Journals + newsletters

This article is an account of Sela Kiek-Callan’s postgraduate research journey in “Dancing Design”, an exploration of affinities between architecture and dancing bodies which become manifest in embodied responses of weight, rhythm and intensity when dancers pay attention to the built environment in which they are encased.

Avril Huddy and Kym Stevens (both lecturers in dance at Queensland University of Technoology) cover the latest pedagogical concepts in the training of dance teachers across a broad spectrum at a university level.

Olivia Millard discusses a practice-based research project whereby six individual dancers came to ‘belong’, stylistically, to a group in a project that did not aim explicitly to create or bring about that sense of belonging.

Motohide Miyahara traces the life of a distinguished dance artist, to help readers learn how the very Western art of ballet developed in the unique and sometimes difficult cultural, political and historic milieu in Japan after World War II.

Ann-Maree Long, a Butchulla woman of Fraser Island, introduces us to West-Auckland born, Jack Gray, a Maori contemporary dance artist and choreographer.

Julia Cotton, long-time friend and colleague of Keith Bain, pays tribute to this iconic Australian dancer, teacher, mentor and legend.

Annalouise Paul (Theatre of Rhythm and Dance) has recently returned from a successful tour of Game On in India.

Skye Murtagh, of SDM Communications describes how movement and music prove a potent therapy for patients in Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide

This paper firstly examines theoretical perspectives on dance and disability with a discussion of the ideal dancing body and strategies for how the disabled body may reiterate or disrupt such constructions. Secondly, it presents concrete analyses of two works by Touch Compass as an illustration of the ways in which disability and the dancing body on stage are constructed through choreographic imagery and iconography.

Dance and movement lecturer at Ballarat University, David Wynen gives an entertaining account of the "journey to performance" in terms of time and money restraints, melding different dance styles and negotiating with bureaucrats.

Julie Dyson has been the National Director of Ausdance since the Australia Council for the Arts began funding the organisation in 1985. Shirley McKechnie pays tribute to this influential leader.

Jonathan Marshall elaborates on Shona's own research into indigenous and ‘tribal’ dance in the Philippines, drawing links between the early history of modernist dance in Europe and the German language states, and later developments in the Asia-Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia. Particular attention is paid to the often neglected issue of religion and spirituality, with MacTavish’s project being identified as a specifically Christian ecumenical approach.

Jonathan Marshall has edited this account by Shona Dunlop MacTavish of her experiences in the Phillippines in 1971, when she received a grant to research the dance of 12 tribal groups thoughout the country.

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.

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.

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.

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.

At a showing at Critical Path in 2011 Erin Brannigan responded strongly to Paul White’s performance of Martin del Amo’s work-in-progress, Anatomy of an Afternoon, believing it to signal a new direction for the choreographer. She shares her thoughts on the transposition of del Amo’s movement style as witnessed in White’s performance.

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.

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.