News: June 2020

Ausdance National welcomes $250m arts, entertainment and screen industry package

by Ausdance published on

Ausdance National welcomes the $250m arts, entertainment and screen industry package announced by the Prime Minister last week.

Of this, $110m of seed and sustainability funding will be available to the arts, including dance, visual arts, First Nations arts, music, literature and theatre ‘for important and successful companies, large and small’.

However, Ausdance National has major concerns about the significant number of casual, freelance dance workers who are still without any safety net.

Ausdance National President, Paul Summers said: ‘Ausdance consultations reveal that there are hundreds of casual freelance dance professionals employed on short term PAYG contracts who are not supported through the current Government support measures. Without urgent direct assistance they face losing their livelihoods, and without creators, the tradies mentioned by the Prime Minister have no work in the arts.’

Ausdance National Vice-President and independent dance professional, Lizzie Vilmanis, said: ‘Freelance casuals, as well as micro dance businesses, need to be included with direct and relevant access to investment from support packages. Their business activities fulfil integral roles that currently- classified ‘sector significant organisations’ are not positioned to undertake.’

Ausdance National requests:

  • The expansion of JobKeeper eligibility criteria to include casual freelance dance professionals employed on short-term PAYG contracts who have multiple employers.
  • The extension of JobKeeper beyond September to support sole traders facing sustainability disruption due to COVID-19.

Ausdance National believes these measures would maximise the return on taxpayer-funded investment and improve the ability of a highly-skilled dance workforce to help facilitate rebooting Australia’s creative economy.

Email Ausdance National President Paul Summers or call on 0417 925 292 for further comment.

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Notice of Ausdance National 2020 Annual General Meeting

by Ausdance published on


Sunday 28 June 2020 at 12.30 pm

The Ausdance National 2020 Annual General Meeting will be held via Zoom on Sunday 28 June 2020 at 12.30 pm AEST.

The AGM agenda, 2019 AGM minutes, 2019 financial statements and annual report are available below.

Ausdance National, as your peak sector organisation, continues to drive important advocacy work to support the sector, especially as we face unprecedented conditions for the arts industry with the COVID-19 pandemic.

While much of the work we do is unseen, Ausdance National continues to drive support for dance across all sectors and lobby for increased investment.
 
Elected Board Members at the Special General Meeting (4 December 2020): 
President: Paul Summers (Vic) Vice President: Julie Dyson AM (ACT) Vice President: Lizzie Vilmanis (Qld) Treasurer: Tamara McKee (ACT) Ordinary Council Members: Dr Cathy Adamek (SA), Sebastien Ananian-Cooper (SA)

All board positions will be declared vacant at the AGM (see call for board nominations).

2020 Agenda Papers

Please RSVP to President Paul Summers if you are able to attend, or if you require a proxy form.

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Dance education & training: Australia’s dance teaching excellence

by Ausdance published on

An open letter to the National Cabinet

Ausdance National and the Ausdance Network respectfully bring to your attention the qualifications status of dance studio teachers and their businesses across Australia.

These thousands of businesses closed their doors on 24 March, demonstrating a shared responsibility to flatten the curve, despite never having been listed as a restricted business by the National Cabinet, and without any consultation.

We acknowledge that the National Cabinet has been careful to take account of the plight of gym owners, fitness studios, boot camps and other businesses whose primary concerns are physical activities. However – apart from an unfortunate comment by a state premier that implied dance studio teachers were not qualified – dance has been left out of the conversation.

The perception that dance studio teachers are not qualified is inaccurate – 96% of dancers and choreographers have received recognised formal training and 86% of dancers and choreographers supplement this with private training (An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia published by the Australia Council in 2017). Dancers at their peak are as highly trained and nuanced in their physical capabilities as elite athletes.

In the meantime the Ausdance Network has produced a comprehensive, national Return to Work Framework for post-Covid-19 recovery. The Ausdance Network is also conducting a national Covid-19 Impact Survey which is demonstrating the extent of economic and mental health impacts caused by the shutdown.

Ausdance offers the following information to assist the National Cabinet to understand the high quality of dance teaching that takes place in our communities, including First Nations teachers and choreographers.

Ausdance and the Australian dance sector introduced Dance Teaching Standards and Ethical Guidelines several decades ago, and these formed the bedrock of the rigorous vocational training programs dance teachers now engage in to ensure safe, methodogically sound and progressive dance teaching practice.

In addition to tertiary degree programs which train dancers in performance and teaching in community and school contexts, there are numerous professional membership bodies whose sole focus is the training and professional development of community dance teachers.

Organisations such as the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), Australian Teachers of Dancing (ATOD), Cecchetti Ballet of Australia, Comdance and others, including various ballroom associations, have pointed to their long-standing commitment to rigorous examinations and registration systems. There is also a range of professional qualifications specific to dance in the community such as dance and disability, community cultural development and dance for Parkinson’s.

This excellence of training is evident in Australia’s professional dancers, many of whom are the beneficiaries of training by dance studio teachers in suburban schools and full-time training courses.

We acknowledge that opening a dance studio does not require formal qualifications, as there is no government regulatory body for dance. However, there is a range of pathways and training for professional teachers, including for those who have had careers as professional dance artists, and First Nations teachers who not only have formal dance training but who have inherited thousands of years of dance traditions.

Ausdance has worked for more than four decades alongside the teaching organisations and artists by providing research, information, guidelines, publications, workshops and seminars to ensure that Australia has the highest quality community dance teaching anywhere in the world.

We have:

  • Produced four Safe Dance reports (1990-2018), detailing the latest research into injury prevention and management.
  • Published research papers to support Safe Dance practice, and made comprehensive recommendations affecting the syllabi and choreographic practices that are now widely recognised by teachers everywhere.
  • Produced a Code of Ethics with dance teachers (first published in 1987), and a code for parents.
  • Developed competency standards and skills sets with the sector, and encouraged teaching societies to incorporate these Safe Dance and ethical practice standards into their own curricula.
  • Chaired a review of VET competency standards required for Certificates, Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas, opening pathways for dance teaching societies and companies to become Registered Training Organisations.
  • Founded the Tertiary Dance Council of Australia in 1985, whose professional dance leaders have produced the current generation of choreographers, dancers, artistic directors and teachers, making this the most highly qualified dance teaching sector in history (see statistics above).
  • Developed fact sheets and guidelines for studio teachers and their businesses, including access to tailor-made insurance, music copyright licences, etc.
  • Provided workshops, seminars, conferences, and international and national research to aid communication and knowledge across the sector.
  • Introduced a category into the Australian Dance Awards that recognises best practice in dance education in schools and communities.
  • Encouraged professional artists-in-schools programs to complement the work of primary and secondary dance teachers (many of whom are not specialist dance teachers, particularly in primary schools where teachers are trained as generalists).
  • Led the development of the Dance curriculum in The Australian Curriculum: The Arts and devised strategies for implementation that involved teaching artists from dance companies, studios and communities, as well as supporting registered primary and secondary teachers.
  • Produced biennial Australian Youth Dance Festivals that provide students and their teachers with creative learning opportunities in dance for young people.
  • Worked with the Australian Institute of Sport to create after-school dance programs for children that provide creative alternatives to sport.

Ausdance also made a submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and developed guidelines for both dance education and studios that have been taken up across the sector.

It's also important to note that the AusPlay Focus Children’s Participation in Organised Physical Activity Outside of School Hours (April 2018) records dancing as the 4th overall out-of-school physical activity for all Australian children in 2017, and for girls it's the second highest activity.

We respectfully request that the National Cabinet acknowledges the dance sector and its specific knowledge and expertise. We seek clarity about the post Covid-19 restrictions and the guidelines that need to be followed by a sector which consists of thousands of distinct and highly professional physical activity businesses across the country, employing well over 10,000 dance teachers.

This is one of the most affected groups as a result of the economic downturn during the Covid-19 lockdown, and we look forward to your support and acknowledgement. We would be pleased to provide further advice.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Summers, Ausdance National President                    

With the Ausdance network: Ausdance NSW, Ausdance Qld, Ausdance Victoria, Ausdance SA, Ausdance WA, Ausdance ACT.

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Ausdance submission to Senate Select Committee on COVID-19

by Ausdance published on

28 May 2020

Committee Secretary
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
[email protected]

Dear Select Committee members,

Thank you for this inquiry into the Australian Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ausdance National is part of the Australia-wide Ausdance network that represents the voice of dance at all levels, including performers, companies, studio teachers, academics and independent artists.

Our COVID-19 impact survey is identifying job losses, severe income loss for independents and sole traders, financial stress for large and small companies, and in many cases, struggle to adapt to the online environment with limited resources and student numbers falling away.

We note the actions taken by the Australian Government and the Australia Council in responding to the impact of COVID-19, and appreciate the challenging circumstances in which they are operating.

We thank the Federal Government 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.

However, unless arts 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.

DANCE

Ausdance supports the submission to the Inquiry by BlakDance, noting this observation in particular:

‘First Nations-led solutions that empower our communities to utilise our cultural arts knowledge and build on our unique strengths are the most likely to succeed. This includes the need to sit with, in deep listen and work with our First Nations Elders, leaders, and to prioritise funding for First Nations-led organisations in sufficient sums to enable long-term planning for sustainability.

Self-determination means First Nations people have the right to make decisions concerning our own lives and communities; the right to retain their culture and to develop it, and the right to be full and equal participants in the construction and functioning of the governing institutions under which we live.’

In supporting this statement we reiterate the point about First Nations self-determination being an essential core element of their artists’ practice. The following comments by Ausdance National include First Nations dance practice in all settings.

The recent results of the Australia Council’s four-year funding for small to medium dance companies highlight the ongoing losses sustained by the dance sector, with only eight small dance companies and organisations across Australia now having 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.

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. That the Australia Council was forced to spread available funding so thinly demonstrates the extremely serious diminution of vital dance infrastructure in this country.

The dance industry’s loss of all self-generated income, and its inability to survive long months of shut-down and the road to recovery, is of major concern. The small businesses that are dance studios and small dance companies are in the thousands, and we have been contacted by many who do not qualify for JobKeeper or JobSeeker and are struggling to understand and implement the confusing regulations around returning to studio teaching and rehearsing. Dance has been confused with gyms, boot camps, fitness studios etc., leaving teachers without clear direction about the future of their arts businesses.

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

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.

INDUSTRY–SPECIFIC STIMULUS PACKAGE

The absence of an arts-specific support package from the Government – called for by all peak arts organisations including Ausdance – reflects a lack of acknowledgement of the sector’s demonstrated contribution to our economy of $111.7 billion (or 6.4% of GDP), a contribution that will dissipate with an unsustainable loss of arts infrastructure.

It will affect 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 some 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 and dance teachers are left without the cash flow needed to immediately transition services online and build new income sources.

A survey by Ausdance NSW of 81 independent artists in that State demonstrated that 52% were not eligible for either JobKeeper or JobSeeker. Our COVID-19 impact survey is identifying mental health as a major issue in the current environment, a matter of great concern.

We endorse the recommendations of Live Performance Australia and other peak arts organisations and the call for a dedicated Industry Rebuild and Recovery package for the live performance industry.

THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL

Ausdance acknowledges and notes a particular paragraph from BlakDance’s submission to this Senate inquiry:

While our organisations are financially robust, there is unmet need for support for First Nations artists and arts workers across Australia, as illustrated by the Australia Council for the Arts’ analysis of unmet funding need for First Nations organisations:

 “In 2015, the Australia Council received Expressions of Interest from 43 First Nations-led small to medium arts and culture organisations for multi-year funding that equated to a total request of $12.5 million per annum.

We were only able to support 16 organisations with a total $3.5 million per annum, declining over 60% of the organisations that applied and leaving unmet demand of over 70% in terms of dollars – the demand far outweighs the funding available.” Australia Council for the Arts, Submission to the Closing the Gap Refresh (April 2018)."

We recommend a First Nations self-determined approach to recovery of arts practice, ensuring that re-opening actions and funding support are locally-led, holistic and culturally safe for communities.

We are particularly concerned about the Australia Council’s capacity to respond adequately to recovery of the arts sector, leaving many small companies and independent artists without support in an already-diminished funding environment.

As the Federal Government’s own peak arts funding and advisory body, the Australia Council’s funding must be substantially increased 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’.

The dance ecosystem is inter-dependent, and the Council must be adequately funded to strengthen and develop it. Policy settings should 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.

Increasing 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, and will be part of the recovery solutions, is vital.

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.

We therefore recommend that the government supports individual artists and non-profit arts companies to get back on their feet by providing a Stabilisation and Recovery Fund of $70m to the Australia Council for the Arts, and an ongoing $50m per annum uplift to stimulate recovery for Australia that is led by the arts and cultural sectors. This recommendation is in line with those of Theatre Network Australia and other peak arts organisations.

We also request a full day of hearings to allow detailed advice from various arts and entertainment sectors.

Contact National President Paul Summers on 0417 925 292.

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