Hilary Trotter, dance writer, advocate and activist
b. 13 June 1933, d. 18 February 2024
As we pay tribute to one of Ausdance's most visionary founding voices, it's appropriate to remember in some detail her contribution to the organisation and to Australian dance more widely.
Hilary and her family moved to Canberra in the 1960s, where she was dance critic for The Canberra Times from 1972–90. She was an early advocate for dance in the ACT as a writer and parent of young children at the then Bryan Lawrence School of Ballet where she herself – determined to learn the intricacies of ballet – joined the classes as an adult beginner.
In 1977 she became a founding member of the Australian Association for Dance Education (now the Australian Dance Council – Ausdance), and was its first ACT President from 1977–1981, then National President from 1981–84.
Hilary helped to draft Ausdance’s first Constitution in 1978, wrote its monthly newsletter Dance Action, managed ACT dance projects such as Sunday in the Park, and initiated the annual ACT Summer School of Dance and the ACT Dance Festival. She applied for funding to bring small dance companies in residence to Canberra, including One Extra Dance and Kinetic Energy, combining performances with workshops and discussions. She then successfully lobbied for the establishment of the ACT’s first professional dance company, Human Veins Dance Theatre (HVDT).
Funding for all Ausdance ACT projects were the direct result of Hilary’s skills as a grant application writer and advocate. In the early 1980s she was elected to the Gorman House establishment committee, ensuring that there would be workable and accessible dance spaces there with sprung floors, high ceilings and adequate office and green room spaces. Since then there have been permanent professional dance companies in residence in Gorman House Arts Centre: HVDT, the Meryl Tankard Company, Sue Healey’s Vis-à-vis Dance Canberra, the Australian Choreographic Centre, and now QL2.
Hilary toured with Australian Dance Theatre in 1982, writing a detailed diary of the company’s European tour, resulting in the publication of five chapters of Dustbins & Taffeta in Brolga 10–14. She also recorded an oral history with HVDT artistic director Don Asker, now in the National Library of Australia with Brolga – An Australian Journal About Dance. Her work as an archivist at the Australian Archives led to Ausdance's long history of recording and preserving dance.
When Ausdance National received its first Australia Council funding in 1984, Hilary became its co-director until her retirement in 1991, initiating and co-managing many projects for Ausdance National including the establishment of a national dance database, partnerships with the Media Arts & Entertainment Alliance (MEAA) to produce the Dancers’ Transition Report (1989), and the National Arts Industry Training Council to produce the first Safe Dance Report (1990) as its skilled project designer and editor, and inventing the now internationally-recognised term ‘Safe Dance’, with implications for dance practice world-wide.
Hilary's interest in design and writing led to her work on Brolga – an Australian Journal About Dance, and also Asia-Pacific Channels on behalf of the World Dance Alliance, for many years. She was the writer, editor and designer of all Ausdance National publications throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including Ausdance conference papers and Green Mill publications.
Hilary’s vision for Ausdance was to see a network of funded Ausdance organisations throughout the country, and her work to realise that vision led to real growth in Australians’ understanding of dance as an art form, as a vital part of every child’s education, as a health imperative and as a serious area of tertiary study.
The national coordinators toured the country every year throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, visiting each Ausdance office, holding meetings with companies, studio teachers, students, tertiary institutions, local arts councils and funding bodies, and endeavouring to link all their activities to meaningfully connect the industry with a voice that would be heard by decisions makers at all levels, but most particularly in the federal Parliament.
Hilary’s passing sees the end of an advocacy era, where leadership that provides action and a national overview is respected, validated and acted upon by all in the greater interest of dance across political and state boundaries. Recent national and state funding decisions have greatly undermined this effort, a situation that saddened Hilary in her later years.
Hilary’s approach was gently persuasive, always backed by written evidence and supported by others with whom she worked. Hilary was made an Honorary Life Member of Ausdance in 1991, and was further honoured at the 2018 Australian Dance Awards for Services to Dance.
– Julie Dyson, 18/2/24