News: April 2020

In accordance with the Constitution, Ausdance National calls for nominations to fill a maximum of eight board vacancies. As Ausdance National's interim board members were elected at a Special General Meeting on 4 December 2019 (rather than at an AGM) all positions are now declared vacant at the Annual General Meeting, to be held via Zoom on 28 June 2020 at 12.30 pm.

When nominating, please consider the following:

• Skills & experience—the board needs to include outstanding individuals that have demonstrated skills, experience and knowledge in specific areas and will contribute to good governance and the future development of Ausdance National and dance in Australia
• Diversity—the board should reflect our wider community with an appropriate gender mix, together with considerations of age and cultural diversity.
• Location—the board should reflect the breadth of dance activity across Australia. Selection should not be based on location only.

The following selection criteria will also be considered:

General criteria—all board members

• A commitment to the development of Australian dance
• A commitment to the mission and aims of Ausdance National
• Proven ability to think strategically in a changing and dynamic environment
• High-level skills, knowledge and experience that will significantly contribute to the good governance and future vision of Ausdance National and the Ausdance network
• Extensive networks and contacts

Additional criteria—President & Vice Presidents

• Demonstrated leadership skills & experience
• An awareness of funding and arts sector structures and organisations
• Availability to support the staff and operations

Additional criteria—Treasurer

• Demonstrated skills and experience, including appropriate qualifications in accounting and financial management
• Availability to support the staff and operations
• Areas of expertise

The board should attract:

• A National Executive of outstanding leaders in the community with extensive networks and contacts. The Executive should include at least one individual who has experience in a senior role within the professional dance sector.
• Senior dance artists, arts managers and producers
• A qualified CPA or Chartered Accountant
• Law professionals
• Marketing, public relations and communications experts
• Senior staff from the tertiary and/or education sector
• Senior corporate and/or government (non-arts) representatives
• Experts from areas including technology, human resources, business development.

Nominations must be received on the nomination form by Wednesday 27 May 2020. Please contact National President Paul Summers for further information and for the nomination form.

Leave a comment

In 1982 the Dance Committee of ITI founded International Dance Day 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 International Dance Day Message is to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross 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 Gregory Vuyani MAQOMA, South African dancer, actor, choreographer and dance educator.

Message for International Dance Day, 29 April 2020.

It was during an interview I had recently that I had to think deeply about dance: what does it mean to me? In my response, I had to look into my journey, and I realised that it was all about purpose – each day presents a new challenge that needs to be confronted, and it is through dance that I try to make sense of the world.

We are living through unimaginable tragedies, in a time that I could best describe as the post-human era. More than ever, we need to dance with purpose, to remind the world that humanity still exists. Purpose and empathy need to prevail over years and years of undeniable virtual landscape of dissolution that has given rise to a catharsis of universal grief conquering the sadness, the hard reality that continues to permeate the living confronted by death, rejection and poverty.

Our dance must more than ever give a strong signal to the world leaders and those entrusted with safeguarding and improving human conditions that we are an army of furious thinkers, and our purpose is one that strives to change the world one step at a time. Dance is freedom, and through our found freedom, we must free others from the entrapments they face in different corners of the world.

Dance is not political but becomes political because it carries in its fibre a human connection and therefore responds to circumstances in its attempt to restore human dignity. As we dance with our bodies, tumbling in space and tangling together, we become a force of movement weaving hearts, touching souls and providing healing that is so desperately needed. And purpose becomes a single hydra-headed, invincible and indivisible dance. All we need now is to dance some more!

Photo Credit: Alon Skuy

Leave a comment

In support of Australian dance, Ausdance has written to the Arts Minister, the Hon. Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts. In the meantime, we are providing a voice for dance through regular briefings with the Government, the Opposition, the Greens, and officials from the Australia Council, the federal Arts department, Treasury and other peak arts organisations.

Dear Minister,

Ausdance National and the State/Territory Ausdance network thank you for the financial assistance measures available to the arts industry, including JobKeeper, JobSeeker, and the $27m for regional arts organisations and artists announced last week.

We are writing to reinforce the concerns of our arts colleagues about the anomalies in the eligibility for assistance of independent artists, sole traders and dance companies. We remain extremely concerned that measures announced to date do not yet respond to the urgent issues that have been outlined by leading arts organisations, and do not align with the specific needs of our industry. 

An arts industry-specific stimulus package must be implemented as soon as possible to redress our industry’s loss of all self-generated income and to assist its ability to survive long months of shut-down and the road to recovery.

At last week’s roundtable with the Australia Council, the Department for the Arts and your own staff members, Kristine Kaukomaa and Ryan Bloxsam, Ausdance National raised the issue of recovery and the Australia Council’s capacity to respond to a very different arts landscape that will emerge from the current crisis.

The recent results of the Australia Council’s four-year funding for small to medium dance companies highlighted the ongoing losses sustained by this sector of the dance profession. Only eight small dance companies and organisations are left with the ability to employ staff, plan for the future and create new work, while four other highly regarded companies are left hanging by a thread, with one-year transitional funding.

All four ‘transitional’ companies have played a significant role in working regionally; with disability artists and with Indigenous artists and their communities, and all four will probably not survive without ongoing funding beyond their transition year. Many other small but artistically significant dance companies and independent artists are completely without Australia Council or State/Territory funding support, and all will be struggling to rebuild creative output, audiences and touring schedules in 2021, further weakening our already fragile dance infrastructure.

The Australia Council is the Federal Government’s own peak arts funding and advisory body, and we call for its funding to be doubled in the October Budget. Its present funding levels deprive it of being able to deliver on its vision to ‘support Australia’s arts through funding, strengthening and developing the arts sector’. If its policy settings are to recognise that the dance ecosystem is inter-dependent, then the Council must be adequately funded to strengthen and develop it. Such policy settings would recognise that different dance sectors serve different purposes, from the AMPAG dance companies to youth dance companies, First Nations performers, independent artists, community dance practitioners, school and studio teachers, choreographers and producers.

We also reaffirm that people stay physically and mentally well by dancing and moving. The significant role played by dance in communities through dance education, dance for Parkinson’s programs, dance and movement for the elderly and the widespread health and wellbeing programs offered by professional dance artists across the country, must not be under-estimated.

The provision of an arts-specific funding package will be an opportunity for the Government to show cultural leadership and a recognition of the ways in which the arts (including dance) will lead healing and reconnection of communities in the COVID-19 recovery phase, including those facing mental health issues.

Doubling the Australia Council’s current funding in the context of an arts-specific funding package is not a big request when compared to the rescue packages afforded to other industries. Recognition that increased funding is an investment in our future, not just another handout to a struggling industry, is vital

We look forward to your early response, and would be pleased to participate in any future policy planning that may evolve in the coming weeks.

Yours sincerely

Paul Summers                                                Julie Dyson AM
Ausdance National President                        Ausdance National Vice-President
18 April 2020

Leave a comment

Following the recent announcement by the Australia Council of its four-year funding grants, Ausdance National is pleased to note that eight dance companies have been successful, providing them with some surety for the next four years. Five other dance companies have received transitional funding for a year, but now hang by a thread, their losses merely delayed as they face an unsustainable extension of life. Many other applicants did not make it into final considerations.

That the Australia Council was forced to spread available funding so thinly demonstrates the extremely serious diminution of vital dance infrastructure in this country, evidence that more arts funding is required if dance is to remain a viable industry within the wider cultural sector.

Ausdance National notes the actions taken by the Australian Government and the Australia Council in responding to the impact of COVID-19, and appreciates the challenging circumstances in which they are operating. However, unless funding deficiencies are addressed, implications for the dance sector will be severe, threatening the vibrancy of Australia’s cultural life and posing significant threats to the wellbeing of the many Australians who benefit from the health, connectedness and community economies that dance activities generate.

It is self evident that 2021 will require more than a thinly spread funding strategy in order for the arts and cultural sectors to re-emerge as viable creative industries.

In recognition of the extreme difficulty under which the Australia Council is working, Ausdance calls on the Australian Government to significantly increase the Council’s budget as part of a larger set of arts industry stimulus measures. In the context of the hundreds of billions of dollars being rolled out to sustain the economy and ensure a transition out of the pandemic, this increase would be a small but vital investment in the arts and cultural sectors.

The absence of an arts-specific support package from the Government – called for by all peak arts organisations and supported by Ausdance – reflects a lack of acknowledgement of the importance of the arts and cultural sectors to Australian lives. The sector’s demonstrated contribution to our economy of $111.7 billion (or 6.4% of GDP) is a contribution that will dissipate with an unsustainable loss of arts infrastructure, thereby affecting tourism, community health, arts education, tertiary arts training, a reduction in cultural activities and the world-class performances that make Australian destinations great places to visit.

It is also concerning that Government ministers do not acknowledge gaps in the JobSeeker and JobKeeper packages, particularly as they relate to many casual artists and artsworkers who do not fit the criteria. The reality is that many professional artists are left without the cash flow needed to immediately transition services online and build new income sources. Our COVID-19 impact survey is identifying mental health as a major issue in this environment.

The loss of dance infrastructure over many years is reflected now in the four-year funding outcomes, despite the increase in outputs by the sector. Given artists’ critical contribution to world-class performances, to the creative economy, to community health, well-being and cultural education – all of which help to scaffold Australia’s cultural life – recovery from the COVID-19 crisis will be severely impaired for many of our citizens.

Contact National President Paul Summers on 0417 925 292‬ for further comment.

Leave a comment

At a time when the dance industry is facing some of its biggest challenges in history, Ausdance is collating vital information from dance professionals, businesses, educators and organisations to feed into a national COVID-19 impact study by Australia Council for the Arts.

The Ausdance COVID-19 dance survey is about everyone working in dance, and it’s inclusive of every genre and sector within the industry – choreographers, companies, teachers, studios, academics, community dance artists, company managers and administrators.

We need your data right now to:

• Show evidence of the true economic value of the dance sector to ensure that stimulus packages are sufficient to mitigate the impact of COVID-19;
• Shine a light on the often invisible work of artists and arts workers;
• Provide in-depth and lasting data to assist advocacy bodies, artists, statisticians, policy makers and politicians to make the case for arts support now and into the future.

This Australia Council study will show the economic, social and cultural impact of COVID-19 on the arts sector as a whole. It will also shine the light on the true economic value of the arts in Australia in a way we have never seen before.

Ausdance is part of the Australia Council research working group that comprises Ausdance, PAC Australia, NAVA, I Lost my Gig Australia, Diversity Arts Australia, National Writers Centre Network and MEAA.

The aim of this working group is to provide an accurate representation of the impact of COVID-19 on the arts and cultural sector as a whole, as seen in this Australia Council summary of the work currently being collected and collated.

It is critical to note that we have never seen data collection like this before in the arts, and it is critical that we get as much data as we can right now to allow us to make a case for the arts for years to come. Please contribute by doing the survey urgently and add your voice – dance needs to be heard more than ever before.

For more information please contact project leader Jordin Steele, Ausdance Q'ld Chair.

Leave a comment