Industry news
UNESCO International Arts Education Week
The United Nations Education Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) will next week launch the inaugural International Arts Education Week (21–27 May 2012) at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
International Arts Education Week aims to raise the international community’s awareness of the importance of arts education.
The World Alliance for Arts Education (WAAE) calls upon teachers, parents, children, arts education associations, artists, researchers and government authorities to profile practices, traditions, innovations, projects and research that highlight the role of arts education in diverse communities. The fourth week of May will, from now on, mark the time for these celebrations each year.
Congratulations to winners of Creative Australia Fellowships
Congratulations to dance artists Antony Hamilton and Lee Serle on receiving an Australia Council Creative Australia Fellowship!
The Fellowships are a major new initiative that support the professional development of outstanding artists working across the sector and Australia. Read more.
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.
The Budget and the arts
In an announcement made by Arts Minister Simon Crean, last night's Federal Budget revealed some welcome new money for the arts, and a new income tax-free threshold of $18,000, which will be of great benefit to the many artists who live close to the poverty line.
As co-convenors of ArtsPeak, Tamara Winikoff and I met this morning with the Minister's arts adviser, Helen O'Neil, for a post-Budget briefing. We discussed many issues around the Budget, including the whole-of-government approach to arts funding, philanthropy and delivery which will be outlined when the National Cultural Policy and the Australia Council review are finally released.
Tamara and I have made an Artspeak statement which reiterates some of the issues already flagged in previous submissions to the National Cultural Policy, and welcoming the new funding in the Budget.
Dance Board assessment report—February round
The Dance Board of the Australia Council has announced the results of its February 10 funding round.
The assessment report includes the list of successful applicants and projects, statistics on the round and the Chair’s report.
Federal Budget day
It's Federal Budget day, and we're all keen to see how the arts and cultural industries fare in the absence of the long-awaited National Cultural Policy.
We're off to the Arts Minister's office tomorrow morning to discuss the Budget outcomes and to hear about the Government's plans for the release of the National Cultural Policy later this year.
National Cultural Policy—messages from the field
We've joined our colleages at ArtsPeak and the Council for Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences (CHASS) to comment on the delay in releasing the National Cultural Policy.
On a positive note, the delay will enable us to look more closely at the small to medium performing and visual arts sectors and prepare a more detailed submission to Government. We'll keep you posted about progress once next week's Federal Budget has been delivered.
National Cultural Policy delayed
It's been reported that the release of the long-awaited National Cultural Policy has been delayed by several months.
We've verified this report with the Office for the Arts in Canberra, and have been informed that full details of the NCP's release will be announced in next Tuesday's Federal Budget.
Ausdance, along with our ArtsPeak colleages, has been supporting the Minister's push for a new National Cultural Policy for several years now, and contribtuing to its development. We hope Arts Minister Simon Crean will continue his strong support for increased funding through the policy, and we'll respond more fully once we see what announcements are made in the Budget.
Regional dance-makers choreographic lab
Regional Dance-Makers Choreographic Lab in Perth (Tuesday 28 – Friday 31 August) is part of the MoveME dance festival presented by Ausdance WA and Strut Dance.
This choreographic lab is aimed at dance-makers living in regional areas who are over 18 years of age and are actively leading or making dance in their communities.
Partcipants will watch dance performances created by international artists Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion, Didier Théron and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and WA’s Alice Lee Holland. They will then join choreographer Felicity Bott in workshops to discuss and reflect on responses to the performances. Workshop tasks will be shaped to reflect the curiosity and choreographic interests of participants.
Fees
$120 (waged) or $90 (unwaged & Ausdance members)
A travel subsidy is available for WA choreographers by application to the Future Moves Regional Professional Development Fund.
To register email Annette Carmichael
Deadline: 30 June
The MoveME Dance Festival commences 28 August and continues until Sunday 2 September and includes the Australian Dance Awards on Saturday 1 September.
Australian Dance Week
The Ausdance network celebrates and promotes dance in all its forms every year during Australian Dance Week (first week of May).
Each state and Territory hosts a variety of events from book launches and forums to free performances and community classes, and encourages its dance community to promote their own activities throughout the week.
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:
New member of the Dance Board
Good to see Michelle Ryan's recent appointment to the Dance Board of the Australia Council, adding to the practitioner base of the board.
Michelle has more than 20 years' experience as a performer, choreographer, rehearsal director and producer, and was a peer adviser at the board's November 2011 assessment meeting.
‘Shades of us’—a stunning AYDF finale
It was fantastic to be able to join the Ausdance NSW team, the choreographers and more than 150 young people from all over Australia on the last day of the Australian Youth Dance Festival at NAISDA Dance College in Gosford NSW.
Shades of Us, presented in Mt Penang Gardens on the final evening, was a performance that grew out of an intensive week of creative development with choreographers Sue Healey, Philip Channells, Anton, Kay Armstrong, Matt Cornel, Adelina Larsson, Lee Pemberton, Vicki Van Hout and artistic director Rowan Marchingo.
A new arts ‘accord’—will it make a difference?
The State and Territory Arts and Cultural Ministers have announced that they'll be working together on some important arts initiatives.
They've used the word 'accord' to describe this agreement, and we think this means they'll be cooperating on implementing the new National Cultural Policy, which is great news. But it's difficult to interpret some of the language in their media release, so we'll be writing to Arts Minister Simon Crean to investigate. We'll also suggest ways to broaden this commitment from a dance perspective.
If you want to read the Arts Ministers' report (PDF) and send us your ideas, please let us know in the next few days. You could also write to your own State or Territory Arts Minister and suggest ways to support dance in the National Cultural Policy, particularly in the small to medium performing arts sector.
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 .
Communities making dance in Tasmania
Tasmanian Regional Arts (TRA) is leading The Dance Project in partnership with Mature Artists Dance Experience (MADE), Bust a Move and Tasdance.
This community dance project is happening in three Tasmanian regions—the North East, North West and the South—to develop and present three new contemporary dance works with, by and about communities. Evolving from the heart of each community, these works explore place, kinship and identity as experienced by the residents of these regions.
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.
NAISDA’s new studios
The opening of the new NAISDA studios in Gosford, NSW last week was an occasion to be celebrated by the whole dance community after more than 35 years in temporary accommodation. The studios were opened by the Federal Minister for the Arts, the Hon. Simon Crean MP, at a ceremony that also honoured the founder of NAISDA, Carole Johnson.
Australian Youth Dance Festival scholarship winners
Congratulations to the young people chosen for a scholarship to this year's Youth Dance Festival. All winners receive a week of intensive dance tuition at AYDF and a 1yr subscription to Dance Australia.
To win an AYDF scholarship, the dancers uploaded a video of themselves dancing, with a short clip of their teacher/mentor saying why their student should come to AYDF.
Scholarship to American Dance Festival in China
Annalouise Paul has been awarded one of the WDA scholarships to attend the 2012 American Dance Festival in China in August. Congratulations!
Ausdance welcomes a new national executive team
The Ausdance National Council and network directors met for four days in Canberra last weekend, and elected a new National Executive at its Annual General Meeting.
Ausdance network meetings in Canberra
We're meeting in Canberra this week with the Ausdance National Council and network directors.
We're discussing some of the big Ausdance projects such as the Australian Dance Awards, the Australian Youth Dance Festival and Australian Dance week, as well as next year's partnership with the Australia Council, when we'll produce another National Dance Forum. Dance Board Director, Carin Mistry, will be a guest speaker tomorrow.
We're also talking about advocating for dance, dance education and research, Indigenous dance and some of the critical issues around supporting independent dance.
It's a fantastic opportunity to share ideas, achievements and the critical issues that inspire all of us to keep working with and for Australia's dance artists, companies and communities.
Nominate for 2013 Australian Dance Awards
You can nominate a professional choreographer, dancer or company for an Australian Dance Award any time during the year. Simply go to the Australian Dance Awards website and select Nominate. The Selection Criteria will help you to choose the best category for your nomination.
Happy as Larry, Shaun Parker & Company 2010. Shaun was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Choreogrpahy in 2011. Photo: Branco GaicaReview 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.
KAGE partnership with Alzheimers Australia Vic
KAGE’s co-creative director Kate Denborough and writer David Denborough have worked in association with Alzheimer’s Australia Vic to create Sundowner—a dance theatre piece which explores dementia without trivialisation or sentimentality. The work grew out of stories told by people with dementia and their carers, stories both sad and funny.
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.
Li Cunxin new director of the Queensland Ballet
Li Cunxin has been announced as the new Artistic Director of the Queensland Ballet. He will take up his appointment in July this year, six months before the departure of the current Director, François Klaus. His appointment follows an international search by the Queensland Ballet.
Li's autiobiography and the film Mao's Last Dancer have built his international reputation, not only as a fine dancer but as an inspirational leader. We congratulate Li on another great achievement!
Read about his ideas for the company in this interview with the Brisbane Courier Mail.
More evidence that dance benefits the elderly
There are some startling new figures that support dancing as a protective strategy in preventing dementia. A Stanford University report Use It or Lose It: Dancing Makes You Smarter makes the following comparisons:
... almost none of the physical activities appeared to offer any protection against dementia. There can be cardiovascular benefits of course, but the focus of this study was the mind. There was one important exception: the only physical activity to offer protection against dementia was frequent dancing.
- Reading—35% reduced risk of dementia
- Bicycling and swimming—0%
- Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week—47%
- Playing golf—0%
- Dancing frequently—76%.
The same university offers other insights into the benefits of dance in Thoughts, philosophies and musings on social dance, a useful reference for community dance practitioners in Australia.
MyDance Alliance visitor from Malaysia
When the President of MyDance Alliance, Bilqis Hiijas, visited Canberra from Malaysia this week, we took the opportunity to introduce her to several of Australia's leading cultural institutions. We also heard about the artists' residency program she helps to run at her family's compound, Rimbun Dahan in Kuala Lumpur.
Bilqis is the new editor of Asia Pacific Channels, the newsletter we produce on behalf of the World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific. It's exciting to be sharing the task with her, and her visit to Canberra gave us a chance to meet her in person for the first time.
Bilqis was very interested in our partnerships with the National Library of Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive, so we organised tours of both institutions to meet the curators and get an idea of the great range of dance materials held by both institutions. She's hoping to form similar relationships with archives in Malaysia.
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.
New research with dance and the elderly
New research by the University of Western Sydney is demonstrating that folk dance has clear benefits for the health of the elderly. You may have missed this great report from the ABC’s 7.30 program on 4 January.
We’re very interested in research that proves the links between dance and health, and have been in touch with the researchers to find out more. We’ll keep you posted.
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.
Brolga in 2012
Brolga 35 (December, 2011) is the final edition that Ausdance will be printing. It will be published on our website and available for purchase either as a complete volume (PDF) or as individual articles. All you need to do is create an account and become an Ausdance customer.
By the end of 2012 we intend to have all back issues of Brolga online. We believe that this collection of articles will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and dance lovers all over.
Moving the National Cultural Policy forward
This week there were some major ministerial announcements around the development of the National Cultural Policy (NCP), including a review of the Australia Council. It is widely expected that the Government will announce new ideas and programs that the Australia Council will deliver as part of the NCP.
Dance training in Australia
One of the great advantages of working with Ausdance National is the opportunity to see performances and appreciate some of the excellent dance training we have in this country.
In Perth recently for the Ausdance directors’ meeting, I was lucky enough to catch Summerdance, the end-of-year performance by WAAPA students who premiered Balanchine’s great classic, Serenade, staged by Balanchine Trust repetiteur Eve Lawson. The work was beautifully performed, as WA’s 7.30 program reported, and the students also gave outstanding performances of works by Gabrielle Nankivell, Xiao-Xiong Zhang and Natalie Weir.
This week we’ve seen On Course in Canberra, QL2’s program of student work from a range of tertiary dance courses in Australia. Apart from exceptionally strong technique, the students’ maturity in communicating their ideas made for an entertaining and thought-provoking program.
I’d also been lucky enough to see the Paris Conservatoire student season in November in a program that included Noces by Angelin Preljocalj, and works by Hofesh Shechter and Thomas Lebrun. These students were also outstanding, but it's no surprise that it confirms Australian dance training as being up there with the world’s best!
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.
Tanja Liedtke digital archive
In news that will particularly interest Australian dance researchers, educators and students, the Tanja Liedtke Foundation has announced that it has created the Tanja Liedtke digital archive, now freely accessible to anyone who is interested in knowing more about Tanja’s life and work.
The Foundation has also announced that one of Tanja's works, construct, has been voted by The Monthly magazine as one of 20 Australian masterpieces, across all art forms, since the year 2000. The work was declared the masterpiece in the category of contemporary dance, a great achievement!
2012 Australian Dance Awards in Perth
"Ausdance WA is absolutely delighted to host the Australian Dance Awards in September 2012. It is a real coup for the city and one which we are excited to be part of," said Michelle Saunders, Director Ausdance WA.
Registrations now open for ‘Dance, Young People & Change’
It's time now to register for 'Dance, Young People & Change'. This is an international event where youth dance practitioners and educators can share ideas about the relevance of dance in young people's lives and in communities.
There will be an amazing program of performances, workshops, master classes and panel discussions for people of all ages, hosted by Taipei National University of the Arts from July 14—20 2012.
'Dance, Young People & Change' will be the World Dance Alliance Global Summit, held in partnership with dance and the Child international (daCi).
Dance support organisations meet in Paris
Last week 25 dance support organisations met in Paris for three days of talks, presentations and performances. As we are members of the World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific, we had also organised for WDA people to provide this mainly European group with more information about its activities.
These annual meetings are an opportunity to share dance support strategies, ideas and visions for the future. We were invited on the first day to share this year’s achievements, a challenge for many European organisations that face severe funding cuts. Despite funding difficulties all round, presentations were inspirational and visionary for dance, and we came away with many ideas for collaborations and future planning with now-familiar colleagues such as Madeline Ritter and Ingo Diehl (Germany), Caroline Miller (Dance UK) and our French colleagues Agnès Wasserman and Frédéric Moreau.
Delegates at Paris meeting of dance support organisations. Ingo Diehl (centre) is the Tanzplan Deutschland Educational Program Director. Ausdance directors meet in Perth
Ausdance network directors usually meet twice a year to share ideas, update one another on projects and work toghether on plans for the future.
Last week it was Ausdance WA's turn to host the directors' meeting, and it was great to be back in the purpose built dance spaces at the King St Arts Centre where the meetings were held. While not all directors could be present this time, we heard about many excitinfg national projects, including plans for dance in the new Australian Curriculum, the 2012 Australian Youth Dance Festival to be held in Sydney next Easter, the launch of the Live Performance Training Package, the World Dance Alliance festival to be held in Taiwan next July, and, of course, the 2012 Australian Dance Awards to be held at the Heath Ledger Theatre in Perth on 1 September.
Youth dance—where does it fit?
In responding to our suggestion of a campaign to support the smaller key dance organisations, Ruth Osborne, artistic director of QL2 Dance, came in to discuss some of the issues youth dance companies are experiencing.
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.
Restless Dance Theatre’s Junction project
Junction is an artist exchange program initiated by Restless Dance Theatre to support and promote the development of new independent work. Piloting this program is independent artist Tobiah Booth-Remmers who is being mentored by Carol Wellman Kelly through the national JUMP mentoring program.
Our new website is here
Hello. Thanks for joining us. Finally we're alive. Bet you were wondering what we've been doing!
Well, last year we talked to our dance partners and contributors about what information they wanted, needed and expected from our website. We also looked at the amazing work they had written and we'd published over the last 10+ years. A lot of it was very interesting and answered many questions, but it was trapped on paper collecting dust on the shelf. We also realised that we spent a lot of time making things happen with not much time left to tell you about it along the way.
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.
Writing the Australian Curriculum in the arts gets underway
Last week we joined other advisers and writers of the new Australian Curriculum in the Arts for a three-day induction meeting with ACARA (the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority). We worked intensively together to understand cross-curriculum, Indigenous and disability priorities, and in our own art forms to look at various aspects of the new curriculum.
Art form writers now have a tight timeline to complete first drafts, and advisers will have opportunities to review them in November and December. It’s anticipated that work will then continue into January and February before broader consultation begins.
Making an Australian arts curriculum work
When the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) met in Sydney last month, we identified some of the things that all governments—Federal, State and Territory—will have to provide if they're to resource the Australian Curriculum in the Arts.
With the arts curriculum to begin trialling next year, we've lobbying for:
- Upgraded teacher training and professional development in each art form, especially for primary school teachers.
- Curriculum materials such as science's Primary Connections.
- Space within schools for safe learning environments.
- Clarification of the role of specialist teachers, artists in schools and arts companies.
Diversifying dancers’ careers
We want dance artists to be able to diversify their careers, get more training if they need it and earn a realistic income.
Because we want to work with governments to reinvent a program that worked so well, we’ve commissioned Shane Carroll to review the SCOPE (Securing Career Opportunities and Professional Employment) program and provide us with the evidence we need to make the arguments. Shane has been one of the program’s leading advocates and drivers.
Postcard from the future
The Prime Minister, in her role as chair of the standing committee on the arts, today announced a significant program of research and development for dance that she said would provide Australia with a major advantage over France, its nearest rival in recognising dance as its most important cultural export. The ABC interrupted its sports broadcast to bring this contemporary dance update direct from the Prime Minister's office.
This was how we interpreted a request from ABC Radio National for a 'postcard from the future' during an interview about the arts and cultural policy in Australia. The program will go to air early next year, and the intention is to "reflect ... the broad policy shift from a vision about Australia developing and presenting a unique Australian cultural identity, to that of a sustainable arts and cultural industry or sector".
We'll let you know when the program is due to go to air.
Upgrading our insurance products
Aon representative Emma Keegan is in town this week, so we've been talking about ideas for making our insurance products cheaper and more flexible. We're hoping to announce some new products in November.
WDA Asia Pacific meeting in Kuala Lumpur
This week I've been representing Ausdance at the Asia Pacific International Dance Conference and yesterday's World Dance Alliance AGM in Kuala Lumpur, where a new Executive Board was elected and the role of the networks reviewed.
The networks are a particularly valuable way for Australian dance people to get involved with WDA, so if you're interested in knowing more about them (see below), please contact us at Ausdance National. All Ausdance members are automatically members of WDA Asia Pacific and it's a great opportunity to extend your own networks and participate in new culturally diverse opportunities at the annual WDA conferences and festivals.
Australian & New Zealanders at the World Dance Alliance conference. L to R: Jeff Meiners, Ralph Buck, Tina HongNew Australian dance book launched
Shaping the Landscape: Celebrating Dance in Australia was launched by high profile Malaysian architect Hijjas Kasturi yesterday at the World Dance Alliance conference in Kuala Lumpur, in the presence of the Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia, Miles Kupa, and other dignatories. Read his speech.
This is a new Routledge publication which I've co-edited with Stephanie Burridge, so it was exciting to see it launched along with the Malaysian edition, Sharing Identities. These volumes are the third and fourth in the Celebrating dance in Asia and the Pacific series.
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!
Ausdance supports submission into ABC arts programming
We've just signed a submission to the Senate Inquiry into recent ABC programming decisions, a move led by our ArtsPeak colleague NAVA (National Association for the Visual Arts).
We've been concerned by announcements lately that the ABC plans to axe some arts programs, but we're also keen to see regular arts news integrated across the news rather than as a token 'what's on' item at the end. ArtsPeak also made the point that the ABC's other arts programming should not be left under-resourced or dumbed down for the sake of ratings.
New dance course in NSW
A new BA in Performing Arts is planned for 2014 at the University of New South Wales. It will include majors in dance, music, film, media, writing and performance. This sounds like a great program, and one that will greatly to enrich the local dance scene in NSW.
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.
New User Guide for the Live Performance Training Package
The Training Package will be launched in November, and the User Guide with the section on dance organisations and national qualifications is now available online. It will form the basis of the Innovation & Business Skills Australia (IBSA) free information sessions around Australia and online starting in November.
The information sessions will be advised by IBSA, but we'll keep everyone informed about the schedule.
Launch of the Shape of the Australian Curriculum: the Arts
The final version of the The Shape of the Australian Curriculum—The Arts was launched by School Education Minister Peter Garrett and Arts Minister Simon Crean in Sydney on 2 September, after more than two years of consultation by ACARA. It's so exciting to see dance there with the other art forms as part of the new Australian Curriculum!
Curriculum writers and an advisory panel have been appointed, and will meet with ACARA for an induction week on 18 October. We will be talking with teachers in schools as the writing progresses, but ACARA has said they will not be announcing publicly the names of the curriculum writers for privacy reasons.
2012 World Dance Alliance Global Assembly
WDA and daCi met for two days in August to plan for next year’s big event, and it was an impressive team that got together for the first time. Yunyu Wang is head of dance at the Taipei National University of the Arts, and she has assembled team of her colleagues, students and graduates to work on a festival that will welcome up to 1,000 young people, teachers, students and academics.
This partnership will be a first for daCi, an organisation that has never before met in an Asian country. Their team was equally impressive, and the two days were managed with skill and lots of patience by the planning committee of Yunyu, Ralph Buck, Jeff Meiners and Ann Kipling-Brown. We heard about the planned opening and closing events, and helped to plan an amazing program of masterclasses, workshops, keynote addresses and performances. There are also and plans for cultural tours of Taiwan before and after the festival, all of which will be available to groups wishing to come early or stay on afterwards.
Registrations, details of accommodation and the full program will be announced shortly. Keep an eye out on the WDA-daCi website.
WDA/daCi meeting, Taiwan 2011. Top left: Anna Chan, Yeh Chingwen, Ann Tai, Ping Heng. Top right: Ralph Buck, Ann Kipling-Brown, Jeff Meiners, Yunyu Wang. Bottom left: Jeff Meiners, Charlotte Svendler Nielsen. Bottom right: Pan Li-chun, Yeh Chingwen, Lee Hung Fu, Jeff HsiehWorld Dance Alliance Global Executive meeting
What used to be referred to as "the WDA Presidents’ meeting" has now become the WDA Global Executive, a name change decided at the meeting headed by WDA Secretary-General Cheryl Stock. Others at the meeting included Jin-Wen Yu, President of WDA Americas, Yunyu Wang, President-elect of WDA Asia Pacific, Urmimala Sarkar, WDA Asia Pacific Vice-President elect, and Ralph Buck, Vice President of the Pacific region (and convenor of the 2012 Global Assembly in Taipei). I was also present as Secretary of the Asia-Pacific region, with apologies from current WDA AP President Anis Mohd Nor and WDA Europe President Joseph Fontano.
Following up the National Cultural Policy ministerial meeting
ABC Radio National is preparing a series of programs about the arts and cultural policy from 1968 to the present day in a series will go to air within Artworks, their Sunday morning arts program.
On Friday the ABC called us to discuss what's in the National Cultural Policy and how it might impact on the dance sector. They also asked about major historical moments in contemporary dance in the last 25 years, so it was good to be able to pinpoint several positive moments, and to say why we thought it was important to have a national cultural policy.
World Dance Alliance meetings in Taipei
The World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific will be meeting in Taiwan this week to plan two major events. We'll be there, leading plans for the first meeting of international dance support organisations in November, and helping to plan the second – the WDA Global Summit in Taipei in July 2012 in partnership with dance and the Child international (daCi).
National Cultural Policy meeting outcomes
The meeting was facilitated by Ausdance National President, Professor Susan Street, and included organisations from a diverse range of the arts, education and creative industries. Sue worked with co-convenors of ArtsPeak, Julie Dyson (Ausdance) and Tamara Winikoff (National Association for the Visual Arts) to create a framework of four major principles from the National Cultural Policy that could be agreed to by all arts sectors and would be inclusive of their views. These were: 'Mainstreaming' the arts; the impact of technology; artists' career pathways, and Australia's position in the world, including the promotion of our cultural diversity. This framework gave voice to various views which were shared with the Minister.
National Cultural Policy meeting with Arts Minister
With the recent release of the National Cultural Policy discussion paper, there has been a flurry of interest in understanding its content and the ways in which it might impact on artists and on Australian society generally. Ausdance National has organised a meeting between Arts Minister Simon Crean and the CEOs of 30 arts service organisations on August 17, an event that will see an extremely diverse group coming together in Canberra for a Ministerial briefing. They include members of ArtsPeak and the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE), and their portfolios range across copyright law, Indigenous arts, arts and disability, literature, publishing, visual and performing arts and arts education.