CANBERRA-raised dancer Sam Young-Wright loves to travel, but there’s no place like home.

He’ll be here soon with the Sydney Dance Company in its double-bill “Countermove”, performing to a home-town audience in which he hopes to see old friends from Quantum Leap, where he found his feet as a young hoofer.

But first there are many frequent flyer points to chalk up, and he doesn’t mind a bit.

“I love a good holiday, so touring a lot is one of the best perks of the job… it’s really stimulating for me to be working with the lovely people who run the theatres,” the 23-year-old enthuses.

Just after we speak, the company was to take off for Switzerland’s dance biennial Steps Festival and four weeks in Europe with its 2014 triple bill, “Interplay” followed by three weeks in Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires. As well, there are 78 scheduled performances for Sydney Dance Company at 19 venues around Australia this year.

It’s a mighty leap for the young dancer who started out at a boys’ class with Fresh Funk at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, moved on to spend nine years with Ruth Osborne’s youth dance program, Quantum Leap – “my older sister in Canberra dragged me along and I decided to run with it” –  and picked up 18 months of ballet classes with Kylie Hunter at the National Capital Ballet School, then gained entrance to the WA Academy of Performing Arts, where he did the classical ballet course.

Describing Quantum Leap as “so switched on for boys,” Young-Wright praises Osborne’s teaching style, saying: “Through Ruth, I had some of the best training in the country and although there’s no tertiary institution for dance, Canberra is a real arts hub”.

Even then he was globetrotting, with Quantum Leap to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, to Perth for the Australian Youth Dance Festival, to a youth dance festival in Jamaica and to Bangkok on a cultural exchange, later enjoying two trips to Beijing with WAAPA

As soon as he hits terra firma Australia after South America, he’ll dive into the two dance pieces we’re about to see.

The first is Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman’s “Cacti”, which he describes as “a real crowd-pleaser, so intelligent, so theatrical”. A hilarious satirical piece that pokes fun at contemporary dance, it features a string quartet on stage.

“It’s actually the first work I ever did with the company when I was doing a three-month internship in my third year at the WA Academy of performing arts,” Young-Wright says.

“It’s nostalgic for me to do this… it was my first professional program with the company.”

In contrast, Rafael Bonachela’s new work, “Lux Tenebris”, has been in development from late last year.

“We are creating a work that looks at light and darkness, with beautiful lighting and beats by composer Nick Wales,” he tells “CityNews”, explaining how Bonachela’s signature physicality sees all 16 dancers pushing the limits of their bodies.

It couldn’t be more different from “Cacti” – “it’s a great juxtaposition of works,” he says.

“Countermove”, Sydney Dance Company, Canberra Theatre, May 19-21, bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.