Media releases
Ausdance welcomes return of Catalyst funds to the Australia Council
Ausdance National and the Ausdance network welcome news today that the Arts Minister, Senator Mitch Fifield, has decided to return Catalyst funds to the Australia Council.
The sudden removal of funds from the Australia Council, the loss of transparent peer reviewed decision-making processes and uncertainty about the role of Catalyst have caused enormous disruption and distress across the sector.
Ausdance National President-elect, Associate Professor Gene Moyle, said: ‘The Minister’s decision to return remaining Catalyst funds to the Australia Council is a very welcome step. The Minister is to be congratulated for acting on the strong messages he has received about the loss of highly-regarded dance companies and organisations, and has moved to address the ongoing concerns of the arts profession.
‘We now want to ensure that some funding balance will be returned to the small to medium dance sector in particular, so we welcome the Minister’s comment that “This will allow the Australia Council to continue to focus on supporting small to medium arts organisations.'
We look forward to working with the Minister and the Australia Council to ensure that this goal is realised.
Contact: Gene Moyle (0411 640 012) or Julie Dyson (041 2211 513)
VET funding cuts—impact on professional dance training
VET funding cuts—impact on professional dance training—media release (246 KB PDF)
Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham
Minister for Education and Training
PC Box 6100, Senate
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Dear Minister,
Ausdance is deeply concerned about your decision to include some of Australia's leading professional dance training courses in the crackdown on courses eligible for VET student loans.
We are particularly concerned about the statement that these professional dance training courses are being subsidised because they are 'used simply to boost enrolments, or provide 'lifestyle' choices, but don't lead to work'.
Ausdance announces new constitution and interim executive leadership
As a member of the Australian dance sector, I wanted to let you know of some changes to Ausdance National in recent weeks.
In September 2016 the Ausdance National Council agreed to significant changes to the Constitution—moving away from a network-led board to a new skills-based governance structure and extending the membership to engage more directly with a range of stakeholders. We are opening up membership at a national level to engage directly with individuals through the state and territory offices.
Terri Charlesworth receives 2016 Australian Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement
Terri Charlesworth’s initiative, dedication, generosity and passion have greatly influenced generations of Western Australian dancers. As well as being a dazzling performer, Terri has had outstanding success as a teacher and leader in dance education and training.
Born in Perth, she began her early ballet training in Melbourne with acclaimed dancers such as Kira and Serge Bousloff and Xenia Borovansky. She joined West Australian Ballet for its inaugural 1953 season and was later appointed Assistant Artistic Director.
Photo: Darren ClarkThe 2016 Australian Dance Awards – Perth!
Presented by Harlequin Floors and Ausdance as part of the MoveMe Festival 2016.
Perth is ready to host the 2016 Australian Dance Awards straight after the MoveMe Dance Festival—put Sunday 18 September at The State Theatre Centre of Western Australia in your diary! Tickets on sale at Ticketek.
This night-of-nights for professional dance sees twelve Awards including the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, Outstanding Performance by a Company, and Outstanding Performances by Female and Male dancers.
National Advocates for Arts Education supports implementation of the Arts curriculum
National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) met in Canberra on 19 & 20 June to discuss a range of outstanding issues affecting implementation of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts. Several projects were identified that would assist classroom teachers, students, governments and other decision makers in the implementation process. NAAE plans to develop these projects in the coming months, and seek partnerships and funding to bring them to fruition.
Members of the National Advocates for Arts Education at the National Library Australia, 19 June 2016. Taking time out to #IStandWithTheArts #ArtsChangesLives while talking Arts Education advocacy! L–R: John Saunders (Drama Australia), Roger Dunscombe (Australian Teachers of Media), Sandra Gattenhof (Drama Australia), Bradley Merrick (Australian Society for Music Education), and Julie Dyson (NAAE chair).Ausdance honorary life members respond to Ausdance National’s loss of operational funding
The founders and honorary life members of Ausdance—the Australian Dance Council—are extremely disappointed that an organisation with such a high national and international reputation for innovation and creativity has not been supported with four-year organisation funding by the Australia Council.
Funding cuts to the organisation’s innovative partnerships, public forums, its advocacy campaigns to support the small to medium dance sector (including years of work with the Australia Council to increase the Council’s own profile and funding—petitions to both Houses of Parliament in 2006, Dance Plan 2012 etc.); its seminal publications, dance education programs, and its international leadership in Safe Dance research leaves us believing that the Australia Council no longer sees value in the leadership shown by Ausdance National
Dancenorth experiment fills in the blanks
Media release
Next week Dancenorth opens their tour of the double bill ‘If _ Was _’
Tour performance dates and locations
- 9–11 June, Dancenorth, Townsville
- 15 June, Mackay Entertainment Centre
- 16 June Proserpine Entertainment Centre
- 23–25 June, Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane
- 29 June – 2 July, the Substation, Melbourne
Delve into the fanciful and illusionary worlds of two extraordinary choreographers, Stephanie Lake and Ross McCormack, as they fall down the rabbit hole of imagination and fill in the blanks for Dancenorth’s most recent double bill.
Full house for National Arts Election Debate
Final preparations are underway for next week’s much anticipated ArtsPeak National Arts Election Debate in Melbourne.
8 June 1.00 pm – 2.30 pm
The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
The debate will bring the arts leaders of each of the three major parties together to share their big ideas and respond to the burning questions of industry leaders and commentators from right across the industry.
ArtsPeak calls for restoration of Australia Council Funding
Media Release, 16 May 2016
ArtsPeak, the national confederation of peak arts and cultural organisations, says the Australian arts ecology is under serious threat following the announcement of four-year funding decisions by the Australia Council.
Ausdance National faces challenge
13 May 2016 media release
The Australian Dance Council—Ausdance congratulates the 12 dance organisations which were successful in the four-year funding announcements by the Australia Council. There is a solid core of highly creative, inspiring and highly productive organisations to create and tour dance around Australia and overseas.
Regrettably, the Australian Dance Council—Ausdance Inc (Ausdance National) finds itself amongst the 62 previously funded organisations that have not been successful. Ausdance National has been notified by the Australia Council that it will not receive operational funding beyond 31 December this year. This brings to an end many years of operational support for the work of Ausdance National.
New low as Government pumps Catalyst funds out the door in blatant pre-election pork barreling
ArtsPeak Media Release (45 KB PDF)
9 May 2016
The arts sector is reeling today at news that an extraordinary $13m in Catalyst funds were secretly pushed out the door over the weekend just in advance of the election being called and caretaker mode beginning.
In total $23,317,301 has now been spent – nearly half the $48m allocated for the next 4 years of Catalyst operations. When Senate Estimates sat last Thursday evening the committee were only made aware of the $10m of grants announced by Arts Minister Mitch Fifield last week.
Government turns its back on the opportunity to fix arts funding mess
ArtsPeak—Confederation of Peak National Arts Organisations
Media Release, 4 May 2016 (31KB PDF)
Hopes that the government would take the opportunity to fix the mess it created twelve months ago were dashed, with no mention of arts and culture in the pre-election Budget handed down in Canberra last night.
ArtsPeak spokesperson and Executive Director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, Tamara Winikoff OAM said, “Unfortunately when it comes to the arts, it seems this government is not concerned about forcing job losses and causing chaos, the very opposite of the PM’s mantra about jobs and growth. The 2016 Budget does nothing to redress the devastating impact of the cuts to the Australia Council and ongoing ‘efficiency dividend’ imposed by the government in 2014 and 2015. The cuts total more than $42 million/year. Massive destabilisation of the arts industry is resulting from decisions made by the current government, and without any policy framework, it looks set to continue.”
ArtsPeak calls for Government to act on Senate Inquiry recommendations
Media Release 7 March 2016
ArtsPeak (the confederation of Australian national peak arts organisations and state arts industry councils), at its meeting on Wednesday 2nd March, called on the Commonwealth Government to urgently provide a positive public response to the recommendations of the Senate Inquiry into the impact of the 2014 and 2015 Commonwealth Budget decisions on the Arts.
At the meeting ArtsPeak reaffirmed its full endorsement of all 13 recommendations made in the Inquiry report, highlighting two in particular that need an urgent response before the upcoming election: that the government develop and articulate an evidence-based, coherent and clear arts policy in consultation with the arts sector and that the Commonwealth government restore to the Australia Council the full amount of funds diverted from it in the 2014 MYEFO and 2014 and 15 Budgets (see full set of Senate Inquiry Recommendations attached).
Co-convenor of ArtsPeak, Nicole Beyer said today, “The time to act is now. It has been three months since the Senate Inquiry report was handed down and there has been no action from the government to implement any of the recommendations. Arts companies across the country are now starting to fail, tours are being cancelled and projects abandoned. The government needs to take responsibility, and to make clear public announcements about its intended actions in response the report.”
ArtsPeak Co-convenor Tamara Winikoff OAM agreed, 'What the Minister is being told loud and clear is that the Government’s funding cuts are destabilising the arts infrastructure to a major extent and this needs to be fixed urgently. Despite a token gesture by the Arts Minister, the cuts are incrementally crippling both small to medium arts organisations and major cultural institutions in Canberra.'
Winikoff continued, 'In an election year the arts sector is looking to the government to act quickly and decisively to properly fix the mess it has created over the last two years. Implementing the Senate Inquiry recommendations is a vital first step. The May budget is the government’s window of opportunity to restore arts funding and regain the trust of artists, organisations and arts audiences and supporters across the country.'
The Senate Inquiry recommendations encapsulated the sentiments of almost 3000 submissions from individuals and organisations as well as hundreds of people who spoke at the public hearings conducted in 10 cities around the country.
The volume of the Inquiry response and the weight and unanimity of opinion is unprecedented in the arts in Australia. It has led to a new mood of motivation and co-operation across the whole arts community to ensure that the stability and sustainability of the arts is restored.
For media comment please contact: Nicole Beyer, Director, Theatre Network Australia 0432 609 658 Tamara Winikoff OAM, Executive Director, National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) 0411 162 156 / 02 9368 1900
Recommendations of the Senate Inquiry into the impact of the 2014 and 2015
Recommendation 1
5.8 The committee recommends that the government develop and articulate, in consultation with the arts sector, a coherent and clear arts policy, including priorities for arts funding supported by evidence-based analysis, and greater clarity about the respective roles of the Ministry for the Arts and the Australia Council, as well as the other statutory arts bodies.
Ausdance responds to Royal Commission’s public hearing into Centres for the Performing Arts
1 March 2016
Statement regarding hearings by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
Public hearing into Centres for the Performing Arts
2 March 2016
Ausdance holds the position that any abuse of a child—sexual, physical or emotional—is abhorrent. A dance studio or class is not isolated from the rest of society, no matter how special it may appear or feel. Studio owners and class teachers, like teachers and activity leaders across the whole of our community, have a special responsibility for the welfare of children in their charge. This holds whether it is a small community dance class or a large commercially-oriented studio.
A dance class or studio is first and foremost a business and as such should be subject to regulatory requirements as any business providing recreational services for children. Dance is also a key art form, which in the view of Ausdance makes any abuse of the trust placed by children in their class leaders or studio principals especially serious.
Ausdance notes that the Royal Commission is not enquiring into abuse in dance studios or the entertainment industry. Rather, the Royal Commission is hearing evidence about two specific centres for the performing arts, one of which was for dance. However, Ausdance supports the invitation for anyone who believes they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing to contact the Royal Commission directly.
Ausdance has a series of guides and fact sheets to assist dance teachers and dance studios. Where relevant, these guides and fact sheets have links to external authorities. The guides include:
- Child safe dance, with links to the Mandatory Reporting Guide, the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and state and territory Child Protection Services and Advice.
- Australian guidelines for teaching dance developed in collaboration with dance studios and dance curriculum organisations
- Code of ethics for dance teachers
- Parents’ code of behaviour
- Professional business practice for studio teachers
- Safe Dance ® practice
- How to choose a dance school for your child
- Work health & safety for the dance industry
- Eating disorders and dancers
Ausdance re-affirms its statement of 15 December 2014 Teaching dance, supporting children.
Download this statement (210 KB PDF)
Neil Roach, A/g CEO Ausdance National
NAAE welcomes final endorsement of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts
The National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) welcomes the endorsement of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts by the Australian Education Council, and the release this week of the updated Australian Curriculum website (version 8.0).
The NAAE, which represents the five art forms included as separate subjects in the curriculum, has been campaigning for seven years on behalf of arts educators across the country. The Arts were not initially included in the national curriculum at all, and this week therefore marks a significant occasion, when The Arts are not only in the curriculum, but they include all five art forms: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and the Visual Arts.
NAAE welcomes ACARA’s response to the Review of the Australian Curriculum, which had recommended a reduction of the Arts curriculum from five arts subject to two. In response to the review's concerns about the 'crowded curriculum', ACARA has introduced optional, single learning area achievement standards for The Arts, while keeping existing subject specific achievement standards as an alternative (NAAE's preferred option). There will be no changes to content descriptions.
The Australian Curriculum: The Arts has already received international recognition as a leader in 21st Century curriculum. Australia is in the unique position of having an Arts curriculum that provides sequential development for each art form, achieving language cohesion without homogenisation, and using appropriately more specialised language in the secondary years. The curriculum provides teachers with information for implementation support across the five art forms.
However, NAAE recognises that schools and teachers have flexibility to make decisions about how they teach the curriculum in accordance with the needs of their students, the requirements of their school and local curriculum authorities. We will continue to work on advocacy and implementation issues as the curriculum is rolled out across the country.
2015 Australian Dance Awards announces two inductees to the Hall of Fame
The Australian Dance Awards is delighted to announce two inductees to the Hall of Fame for 2015.
The Hall of Fame is the most prestigious of all Australian Dance Awards and is made directly by the Awards Advisory Panel in recognition of the individual’s unique contribution and role in professional dance.
The inductees are Marilyn Jones OBE and Dr Elizabeth Cameron Dalman OAM, who will both attend on the night.
Marilyn Jones OBE
Marilyn Jones & Jonathan Kelly rehearse Anne Wooliams' Swan Lake. 1978 Flemington studios. Photo Michael CookMarilyn Jones OBE, Australia’s first new prima ballerina of The Australian Ballet, founded in 1962, remains an iconic figure of dance. From her first season with the company to her last, she sustained an innately lyrical aesthetic.
Her warmth and humility in the classics made her a favourite with audiences nationally and abroad. She was Artistic Director from 1979—1982.
Today Marilyn is the artistic director of the Australian Institute of Classical Dance, which she established during an Australia Council Creative Artists Fellowship to produce a new, Australian ballet-training syllabus.
In 1996 she launched the Dance Creation competition for emerging choreographers. Marilyn continues to lead the Institute’s valuable work, which comprises workshops for students, teachers’ seminars, examinations, scholarship competitions and residencies at the Royal New Zealand Ballet School and the Houston Ballet School in Texas USA.
Elizabeth Cameron Dalman OAM
Elizabeth, 1974. Photo: Jan DalmanNationally and internationally renowned as a director, choreographer, teacher and performer, Elizabeth is one of our foremost dance pioneers. A passionate artist with a life-long dedication to dance, Elizabeth has been a prime mover in shaping the Australian dance landscape for over 50 years.
Part of a generation of artists seeking a spiritual and holistic way of expressing themselves, she has helped to define Australia's cultural identity and expression in the modern world and has made a significant and lasting impact on the development of Australian contemporary dance.
Originally trained in Adelaide, Elizabeth left to study with remarkable choreographers before returning to found and lead Australian Dance Theatre, following which she taught and choreographed in Europe before returning to the freelance life in Australia and founding Mirramu Creative Arts Centre in New South Wales.
She continues to dance, teach and choreograph around the world.
The Australian Dance Awards 2015
The Australian Dance Awards 2015 are presented by Ausdance and Harlequin Floors with the Adelaide Festival Centre, 7.30 pm on 12 September at Her Majesty’s Theatre Adelaide. Get your Australian Dance Awards tickets from BASS outlets.
Ausdance thanks presenting partner Harlequin Floors and the Adelaide Festival Centre, Equity, AON Risk Management Services, Innovation & Business Skills Australia, Australian Dance Theatre and TAFE SA, and welcomes new partners Gaynor Minden and Novatech Creative Event Technology.
Ausdance National is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Neil Roach, Project Officer for the Australian Dance Awards 2015
ArtsPeak’s response to the draft guidelines for the National Program for Excellence in the Arts
ArtsPeak's response to National Program for Excellence in the Arts draft guidelines (360KB PDF)
Dear Minister Brandis
Re: draft guidelines for the National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA)
ArtsPeak (the confederation of Australian national peak arts organisations and arts industry councils) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the recently released draft guidelines for the Federal Government’s National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA). ArtsPeak particularly welcomes the Government’s statement about the intrinsic value of the arts:
While valuing the many secondary benefits which flow from arts activities, the Program seeks to celebrate the intrinsic capacity of the arts to engage, inspire and make meaning for all Australians.
1. Sustainability
Honorary life members add their voices in support of the Australia Council
3 June 2015
Senator The Hon. George Brandis QC
Attorney-General and Minister for the Arts
PO Box 6100
Senate, Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Dear Senator Brandis,
We, the undersigned honorary life members of the Australian Dance Council – Ausdance, write to add our voices to the many letters and statements made in support of the Australia Council. The Australian arts profession has fought hard over many years for the independence and peer review principles embedded in the Australia Council’s charter, and we are now concerned that a commitment to excellence through the peer review process will be compromised as further cuts and conditions are imposed on the smaller organisations by a reduced Australia Council. This decision has the potential to dismantle much of the Australian dance ecology and dissipate the constantly growing audience it has developed over the last decade.
ArtsPeak calls for Senate Inquiry
Ausdance joins other members of ArtsPeak (the confederation of national peak arts organisations) in calling for a Senate Inquiry into the recent federal Budget announcement that $104.8m over 4 years will be stripped from the appropriation of the Australia Council for the Arts to establish a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA) under the control of the Arts Minister.
ArtsPeak aims to ensure that Australians can continue to enjoy diverse rich cultural experiences at all levels. Until the outcome of a Senate Inquiry, we call on Senator Brandis to restore all the funding cut from the Australia Council and its programs, and repeal his decision to establish the NPEA.
Read the full media release: ArtsPeak Calls for Senate Inquiry