Education & training
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.
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!
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!