Careers in dance
ArsPeak comments on Australia Council review
As one of the ArtsPeak co-convenors, we have commented briefly on the Reviw of the Australia Council, published yesterday.
We're now working on an analysis of the Review, and will be inviting the Ausdance network to comment and provide feedback before the closing date on 8 June.
Leave us a comment here if you'd like to participate.
Australia Council review released
Arts Minister Simon Crean has released the review into the Australia Council which will help inform the National Cultural Policy.
The Minister notes that 'the review makes 18 recommendations for reform of the Council and provides an opportunity to reflect on its success and to consider the major challenges ahead'.
We'll be commenting with our ArtsPeak colleagues, but we'd also like to hear from you. Please leave a comment when you've read the report.
BlakDance 2012
BlakDance 2012 is an event where international, national and local choreographers, dancers, industry members and audiences will come together to celebrate and gain a deeper understanding of First Nation Australia through contemporary dance practice.
It’s an opportunity to share experiences; to see where traditional dance meets contemporary performance and where the storytelling comes from global cultural voices. Throughout the week there will also be forums, a cultural artists’ symposium and master classes.
BalletLab choreographic masterclasses
BalletLab is offering its third annual BalletLab Masterclass, this year on dance and choreographic practices.
Running from 2–6 July 2012, the one-week intensive will be conducted by BalletLab artistic director Phillip Adams and choreographer Rebecca Hilton. The masterclass will provide valuable professional experience for emerging dancers and choreographers interested in extending their personal creative practice across dance technique and choreography.
Closing date for applications is 8 June 2012.
National Health & Arts policy forum
It's exciting to have been invited to a national Arts & Health Policy Forum at Parliament House in Canberra on 27 June. The forum has been supported by the Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean and the Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek, following a decision last November to develop a national arts and health policy framework.
This will be a great opportunity to help policy makers understand the breadth and impact of arts and health practice and to shape their ideas about future policy.
Broader participation will be invited via online broadcast featuring a live audio stream, twitter feed and digital showcase of arts and health stories across the country.
The organising partners are the Arts and Health Foundation, the National Rural Health Alliance and Regional Arts Australia.
National Cultural Policy only weeks away
We understand that the National Cultural Policy is now only weeks away, so we've written to Arts Minister Simon Crean again, this time in response to the media release from the Arts & Cultural Ministers' meeting on 30 March.
This was our last opportunity to comment prior to the NCP's release, so we've reproduced the text here, following correspondence with the Office for the Arts after my colleague, Tamara Winikoff, and I visited the department on behalf of ArtsPeak.
ArtsPeak has also written to the Minister, particularly emphasising the importance of the small to medium arts sector in Federal Budget considerations. The letter reads as follows:
Arts service organisations—telling the story
Today I went with my ArtsPeak colleague, Tamara Winikoff, to visit the Office for the Arts in Canberra, where we continued the conversation about our work.
It was useful to share the ArtsPeak map that outlines the broad reach of arts service organisations, especially as we’d like to see it acknowleged as part of the bigger arts support picture in the National Cultural Policy .
Do we need arts service organisations?
We’re not artists, dance companies, or funding bodies, but do we have a body of work?
With our ArtsPeak partners, we've mapped some of things we do.
ACCELERATE: Indigenous Australian Creative Leadership program
ACCELERATE is an intensive, fully funded program for Indigenous Australians working in the arts or creative industries sectors. It includes tailored leadership development, mentoring and industry placements in Australia and the UK.
Review of Private Sector Support for the Arts 2011
The Harold Mitchell Review of Private Sector Support for the Arts has just been released by the Minister for the Arts as part of the wider consultation about the new National Cultural Policy.
The Mitchell review recommends several ideas that might help attract new donors to the arts, noting that “The limited funds available to many arts organisations creates a situation where they cannot afford dedicated staff to drive a strategic approach to fund-raising”.
Mitchell also recommends the merging of the Australian Business Arts Foundation with Artsupport Australia “under the auspices of a new body with responsibility for all private sector support for the arts in Australia”.
Today is also your last opportunity to respond to the Australia Council review, another important part of the Cultural Policy consultation process.
Building the Indigenous contemporary dance collection
Ever since we convened the 2005 Creating Pathways national Indigenous dance forum in Canberra, Lee Christofis—one of the keynote speakers, and now curator of dance at the National Library of Australia—has been keen to develop the NLA's Indigenous dance collection.
In the March 2012 edition of National Library News, Lee discusses some of the material now held in the collection and outlines the importance of its provenance.
Building the Indigenous contemporary dance collection makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the development of Australian contemporary Indigenous dance.
ArtsPeak again lobbies the ABC
ArtsPeak representatives met again with the ABC to lobby for more cultural content in ABC news and current affairs programs. General Manager Mark Scott had previously met with the group, and this time ArtsPeak met with Don Lang, the Head of News Programming, and Alan Sunderland, the Head of News Policy,
A process was agreed on to review arts content for news and current affairs programs, and on a process for arts representatives to contact appropriate reporters. The following strategies were suggested to ArtsPeak:
- Arts representatives should consider what the issues are and whether they are newsworthy.
- We should develop a central arts representatives contact register.
- We should focus on stories that utilise ABC research and archives.
We'll be working with our ArtsPeak colleagues to maximise this positive response from the ABC, and making sure dance is part of the story telling!
Reviewing the new Australian arts curriculum
Arts curriculum writing for Foundation to Year 10 is well underway.
The draft rationale, aims and broad scope and sequence have already been reviewed by a state and territory national panel, and we joined other professional associations last week to review the drafts. We'd been invited to ask four teachers from across Australia to provide feedback, and Dr Katrina Rank, education and training manager for Ausdance Victoria, collated their feedback and led the discussion for dance.
We also represented the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) in the teleconference, which was chaired by the general manager (curriculum) of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), Robert Randall.
We'll be calling for further dance commentary in the coming weeks as the drafts are developed by the writers, and ACARA will make the curriculum available for public comment in May. In the meantime, you can sign up for regular ACARA updates.
ABC TV appoints new head of arts
Following news last year that the ABC would axe several of its most successful arts programs, the national broadcaster has announced the appointment of a new head of TV arts, Katrina Sedgwick.
Formerly director of the Adelaide Film Festival, Katrina will commence work with the ABC in April.
Australian dance-movement therapy research grants
The Dance Therapy Association of Australia (DTAA) and the Hanny Exiner Memorial Foundation (HEMF) are inviting applications for grants from Australians conducting (or planning) projects or research in the field of dance–movement therapy. The intention ot the grants is to provide public encouragement and recognition of this work as much as financial assistance.
Go to DTAA's website to find out more.
Deadline for applications: 15 June, 2012
BlakDance choreographic showcase announced
A choreographic showcase that celebrates First Nation contemporary dance choreography from Australia, Canada and New Zealand will be held at the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane from 4 to 9 June 2012
The showcase will provide a platform for Australian and international First Nation contemporary choreographers to work together in a program of performances, post‐production forums, an artist symposium and master classes.
Australian artists will include Rita Pryce (Baiwa Dance Company), Jacob Boehme (Idja Dance Theatre) and Tammi Gissell (Figures of Speech).
The international choreographers will include Sandra Laronde from Canada (Red Sky), and Jack Gray and Cathy Livermore from New Zealand (Atimira Dance Collective).
Other Australian First Nation contemporary dance choreographers, dancers and artists are invited to participate. For more information contact BlakDance or call +61 (0)7 3220 3377
Australian Ballet’s 50th year sees new star rising
In its 50th anniversary year, The Australian Ballet is celebrating a new rising star in its ranks, Chinese Australian dancer Chengwu Guo.
The ABC's 7.30 program profiles his work and interviews his mentor Li Cunxin, the teenage dancer Chen played in Mao's Last Dancer, the hugely successful film based on Li's autobiography.
Dance people receive Australia Day Honours
Former balleriona Josephine Spaull, respected ballet teacher, Tanya Pearson, and Judith Anderson, formerly General Manager of The Queensland Ballet, have today been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM).
Josephine was recognised for “for service to the performing arts, particularly dance, as a teacher and administrator". Tanya's citation was "for service to the performing arts, particularly ballet, as a teacher and mentor to young dancers". Judith's citation was "for service to the Queensland Ballet and to women". We congratulate Josephine, Tanya and Judith for their outstanding achievements.
The website It's an Honour has all the information you'll need to nominate more dance people for Australia's highest Honours!
Celebrating our Australian of the Year
There have been celebrations around the country today for our new Australian of the Year, actor Geoffrey Rush.
We congratulate him on his acceptance speech that placed the arts at the centre of Australian life and culture. He acknowledged the role of the First Australians, and said he was sure "that my colleagues will see this as an endorsement of our national story of creativity".
Senior Australian of the Year is Laurie Baymarrwangga, an extraordinary elder from the island of Murrungga in East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
The Australian of the Year Awards were announced last night by the Prime Minister.
Visit by American Dance Abroad director
Andrea Snyder is co-director of American Dance Abroad, a new initiative in the US that promotes the export of American dance. Andrea was formerly CEO of Dance USA, and is a valued colleague of Ausdance.
Andrea will be visiting Australia for the Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) in February, so we’re putting her in touch with the Australia Council and dance producers in Sydney and Melbourne before she goes on to APAM. She'll see a lot of Australian dance while she's here and importantly will be establishing Australian networks for possible future exchanges.
Canadian cultural policy researcher visits
This week we hosted Shannon Litzenberger in Canberra as part of her research into Australian cultural policy. Shannon is a Canadian dance artist, writer, director and advocate who we first met at the 2009 Dance Congress in Hamburg.
Shannon is particularly interested in the political process of developing a national cultural policy; the ways in which new funding models might be developed; the cultural diplomacy strategies of the government; the National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper and the various (and many) responses received by the government as part of its consultation.
Time for a funding review of smaller dance companies
Recent funding decisions across all sectors of the small to medium performing arts sector have highlighted the widening gap between what was considered to be 'adequate' funding for these companies five years ago, and the reality of their existence today. While we highlighted the issues in our contribution to the National Cultural Policy discussion paper, we also plan see the Arts Minister, Simon Crean, to again draw his attention to the parlous state of funding for smaller key organisations, especially in dance.
Our contribution to the National Cultural Policy discussion paper
We joined the many artists, companies and community organisations and made a submission to the National Cultural Policy discussion paper.
Because we think it’s important for the dance voice to be heard as part of the wider arts industry, we also coordinated the submissions from ArtsPeak and the National Advocates for Arts Education.
You can keep in touch with the development of the National Cultural Policy by joining the Arts Minister’s e-news.
Live Performance Training Package workshops
Industry Business Skills Australia (IBSA) today announced industry information sessions to support the launch of the new CUA11 Live Performance Training Package in November. IBSA will also hold professional development sessions for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs).
In June 2011 the new training package for the cultural industries was endorsed, the first qualifications to cover dance performance, dance teaching and management and cross sector qualifications in community dance and theatre, musical theatre and community culture. These information and professional development workshops will be a valuable complementary addition to the new qualifications, so if you're a dance teacher, make sure you're there!
SCOPE wound up
As SCOPE board members formally wound up the program in Sydney on Friday, we reflected that there was much to be proud of. We developed a model for dancers' career development and management and, with Australia Council support, we've been able to assist 99 artists to realise their dreams through professional career advice and small retraining scholarships.
We are continuing with online advice and support, and we're also planning an evaluation of the program to help us find new funding partners to bring back the scholarships and professional career guidance.