Stories + essays

Professor Sue 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.

Ross Stretton talks passionately from a performer's persepctive about the challenge for dancers to keepthe dance personal, how not to lose the individual dance heritage under the weight of the collective heritage, and to embrace change.

Keith Bain OAM talks about the importance of knowing our history so that we can understand our present. A history that can reveal the interconnections, the progress and the moments of change in the unfolding story of dance in Australia.

Meryl Tankard pays tribute to Peggy van Praagh, and to all those influential individuals who have enriched her life—professionally and personally—with their own knowledge.

Peter Brinson poses three questions: Why should there be a politics of dance? What political case for dance should dancers be advocating in today's circumstances? and What kind of political agenda should dancers develop to advance this case through the exercise of dance power?

Marilyn Rowe pays tribute to the woman who not only had an enormouse impact on Marilyn peronally, but whose creative influence fostered and nurtured Australian talent, and who imbued her dancers with a confidence and belief in themselves which allowed them to excell both nationally and internationally.

Li Cunxin, author of Mao's last Dancer, pays tribute to Peggy van Praagh and how some of her aspirations match his own: perseverance, resilience, determination and courage.

Shirley McKechnie presented the inaugural Dame Peggy van Praagh Memorial Address soon after the first anniversary of Dame Peggy's death in Melbourne on 15 January 1990. She was the first a long line of dance artists and scholars who have, and will continue to, pay tribute to Peggy van Praagh in this way.