Creating dance

In 1982 the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute founded the International Dance Day (IDD) to be celebrated every year on the 29 April, the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), creator of modern ballet.

The intention of the IDD Message is to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, across all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people together with a common language – dance. 

Every year a message from an outstanding choreographer or dancer is circulated throughout the world. The author of the message is selected by the International Dance Committee of ITI and the Executive Council of ITI. The message is translated into numerous languages and circulated globally. World Dance Alliance is a member of the ITI Dance Committee.

This year the Dance Committee of the ITI has selected Canadian choreographer Crystal PITE to provide the 2025 Message.

Humans move – our arms reach out, our knees collapse, our heads nod, our chests cave in, our backs arch, we jump, we shrug, we clench our fists, we pick each other up and push each other away. This is language as much as it is action.

This is what the body has to say about need, defeat, courage, despair, desire, joy, ambivalence, frustration, love. These images flash with meaning in the mind because we have felt these things so purely in the body – we have been moved.

We are dancers, all of us. Life moves us; life dances us. Ephemeral as breath, concrete as bone, a dance is made of us. We sculpt space. We write with our bodies in a wordless language that is deeply understood. We grace the space within and around us when we dance.

Like life, a dance creates and destroys itself in every moment. Like love, it is beyond reason. I like to think of the body as a location; a place where being is held and shaped. When we dance, we are profoundly engaged in being there.

I’m writing this in early 2026, when there seems to be no end to the oppression, upheaval and suffering in our world. Daily, as we witness the horror of what humans are capable of doing to each other and the machinery of power that funds and fuels unspeakable violence to people and planet, dance feels like a facile, useless response. It’s hard to imagine what a dance artist can do in a world that so badly needs radical change and healing.

And yet – art, like hope, is a form of love. Defiantly generative in the face of desecration, art is a solvent for the calcifying mind and a balm to heal it. Art is a vessel to hold us while we grapple with questions – together – in a way that is different from news, different from documentary and education, different from opinion and social media, different from activism and protest, but not incompatible.

Through creativity, we accumulate resistance and hope through small acts of courage, curiosity, kindness and collaboration. In dance, and in dance-making, we find proof that humanity is more than our latest heartbreaking global failure.

But dance needs no justification, no explanation. It’s made of us yet owes us nothing. It only needs to inhabit a willing body. From that location, it can translate the ineffable; acting as an intermediary between us and the unknown.

We are moved by these vanishing traces of beauty in the present moment. And as we embody both the dance and its disappearance, we are reminded of our impermanence. At the same time, if we are paying attention, dance will give us an occasional glimpse of the soul.

Australian choreographer Tegan Jeffrey-Rushton to partcipate in 2026 IYCP

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.

Ausdance National called for applications in February for this year's IYCP, and 16 excellent proposals were received.

Each application was carefully considered by a small panel, and Sydney choreographer Tegan Jeffrey-Rushton was the artist whose name went through to organisers in Taiwan, for consideration as one of only eight to participate from the Asia–Pacific region. We are delighted to announce that an Australian choreograopher has again been included in the final eight.

Tegan will travel to Kaohsiung where the choreographers will work with selected dancers from Taiwan for three weeks, culminating in two public performances in that city. 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'.

Congratulations Tegan, and thanks to all the applicants whose work will continue to influence and be influenced by dance in Australia.

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

Ausdance is calling for applications for the 2026 International Young Choreographer Program.

The IYCP has been providing young choreographers with this invaluable artistic and cultural experience since 1999.

Closing date is very tight this year – 18 February 2026.

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. Victorian choreographer Callum Mooney was selected for the last IYCP. He said:

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, in addition to a $US800 grant, accommodation, local transportation, dancers, studios, publicity, production and office assistance are included.

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

Information for applicants

Application forms are available here, and should be returned to Ausdance National by 18 February.

In addition to contact information, applicants will be asked 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: 18 February 2026.

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.

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)

Taipei National University of the Arts, 10–11 November 2017

There were some special moments at the Dance in Proximity conference, hosted in Taiwan by the Taipei National University of the Arts in November, and organised by a wonderful team of artists, choreographers and teachers, led by Yunyu Wang.

Edited Volume: The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet
Editors: Dr Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel (Faculty of Education, RAD) and Dr Jill Nunes Jensen (Loyola Marymount University)

We are seeking contributions to an edited volume on contemporary ballet. The book will posit ‘Contemporary Ballet’ as a new domain within the broader frameworks presently recognised by discourses in dance.  

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.

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.

2017 National Dance Forum

25–26 September, Victorian College of the Arts

This year’s WDA Global Summit will be held from 23–28 July in St John’s, Newfoundland, a beautiful Canadian city on the east coast. Titled ‘Dancing from the Grassroots’, there will be many exciting events—performances, a conference including Pecha Kucha presentations, panel discussions and papers, and of course a Choreolab and master classes. We hope many Australians have made submissions to participate and look forward to once again having great representation from Australia at all events. Registrations will be open shortly.

Another opportunity available to Australian Ausdance members is the International Young Choreographer Program (ICYP), which offers fellowships to eight young artists: three from Taiwan, three from other Asia Pacific countries, and one each from WDA Europe and WDA Americas.

This year Australian Scott Ewen has been selected to participate in the ICYP. Scott attended the WDA Choreolab as a a highly regarded choreographer last year in Seoul. Congratulations Scott!

Ausdance members are automatically members of the WDA through Ausdance National’s partnership arrangement that includes publication of Asia Pacific Channels, access to choreographic fellowships, and discounted event attendance. Make sure you’re an Ausdance member before applying for any of these events.

2–23 July 2017 (dates TBC) Kaohsiung, Taiwan

The National Indigenous Dance Forum (NIDF), in partnership with Yirramboi Festival (Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival), will take place from 5–7 May 2017 in Melbourne.

It's time to get involved! Be part of the NIDF curatorial or community working groups (or join BOTH). 

Bold—celebrating the legacy of dance, 8–12 March 2017

How can dance help in transforming society? This and many more questions will be a focus in 2018 at one of the world’s largest gatherings of dance educators and young artists in Adelaide, Australia. 

During the week of 11–15 July 2016, delegates from daCi (dance and the Child international) and WDA (World Dance Alliance Education and Training Network) met in Adelaide, Australia to collaborate in planning for a joint congress to be held from 8–13 July 2018. How to connect with UNESCO and initiate global advocacy informed our planning. 

Big Dance is a biennial festival of people dancing led by the Mayor of London in partnership with People Dancing and the Big Dance Hubs, a network of leading dance organisations across the UK.

Big Dance Week ran from 2 to 10 July 2016 and Ausdance Queensland and Tracks Dance in Darwin hosted Big Dance events.

Arts Centre Melbourne, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Re:Bourne, the charitable arm of New Adventures are working towards a major creative project that will culminate in a one week season at Arts Centre Melbourne’s State Theatre in Autumn 2017.

This project offers an opportunity for Melbourne-based dancers to work for one month with choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne’s leading international dance company. 

Sir Matthew Bourne and other members of the New Adventures team will be in Melbourne in August 2016 to audition six male dancers to join the company for this one-off project at Arts Centre Melbourne.

Key information

• Audition date: Saturday 6 August 2016 (applications required)
• Recalls: Sunday 7 August 2016
• Where: Auditions and recalls will be held in a centrally located venue in Melbourne
• Rehearsals & season: Sunday, 14 August 2016 (workshop) & Monday 13 March – Sunday 9 April 2017
• For Melbourne-based male dancers with at least three years of professional level training in classical or contemporary dance with a stage appearance age between 14–22.
• Audition notice and application information on the Arts Centre Melbourne website.
• Applications close COB Tuesday 12 July 2016.

Asia–Pacific Channels is the bi-annual newsletter of the World Dance Alliance (WDA), published by Ausdance National in collaboration with MyDance Alliance in Malaysia. It profiles dance events and activities from WDA members throughout the Asia–Pacific region.

Download the June 2016 issue (2 MB)

We produce and publish Channels as a contribution to the World Dance Alliance and dance in our region. It also helps us build the international networks that provide professional development opportunities for Australian dance artists.

Our work producing this publication helps us contribute to the World Dance Alliance's goals, which are:

• To promote the recognition, development and mutual understanding of all forms of dance.
• To facilitate communication and exchange among dance individuals, institutions and organisations interested in dance.
• To provide a forum for discussion of matters relating to dance.
• To encourage and support the research, education, criticism, creation and performance of dance.
• To liaise, co-ordinate and participate in activities with other dance organisations in the world.

Submissions are open for Brolga #41 under the broad theme 'A place for dance'.

Key information

• Submissions due 31 August 2016
• Email your submission to the editor Olivia Millard
• Brolga guidelines for contributors (48 KB PDF)

The art and community ecology in which dance exists is delicate and complex. As with the fight for survival by animals in compromised environments perhaps it is the ‘charismatic’ or ‘innovative’ artists who survive. If so, where is the place for the dancers and dance makers who exist outside the realm of publically notable; who eschew spectacle or even notoriety? And how is it possible for a dancer to find their dance place in the rich history of skill and experimentation?

Australian Dance Awards 2016 key information

• 6.30 pm Sunday 18 September 2016
• Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, Perth
• Tickets: ticketek

The dance community in Western Australia is gearing up to host the 2016 Australian Dance Awards at the Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, Perth, on Sunday 18 September. Ausdance WA is working with Claudia Alesssi, creative producer of this year’s event, to curate a truly memorable evening, showcasing Western Australian dance companies, and more.