Stories + essays

Ausdance WA and Ausdance Victoria have their own state-based annual dance awards. Find out how they differ from the Australian Dance Awards.

It's been described as the most significant platform for dialogue across the Australian contemporary dance sector. For two days, escape the isolation and immerse yourself in discussion, debate, networking, new ideas and reflection on artistic practice.

Leigh Warren will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2014 Australian Dance Awards for his outstanding contribution to dance as a performer, choreographer, teacher, director and mentor over four decades.

As part of developing the 2015 National Dance Forum's 'lines of focus', curatorial panel members shared their thoughts about the inherent concerns and realities affecting current professional practice in Australia. This is Matthew Day's response.

23 students participated in Sydney Dance Company's 2014 Pre-Professional training program. Two of them talk about their experience.

For people with Parkinson's disease, high quality dance classes led by trained professional teaching artists are becoming internationally acknowledged and valued as both a creative activity and an evidence-based therapeutic intervention. From my own dancer’s perspective, these classes are a beautiful and satisfying way to authentically share my own experience and passion for the art form in way that also connects to community.

In 2014, our Australian dance companies have been working on some brave and surprising collaborations that foster health, wellbeing and social change. In 2014 KAGE will premiereTeam of Life at the Melbourne Festival, Bangarra collaborated with beyondblue to create the short film Stories for Keeping Strong—Bangarra Rekindling, Shaun Parker collaborated with multicultural urban youth to create The Yard, which tackles loneliness, competition, survival and bullying, Australian Dance Theatre's work Proximity inspired a new approach to stroke rehabilitation, and BalletLab created a work about AIDS with community participants and the Victorian AIDs Council.

Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, which takes place every summer in Massachusetts USA, is lauded worldwide as a "hub and mecca of dancing"..."one of America's most precious cultural assets"....and "the dance center of the nation." Phoebe Barnes, Australian dancer & teacher, talks about her exciting experience at the 2014 Festival. 

All Ausdance members are automatically members of the World Dance Alliance 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.

Julie Dyson and Cheryl Stock discuss Australian Dance in Shifting Sands: Dance in Asia and the Pacific.

Cheryl Stock, Artistic Director of Dancenorth (1984–1995) talks about a large-scale site-specific community dance project specially devised for the Townsville community in 1994. Originally published in Dancers and communities: a collection of writings about dance as a community art

This book tells us about some of the ways community dance evolves. I couldn't put it down. Like a good novel, its characters are fascinating, the stories captivating, and the twists and turns keep one interested, for it's as Shirley McKechnie says in the preface, 'a many faceted story of places, people and artists working together in partnerships concerned with discovery and celebration' (p.vii).

And yet there is no formula for being a successful community artist; every project requires a different approach. Flexibility, sensitivity, spontaneity, enthusiasm, honour, commitment, patience, exhaustion, resilience and pride permeate these pages, as do stories of ordinary people creating magic moments for themselves and others, through the facilitation of this person called a community dancer.

Julie Dyson pays tribute to Cheryl Stock who was recently awarded an AM. Cheryl is an artist and scholar who has influenced four decades of Australian policy, dance education, scholarship and research, dance leadership and artistic vision.

Australian participants in International Young Choreographer Project share the challenges and surprises of producing a work in unknown circumstances, in a limited time-frame, and with unfamiliar dancers. Learn how it changed their choreographic and artistic processes.

Creative Director of Dance Integrated Australia talks about Corner Dance Lab and New Works Forum in Hong Kong, which will explore ways of producing inclusive performances for artists with diverse backgrounds and physical abilities.

Roslyn Dumdas shares her 2014 Australian Youth Dance Festival experience. Held in Renmark on the border of South Australia and Victoria, this was the eighth Australian Youth Dance Festival (AYDF).

Choreographer Kay Armstong, the 2013 recipient of the Ausdance Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship, talks about "three synergistic professional development activities" that have been enabled by this Fellowship.

Stephen Page's 2004 International Dance Day message and the 2012–13 video messages.

Jacqueline Simmonds interviews David McMicken at Tracks Dance Collective, Brown's Mart Community Arts Project, Darwin, November 1995.

A list of oral history interviews available to download now (2014). It includes interviews with Australian artistic directors, choreographers, dancers, dance teachers and arts administrators. Links take you directly to the download page on the National Library's website.