Stephanie Lake talks about her Peggy van Praagh fellowship
For Stephanie Lake — recipient of the inaugural Ausdance Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship — this recognition was a valuable affirmation that her artistic career was heading in the right direction.
BlakDance Australia—A vehicle for change
BlakDance intern and dance and journalism student Ann-Maree Long shares her experience of the performance Blakdance 2012.
Facilitated marriages
This paper outlines the Future Landings project run by Ausdance WA, examining how the artistic relationships between the choreographers played out, and suggests steps that may be taken to ensure that such ‘facilitated marriages’ have the best chance of success.
Thoughts on the making of ‘Anatomy of an Afternoon’
Independent artist Martin del Amo explains the process of his research and creation of his latest work Anatomy of an Afternoon, made in collaboration with dancer Paul White.
Being and forgetting—creating and performing ‘Anatomy of an Afternoon’
Dancer Paul White talks about the working process and the evolution of character and movement behind Martin del Amo's solo work Afternoon of a Faun.
Research and ‘Anatomy of an Afternoon’
Amanda Card talks about her research with Martin del Amo on Anatomy of an Afternoon which was part of a project funded by Critical Path's Responsive Programme. The intent of Martin’s research was to expand and challenge his choreographic process by using a historical source as stimulation as well as experimenting with the transference of his particular choreographic framework onto another dancer.
Uncommon men: Matthew Day interviews Martin del Amo
Martin del Amo talks to Matthew Day about the influence of Vaslav Nijinski in relation to Anatomy of an Afternoon: the thwarting of desire and expectation; the utility of stillness; and the centrality of the quotidian and the animal.
Intimacy and distance: time spent with ‘Anatomy of an Afternoon’
Dancer Kristina Chan reflects on Martin del Amo's choreography and Paul White's performance in Anatomy of an Afternoon. For her the work was a clear and self-effacing exploration of a journey with a creature-like being.
Conundrums of placing and timing: making new from the old avant garde
Designer, curator and scholar of contemporary dance, Justine explores two aspects of the performative event of Anatomy of an Afternoon by Martin del Amo. One has to do with its placing; what happens when the avant garde moves to inhabit big ‘C’ cultural institutions. The other concerns its timing; how can work that has entered the canon of the historical avant garde retain newness and experimentation, the power to startle or even shock, in present-day reinterpretation.
Sustainable dance making: dancers and choreographers in collaboration
Karen Barbour, Senior Lecturer in dance at the University of Waikato (NZ), talks about her personal experiences and her ideas about the sustainability of collaborative dance ventures
Creating collaborative partnerships: enabling public access to live urban art
This paper explores a large-scale international project, Accented Body, which involved partnerships across the arts industry, the tertiary sector, government and philanthropic organisations.
How dancers avoid burnout
Professional or full-time dancers—and athletes—are at risk of burnout, so it is important to be aware of the warning signs and take action.
Artists—the new elite
Professor Susan Street presented the eighth Dame Peggy Van Praagh Memorial Address alongside David McAllister, Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet. She explores some of the major challenges faced by the dance sector and reflects on some of the achievements.
Reframing arguments about the value of contemporary dance: putting creativity at the centre of dance
Sue talks about the challenges of sustainability for contemporary dance in Australia, and argues that the notion of creativity should be at the core of future debates about the intrinsic, cultural and economic benefits of dance.
Yumi Umiumare’s DasSHOKU Hora!!: critique through ‘cross’-cultural femininity
Postcolonial theorist, Homi Bhabha proposes an interstitial space exists in between polarities along axes of subjectivity. Georgie Boucher uses Bhabha’s notion of the interstitial subject to investigate how Umiumare might utilise strategically in-between subjectivities in performance.
Fitting in: reflections on a dance research project
Eleanor Brickhill reflects on a 2005 research project which was not intended to come to any conclusions, but to hopefully illuminate certain ironies or conflicts. She talks about "taste" and how it can create boundaries and divisions between people.
Brain, dance and culture: evolutionary characteristics in the collaborative choreographic process
This is part 2 of a broad hypothoses of an intuitive science of dance. Elizabeth Dalman and neuroscience researcher Paul Howard Mason (1982 – ) joined forces to explore the evolutionary characteristics of a discrete social system, with a belief that choreography involves processes that expose the social machinery of human expressive systems.
Sustainability
Strategies for sustaining dance in the following papers occur from two perspectives: culturally in terms of preserving and contemporising traditions in India, Cambodia and Thailand; and pedagogically through strategies for life-long learning in the tertiary sector and improved teacher training for children.
National qualifications for the dance industry
For the first time in Australia there are national qualifications for the dance industry. Innovation & Business Skills Australia (IBSA), in consultation with experts in the dance industry, have created a new training package for the dance sector. It is called the Live Performance Training Package (CUA11).
‘Follow your heart and something will come’: subjective factors in the sustainability of early
Dr Kim Vincs (Deakin University, Melbourne) reports on her investigation into the reasons that dancers continue their practices and manage to sustain themselves in a bleak economic environment.