Careers in dance

Applications from emerging Australian choreographers are now being called for this international opportunity.

The IYCP has been providing young choreographers with this invaluable artistic and cultural experience since 1999. Read about previous Australian participants’ experience here.

Closing date is 16 December 2023.

About the International Young Choreographer Project

The International Young Choreographer Project (IYCP) is held in southern Taiwan in July/August and is hosted by World Dance Alliance Asia–Pacific Taiwan chapter. Eight choreographers from the Asia-Pacific region are chosen by WDA Asia Pacific (WDAAP) to attend.

Participants are selected from a list of young choreographers recommended by World Dance Alliance country chapters (Asia Pacific, including Australia, the Americas and Europe), based not only on their choreographic work, but also on their ability to meet the challenges of working in a foreign country with unfamiliar dancers and culture, and their potential as a significant contributor to dance in the future.

The selected choreographers work with selected dancers from Taiwan. The three-week process of developing new works with local Taiwanese dancers concludes with two performances. The program highlights the diversity of dance in both styles and cultures, and how local and international choreographers perceive their daily lives and the world.

Participants must fund their own travel to Taiwan. However, an honorarium of US$800 for WDAAP choreographers is included, plus accommodation, local transportation, dancers, studios, publicity, production and office assistance.

Australian applicants must be members of Ausdance (find your local Ausdance).

Information for applicants

Application forms are available from Ausdance National.

In addition to contact information, applicants will be asked to answer these questions:

• What you would gain from a professional experience such as this?
• Why would you like to work in Asia?
• A brief concept of your proposed work.
• A 200-word biography and a resume/CV.

Closing date is December 16 2023.

The Tertiary Dance Council of Australia (TDCA) is comprised of academic members from Australian higher educational institutions that offer programs in Dance and Dance Education. It is chaired by Associate Professor Peter Cook, Deputy Head of the School of Education at the University of Southern Queensland.

This national body has identified the absence of a national cultural policy that is inclusive of all art forms, their benefits and accessibility, and the impact of arts education and training on the lives of all Australians.

During the recent pandemic lockdowns, society turned to the arts which pivoted their practice for online audiences, and for aesthetic and well-being contingencies. The arts need to be recognised and celebrated for their capacity to nurture, develop and reinvigorate research for the benefit of the wider society.

The TDCA also has serious concerns about the Federal Government’s re-prioritisation of research funds resulting in ministerial intervention and the enacting of veto powers in relation to the Australia Research Council’s Discovery Grants and Linkage programs.

This narrowing of scope is taking place as we are facing, according to Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, “an unprecedented crisis in the cultural sector” (Reshaping policies for creativity). Although the arts and cultural sector is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world, it is also one of the most vulnerable and is often overlooked by public and private investment, including the distribution of public research funds.

Tertiary dance programs undertake practical academic explorations, often involving performance and choreography, that are completely aligned with research principles in their planning, execution and dissemination. They explore contemporary and cultural topics, develop theoretical positions, and engage methods and methodologies that work towards better understanding of, and knowledge about, the issues at hand.

Seeing the downturn of arts-based grants compounds already disenfranchised academics, many of whom are undertaking unfunded and in-kind research projects that benefit society.

Inclusion of arts research projects and their interdisciplinary approaches clearly fits the paradigms from which society benefits. Limiting arts research program funding endangers the unique contribution that arts research makes towards the aesthetic leadership and engagement of well-being, so required as we live through the pandemic world and its recovery.

The technologising of the field, together with its diversification and partnerships across science, health, humanities and ecology, evidences how dance enhances lives across generations and within communities.

We also note the following:

• Covid has had a major Impact on the sustainability of private dance schools, which are TDCA feeder schools.

• The extreme vulnerability of the arts in higher education.

Recommendations:

• Commitment by all political parties to the development of a National Cultural Policy that includes arts education and training, and developed in consultation with artists, arts educators, the community, industry and peak arts bodies.
• Allocation of ARC grants to a broader industry cohort to redress diminishing arts research in dance in particular. Ministerial interference in ARC decision-making processes must stop.
• Support for research into the vulnerability of the arts in higher education.
• Reversal of increased tertiary fees in the Creative Arts, made on the false premise that this area of study does not lead to employment.
• Enabling of research into the private dance studio sector to assess the impact of Covid-19 on the viability of this important ‘feeder’ sector in dance training and employment.

The Tertiary Dance Council of Australia (TDCA) is comprised of academic members from Australian higher education institutions that offer programs in Dance and Dance Education. It exists under the auspices of Ausdance National, and is chaired by Associate Professor Peter Cook of the University of Southern Queensland.

The TDCA is seriously concerned about the Federal Government’s re-prioritisation of research funds, resulting in ministerial intervention and the enacting of veto powers in relation to the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Grants and Linkage programs.

The TDCA has recently made a submission to the Senate's Australian Research Council Amendment (Ensuring Research Independence) Bill 2018.

Australian dance educators are also being encouraged to sign the Australian Parliament House Petition to prevent political interference in ARC funding grants (closing on 16 March).

The Ausdance National Education Committee, led by Dr Jeff Meiners and Sue Fox, has prepared a submission to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) in response to its review of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts.

The proposed revisions aim to declutter the content through improving the curriculum's clarity of structure and refine the content descriptions and achievement standards. This response relates specifically to Dance in the F-6 curriculum, as this is the identified focus of the review.

As Ausdance’s reps on the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) Council, Jeff and Sue have also contributed to the NAAE's submission, which has reached a review consensus across all art forms.
 
We thank Jeff and Sue and the Ausdance National Dance Education Committee who contributed to Ausdance's submission, and who will continue to work with ACARA on next steps. 
 
Ausdance National Education Committee members are:

• Rachael Bott (WA)
• Trish Brown (ACT)
• Sarah Calver (NT)
• Peter Cook (NSW)
• Megan Cooper (SA)
• Julie Dyson (ACT)
• Candice Egan (VIC)
• Sue Fox (QLD)
• Lesley Graham (TAS)
• Julie-Anne Grant (QLD)
• Rikki Mace (TAS)
• Kate Maquire-Rosier (NSW)
• Jeff Meiners (SA)
• Helen Mullins (QLD)
• Katrina Rank (VIC)
• Amy Wiseman (WA)

With so many artists excluded from both JobKeeper and JobSeeker during the Covid-19 crisis, the sector suffered another blow with the announcement by the Federal Education Minister, Dan Tehan, that tertiary fees would be substantially increased for Humanities and Creative Arts courses.

The Minister's announcement did not contain much detail, so we asked whether he would clarify the percentage increase for the Creative Arts. 'We understand fees for ‘creative arts’ will rise by 13%, from $6804 to $7700 over three years, but we are unable to find more accurate information in the Minister’s speech to the National Press Club. However, it is clear that Humanities & Social Science degrees will rise by 113%'.

We also asked the Minister to define ‘creative arts’, i.e. did it mean arts training courses such as those offered in Dance at QUT and the University of Melbourne (VCA)?

We now have a response from the Minister, and will be following up shortly with input from dance course directors and the Ausdance network.

As we are all very aware, the arts and live performance have been devastated by the impact of COVID-19, along with the rest of the community.

​Any businesses that practice in the arts sector, be they for-profit or not-for-profit, big, small or individual, must be included in the upcoming economic stimulus package. In the dance sector there are studios, performance companies and individuals who have had their work lost or diminished to the point of closing down. Any government stimulus for business must include arts workers, and take account of issues such as rent and mortgage assistance, freezing of utility bills, and rapid responses by Centrelink, including the abandonment of waiting times. 

With so many independent practitioners in dance, we implore all governments to find ways to support individuals and sole traders through this crisis. Artists have always been extremely resourceful in sustaining their practice through normal times. Their opportunities for other work though, have now diminished to the point of non-existence and, despite their many creative resources, the financial and artistic consequences for them are dire.

Eventually the pandemic will pass. We don’t know when. When it does, the creative industries, and especially the arts, will be the leaders in reviving the spirits of the community and working with all Australians to restore society and the economy. Everything possible must be done to ensure that artists are actually around to do so.

If you want to contribute to Ausdance's knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 on your practice, please complete this survey.

For further information contact:

Paul Summers, Ausdance National President

Mobile 0417 925 292

At the 21st Australian Dance Awards (8 September 2018), Ausdance National awarded the Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship to Lewis Major. The fellowship provides financial assistance for an emerging choreographer to travel internationally with the sole purpose of developing and extending their choreographic practice.

The Australian Dance Awards committee has announced the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2018 will be presented to Athol Willoughby, OAM, in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the dance profession in Australia for over 65 years.

Calling all aspiring professional dancers aged 18–24 years, applications are now open for Sydney Dance Company's Pre-Professional Year 2019.

“Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year is an outstanding opportunity for aspiring dancers to gain exposure to Australia’s leading contemporary dance company. Pre-professional dancers will develop all the skills essential for a lifelong career in contemporary dance as well as being provided with unique professional development, networking and mentorship opportunities under the guidance of the artistic staff of Sydney Dance Company.” Rafael Bonachela, Artistic Director, Sydney Dance Company

Key information

Applications are
 open to Australian and New Zealand citizens or permanent residents only.

Application closing date: 
Monday 27 August 2018 

Audition: The first round of Pre-Professional Year auditions will be an online application process that includes a video submission.

Successful first round applicants will be invited to a second round in-person audition at Sydney Dance Company Studios on 17 September 2018 between 9am and 6pm.

For more information please visit 2019 Pre-Professional Year Audition Application.

Celebrating 21 years, the Australian Dance Awards is one of the country’s most prestigious performing arts awards. The Awards acknowledge people working in the professional dance sector who have made innovative and exceptional work of national significance, or have made an outstanding and enduring contribution to the dance industry.

‘Arriving at the shortlist is a demanding job for the volunteer panel of 13 dance sector professionals representing all states and territories’, said Julie Dyson, nominations coordinator for the 2018 Australian Dance Awards.

‘Panel members include educators, independent artists, dance company directors, and writers/reviewers. We receive between 450 and 700 nominations each year. A thorough voting system is in place, with two, sometimes three rounds of voting.’

Presented by Ausdance National, the 2018 awards will take place on Saturday 8 September at the Brisbane Powerhouse, with tickets on sale from 9 July.

‘Ausdance National is honoured to present the 21st Australian Dance Awards in partnership with industry sponsors’, said Kerry Comerford, Executive Director of Ausdance National. ‘The Awards ceremony is the time we acknowledge and celebrate the dance profession’s depth and diversity, both on and off the stage.’

Presented in an afternoon of performances showcasing some of Australia’s best dance of the past year, the annual Australian Dance Awards rely on the generosity and goodwill of the dance sector. ‘It’s important that the event represents the excellence and diversity of dance in Australia’ said Sandi Woo, 2018 Award’s producer.

2018 Australian Dance Awards shortlist

Services to Dance

• Philippe Charluet
• Marilyn Miller
• Philip Piggin
• Hilary Trotter

Services to Dance Education

• Paige Gordon
• Raewyn Hill
• Sinsa Mansell
• Katrina Rank

Outstanding Achievement in Community Dance

• Annette Carmichael (choreography), James Gentle (sound design) for The Beauty Index
• Tracks Dance for Man Made
• QPAC, The Royal Ballet and Community Groups for We All Dance
• Sprung!! Integrated Dance Theatre for Share House

Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance

• Austinmer Dance Theatre for UNREAL
• Co3 for Project next
• QL2 Dance for This Poisoned Sea
• Moorambilla Voices for Gundabooka

Outstanding Performance by a Company

• Co3 for The Zone
• Dancenorth Attractor
• STRUT Dance for William Forsythe's One Flat Thing, Reproduced
• Queensland Ballet for Raw (triple bill): No Man’s Land, Glass Concerto and Ghost Dances

Outstanding Achievement in Choreography

• Lucy Guerin and Gideon Obarzanek for Attractor (Dancenorth and Lucy Guerin Inc)
• Raewyn Hill for The Zone (Co3)
• Stephanie Lake for Pile of Bones (Stephanie Lake Company)
• Stephen Page for Bennelong (2017) (Bangarra Dance Theatre)

Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance

• Martin del Amo for CHAMPIONS
• Australian Dance Artists for Restraint(s)
• Michelle Heaven for In Plan
• Nick Power (choreography), Jack Prest (sound design) for Between Tiny Cities រវាងទីក្រុងតូច

Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer

• Jana Castillo for construct (Australian Dance Theatre)
• Amber Haines for Spectra (Dancenorth)
• Ako Kondo for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (The Australian Ballet)
• Charmene Yap for Ocho (Sydney Dance Company)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer

• Richard Causer for Behind Closed Doors (Expressions Dance Company)
• Nelson Earl for Ocho (Sydney Dance Company)
• Beau Dean Riley Smith for Bennelong (2017) (Bangarra Dance Theatre)
• Kimball Wong for construct (Australian Dance Theatre)

Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Dance, Musicals or Physical Theatre

• Gravity & Other Myths for BACKBONE
• Michael Ralph for SELF
• Andrew Hallsworth for Muriel’s Wedding (Sydney Theatre Company and Global Creatures)
• Nicola Gunn and Jo Lloyd for Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster

Outstanding Achievement in Dance on Film or New Media

• Richard James Allen for Enchant
• Sophia Bender for Behind Barres
• Sue Healey for Eileen
• Catherine Moore & Jade Lowry for Unstilled

2018 Australian Dance Awards shortlist media release (50 KB PDF)

We are currently representing the dance sector by contributing knowledge to three urgent issues that impact healthy growth in Australia’s creative economy:

• Access to professional mental health support for those who work in the entertainment industry, because we can't tackle these issues in isolation. We need to support each other.
• Access to education and training resources to prevent discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and bullying, because these impact our mental health and wellbeing. Together we can create healthy work environments free from these threats.
• Sustainable access to international expertise that transfers skills to Australian organisations and creatives, because this will stimulate innovation.

Five Australian entertainment industry professionals attempt suicide every week. The time for change is now!

We need you, as an Australian entertainment industry professional, to share your thoughts surrounding the mental health needs of our industry people, how they should be supported and what are the most pressing issues.

Congratulations to Lucette Aldous who has been made Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the Australia Day 2018 Honours List.

Lucette has been recognised with the nation’s highest honour for her eminent service to the performing arts, particularly to ballet, as a principal artist at the national and international level, to dance education, and as a mentor and role model for young performers.

Lucette received the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Australian Dance Awards.

The Safe Dance Report IV: Investigating injuries in Australia’s professional dancers, published today on the Ausdance National website, examines the Australian context and occurrence of injury in professional dancers and makes recommendations to support sustainable, healthy, and productive dancing careers.

A collaboration between The University of Sydney and Ausdance National, Safe Dance IV is the fourth in a series of Safe Dance research projects. It continues the important work started by Ausdance National almost 30 years ago.

The survey of 195 Australian professional dancers found 97% experienced at least one significant injury in their dance career, compared with 89% in 1999. And 73% of dancers reported experiencing a dance-related injury in the past 12 months.

Author and lead researcher Amy Jo Vassallo, a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Health Sciences at The University of Sydney, said the consequences of these injuries can be quite substantial and include missed performance opportunities and income, ongoing pain and disability, and expensive treatment including surgery. Serious injuries can even lead to early retirement from dance careers and lifelong disability.

‘The proportion of dancers reporting fatigue as a contributing factor to their injury has increased from 26% in 1990 and 33% in 1999 to 48% in 2017’ she said.

‘However, compared with previous Safe Dance survey results, fewer dancers reported poor technique or environment as a contributor to their injury. This demonstrates the benefits of education, policies and interventions regarding safe dancing practice for dancers and teachers at all stages of a dance career, including early teaching and pre-professional training’.

Ausdance National President, Professor Gene Moyle, said the Safe Dance Report IV continues an important lineage for the Australian dance community. Hearing the words “safe dance practice” being so much a part of our language and approach within the dance sector today is a testament to the impact and contribution of the collective Safe Dance reports within our industry.

Recommendations have outlined that access to dance-educated or dance-specialised healthcare services is essential; addressing the cultural aspects of injury reporting is critical; and that a better acknowledgement of the psychological and psychosocial aspects of injury is required.

Key findings

Survey respondents’ employment as a dance performer was most commonly with a dance company (66%) or as an independent dance artist (38%).

Injuries remain common in professional dance, with 73% of professional dancers reporting experiencing an injury in the past 12 months. The most common site of injury was the ankle (26%), followed by the knee (11%) and hip (10%).

The most common injury type was a strain (25%), followed by chronic inflammation (19%) and a sprain (18%).

There was one accidental or traumatic injury for every two overuse or gradual injuries. The most common responses regarding the self-reported contributor to injury were fatigue (48%), followed by new or difficult choreography (39%) and ignoring early warning signs (31%).

Despite 62% of respondents reporting belief that there is still stigma associated with sustaining injuries as a professional dancer, 75% of dancers did say they would seek professional opinion if they suspected an injury. However, only 50% stated they would tell someone within their dance employment and 49% said they would also take their own preventative steps to manage their injury.

Despite seeing a clinician for treatment of their injury, 40% of dancers whose injury was currently unresolved were unsure if their injury would resolve in the foreseeable future. This indicates that many dancers need to be provided with improved and realistic expectations of their injury, capacity to dance during their injury and likely return to full dance ability.

For interview contact:

Amy Vassallo | PhD Candidate
Faculty of Health Sciences
The University of Sydney
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 02 9351 9010 and 02 9351 9108

Ausdance National Council – Ausdance Inc.
Email: [email protected]

Download Safe Dance Report IV media release

Since our last report, NAAE has been engaged in meetings and correspondence with the NSW Education Minister, Mr Rob Stokes, and the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) about the development of a new Creative Arts syllabus in NSW.

Expressions of interest are sought from contemporary dancer–makers for Tasdance professional ensemble 2018–20.

Tasdance has embarked on a daring new approach to the nature of the professional contemporary dance ensemble to become the Tasdance Makers Company.

The NAAE will have its next meeting on 11 December, but NSW reps will in the meantime be meeting with NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) to discuss concerns about the way in which the Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus is being rewritten, and about the exclusion of Media Arts from the NSW curriculum, despite agreement by all Australian governments to adopt the Australian Curriculum: The Arts. It’s clear that NSW’s options clearly do not represent the agreement endorsed at COAG (which included the NSW Education Minister). (Minister’s response [PDF 2.9MB]

Congratulations to Kristina Chan who received the Ausdance National Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship at the 2017 Australian Dance Awards on Sunday 24 September 2017.

Can you even remember life before the internet? Hang on, perhaps you weren’t alive.

The digital domain has transformed almost every facet of our lives—but for those of us in the arts, it’s been especially influential in the way we make and consume art. In many ways there have never been more ways to get your art out there, and the artistic possibilities of new technologies are seemingly endless…but life for dance in the digital domain is not without its challenges.

MEDIA RELEASE (84Kb PDF)

Tuesday 22 August 2017
For immediate release

Australia’s peak dance organisation, Ausdance National, will host a two-day forum next month bringing together dance makers, producers and presenters for a highly topical forum focusing on the future of dance within the digital domain. The National Dance Forum is Australia’s key platform for dance artists, industry professionals and educators in providing rich opportunities to discuss, debate and collaborate with some of the most influential individuals and organisations in the country.