Twenty-four hours after the opening of the Philip Glass Trilogy, directed and choreographed by Leigh Warren, his successor Daniel Jaber will present his own work Reassessment – A Double Bill.

It will be a time of flux and excitement on the arts calendar, with two great local dance figures under the spotlight as Jaber, 28, prepares to take over the reins from Warren, 62, as artistic director of Leigh Warren Dance.

Jaber will be the youngest dancer in Australian history to be appointed artistic director of a dance company. Leigh Warren Dance is a contemporary dance company, but Jaber’s ambition is to create contemporary ballet, in which he can flaunt his classical training within works based on themes of gender roles and identity.

There is no tension here, however; according to Jaber, he and Warren share the same vision and philosophy about dance.

“As well as creating works that Leigh appreciates, Leigh and I always had great conversations about dance, the future for dance, funding for dancers, and the potential for South Australia as a home for the creation of dance.”

But why South Australia, when most artists are forced to leave the state in search of opportunities for continuous work?

“I’ve fought hard to have a career in South Australia,” explains Jaber. “There are few opportunities to have a career as a dancer in this state, but at the same time Adelaide is artistically more dynamic than other cities, perhaps by virtue of its isolation.

“Adelaide is not exposed to as much stuff; it’s not on the treadmill of cultural trends. In Berlin, for example, you can see a dance premiere every night of the year, and as much as that is stimulating, it can also over-saturate the artistic consciousness.

“South Australian artists have the space to explore their own ideas and have their own identity, and their work is not influenced by people and funding bodies. I’m so proud of that.”

Speaking of funding, how does Jaber propose to keep producing new works after LWD lost its state and federal funding from ArtsSA and the Australia Council in 2011?

“Taking over from Leigh comes with certain responsibilities,” he says. “It’s like walking into a shell with huge potential but no secure governmental funding support. I’m used to working on a project-to-project basis, but we need to do more for the community to become engaged.

“I won’t just be a choreographer any more; my role is to create performance experiences unlike any other and to bring contemporary dance to a wider audience.

“I plan to engage other industries such as fashion, food and wine, photography and cinematography, to enhance the complexity and visceral experience. What you can say to an audience with a dancer’s body is what I’m into.”

It is a plan he hopes will also assist in helping people to feel more relaxed about the art.

“I think a lot of people are intimidated by contemporary dance. Dance is a funny thing – it’s very hard to describe in words. It can be scary in an abstract way. It can be interpreted in so many different ways and people are scared of not understanding, but you can’t force interpretation.

“My role is to create work to facilitate the audience’s own experience through that performance. To me, contemporary dance is like fragrance – if you don’t feel a connection to one, you try another one. When you find one you like you’ll be totally expanded and addicted.”

Jaber also plans to bring in independent choreographers for residencies and hold bi-monthly workshops and classes. “I’d like LWD to become the hub of South Australian dance with a focus on giving opportunities to the independents.”

With all these changes bringing transformation to the company, what remains of Leigh Warren?

“Leigh will be working as a freelance director/choreographer after I take over in January 2015, but he has influenced me quite profoundly,” explains Daniel.

“From Leigh I have learnt to have confidence and to be uncompromising when it comes to financial boundaries and my work. He has created in me a new motivation to believe in myself even more.

“If I create a work for 50 people and financially I can only afford three, he has taught me to fight and fight and fight for what I want.”

Jaber grew up at Nairne in the Adelaide Hills.

“I started dancing at four when I went with my sister to dance classes, which were more fun than going to Gawler on Thursday nights with my parents, who raced greyhounds,” he says. “My sister gave up dance, but I kept going and studied classical, jazz and contemporary dance with Christine Underdown – classical was my favourite.”

Underdown helped Jaber to get a place in the Queensland University of Technology dance course when he was 15. He was the youngest student enrolled.

Jaber decided the rigid structure of classical dance companies wasn’t for him and, in a lucky break, he was head-hunted by Australian Dance Theatre’s Garry Stewart at 17. Jaber is famous for his 2013 work Nought, created for ADT, the company’s first full-length work by a choreographer other than Stewart.

“At the end of 2008 I went to Berlin on a professional development grant to undergo mentorship to create a solo piece. It was this work that forms the first part of Reassessment – Too far again, not far enough.”

The second part of Reassessment – Agile – was created in Malaysia after a period of freelance work in Germany, Poland, Belgium and Asia.

“Both pieces, while originally created some time ago, have developed into new works, while still being about the same subjects – gender roles and normalisation. Ballet can be about anything; ballet is not just about love stories between princes and princesses; it is not about ballerinas being size 4, white and heterosexual.

“When I asked Leigh, ‘Why me?’, his response was, ‘You just know’.”

Reassessment – A Double Bill will be performed at the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Space Theatre from August 6-9.