DANCER and choreographer Dean Cross is one of Canberra’s great artistic stories.

After formal dance training at Queensland University of Technology, Cross has travelled the globe working and performing with companies such as Lucy Guerin Inc., Legs on the Wall, Motionhouse (UK), Shaun Parker and Company, Theatre of Image, QL2 Dance, Strings Attached, Opera Australia, Buzz Dance Theatre and Torque Show.

Always welcome back at QL2 studios in Gorman House, Cross has choreographed a number of works for the organisation, including “Hardyards”, which won an Australian Dance Award in 2011 for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance and more recently , “Hit the Floor Together”. He was also the Assistant Director for Legs on the Wall’s Symphony, which was performed as a part of this year’s Sydney Festival. This week Cross is showcasing a very personal project which he has created and in which he will perform.

“Finding S___ T____” is his intimate look into the private life of a convicted criminal. Whilst serving his sentence inmate S___ T____ kept a meticulous hand-written journal describing his surroundings, the people he met, the challenges he faced and the revelations he made.

But this journal was discarded, possibly following the death of the author. Later rescued, dusted off and given a new life over 10 years after its creation, Cross found in it “words [that]are devastatingly honest and insightful and were never intended for the eyes of others.”

But, as he says, “here they are nonetheless,” transformed into dance by Cross.

Describing his creation as morally questionable, theatrically simple and profoundly moving, he says this work of “pure non-fiction” provides “an unparalleled opportunity to experience first-hand the thoughts, emotions and innermost secrets of a young man searching for himself and his place in the world from the confines of his prison cell”.

Dean Cross in “Finding S___ T____” QL2 Theatre Block A Gorman House Arts Centre, 7pm, Thursday, October 3 to Saturday, October 5, tickets at the door $15 / $10 Concession.