World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific—November 2017 update

WDA Asia Pacific will elect a new Executive Board and regional Vice Presidents at its Annual General Meeting on Saturday 11 November in Taipei. Nominations were called for several weeks ago, and the AGM agenda circulated.

WDAAP President, Yunyu Wang (Taiwan), will step down at this meeting, as she has served a maximum term as President. Urmimala Sarkar Munsi (India), the current Vice President, has been nominated to step into that position, but at the time of writing nominations for other positions are still being received.

Also on the AGM agenda is a proposal to clarify the roles and responsibilities of regional Vice Presidents for East Asia, South East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific. The current edition of Asia Pacific Channels has a full list of the Executive Board members, and this list will be updated in the December edition following the election.

We also have a proposal from the Education & Training network co-chairs, Ralph Buck and Jeff Meiners, for formalising the selection of network chairs. At present these are un-elected positions, but the proposal is for a more formal approach to appointing network chairs (also listed in Channels), and for mentoring younger WDA members to take on these roles. The four networks are Education & Training, Creation & Presentation, Research & Documentation and Support & Development.

Participants at a planning meeting in Adelaide for Panpapanpalya 2018, led by Jeff Meiners and Ralph Buck. Photo: Julie Dyson

Finally, another reminder to put the dates in your diary for next year’s Joint Dance Congress, Panpapanpalya 2018, to be held in Adelaide from 8–13 July. There will be a hugely exciting and stimulating program of academic papers, performances, panel discussions, workshops and, of course, networking with peers from all over the world, with a special focus on young people and dance. Earlybird registrations are on sale until 1 February 2018.