented seminars and lectures on the topic nationally and internationally.