Journals + newsletters

Bree Hadley (QUT) delves into Lucy Guerin's intentions and choreography as Lucy attempts to make "the tangle of data, information and desire that circulates through contemporary communication technologies...tangible on stage" in her 2005 award-winning work titled Aether.

In 1947 American modern dance pioneer Martha Graham commissioned a score from Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti for a new work. The resulting collaboration, Errand into the Maze. Only a few years after premiere, another version of the piece premiered in Sydney, Australia, choreographed by Gertrud Bodenwieser to the same score.

Karen Barbour, Senior Lecturer in dance at the University of Waikato (NZ), talks about her personal experiences and her ideas about the sustainability of collaborative dance ventures

This paper explores a large-scale international project, Accented Body, which involved partnerships across the arts industry, the tertiary sector, government and philanthropic organisations.

Secondary school dance teacher, Lynettte Haines talks about the dance program at Golden Grove High School in Adelaide, and the work they made for their exciting Asian tour.

National Director, Ausdance and WDA secretary, Julie Dyson gives a concise history of the World Dance Alliance and its relationship with Australia and Ausdance.

Co-artistic directors, David McMicken and Tim Newth give us an insight into the rich cultural context and its impact on Tracks Dance Company in Australia’s Northern Territory

Dr Katrina Rank, Manager of Education and Training for Ausdance Victoria, outlines the guidelines developed in Australia to support effective and safe dance practice in schools and communities

Michelle Silby, independent arts consultant based in Sydney and working in the UK and Australia, sets out some of the current developments in community dance in Australia

Kath Papas talks to two community dance pratitioners from opposite sides of Australia, about their views on some ‘bigger picture’ questions relating to community dance.

Annette Gillen (nee Dunlop) remembers performances of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo in Sydney, and their direct influence on her becoming a dancer—first as a student of Helene Kirsova and then as a professional dancer in the Kirsova and Borovansky Ballets.

Marianne examine the influence that American and European dance and physical education has had on New Zealand's physical and artistic expression, gives modern dance a context within the social and cultural landscape of immediate post-WWll New Zealand.

Garry offers an excellent appraisal of the dance holdings at the National Film and Sound Archives in Canberra, and reminds us of the value of having dance on film to experience a history of dance.

This seed for this article began at a conference at the University of Otago where there was much debate about the connections between, and the definitions of, 'interdisciplinarity' and 'interculturalism' within the Oceania context. The featured dance ethnography investigates the creative process and somatic philosophies of the Atamira Dance Company.

Kohe and Newman investigate the parallels between sport and dance studies and also consider the emerging discipline called 'physical cultural studies'. They suggest that an intercourse between study of dance and study of sport "could provide novel methodological, theoretical, and metaphysical spaces which transcend disciplinary moorings."

Boundary crossing is the first step towards transdisciplinarity. In this paper, Alison discusses the act of academic boundary crossing, of ‘dancing’ across or between the disciplines. She explores the potential role of dance within the relatively new and evolving research paradigm of transdisciplinarity (TD).

Carol talks in detail about the collaborative work Tongues of Stone, made in Perth in 2011 with designer Dorita Hannah and sound artist Russell Scoones. "Our collaborative process seeks to make connections between the lived-in present and long-buried traumatic pasts..."

Alex questions whether interdisciplinary collaboration must necessarily be seen as democratic and therefore desirable, or whether it could instead be viewed as a more problematic corollary of contemporary forces such as globalisation and the modern market economy.

In a departure from conventional Western concert dance choreography, Larry talks about his collaborative works with performers who "disengage aesthetic design-based constraints carried by codified dance techniquers and choreographic principles."

With a particular interest in the ways that dancers reflect social, cultural, political and economic currencies, Ananya talks about the intersection of dancing, dance studies and social justice work. Many of her questions come from experiences of art-making that encompass a broad range of race, gender, class and sexuality.