The annual Australian Dance Awards recognise and honour professional Australian dance artists who have made an outstanding contribution to Australian dance. The Australian Dance Awards are produced by the Australian Dance Council—Ausdance National.
Presented by Ausdance National and Harlequin Floors, the 2018 Australian Dance Awards were held on Saturday 8 September at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
Congratulations to the winners and the shortlisted nominees! And the winners are....
Lifetime Achievement
The 2018 Australian Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement goes to Athol Willoughby, OAM, in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the dance profession in Australia for over 65 years.
Photo: Michela Dent-Causon
Outstanding Achievement in Community Dance
The 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Community Dance goes to Tracks Dance Company for Man Made, an outstanding cross-generational work calling on a diverse range of movement skills to produce an engaging examination of the male psyche.
Photo: David Hancock
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance
The 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance goes to Co3 for Project NEXT, an outstanding production that demonstrated a high degree of collaboration and creativity, support for one another, and for their evident enthusiasm and commitment to the work.
Photo: Stefan Gosatti
Services to Dance Education
The 2018 Australian Dance Award for Services to Dance Education goes to Katrina Rank for outstanding leadership in dance education, in promoting dance for people with disabilities, the aged and young children, and for her curriculum support through online services, workshops and writing.
Photo: Robert Wagner
Outstanding Achievement in Choreography
The Dance Australia 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography goes to Stephanie Lake for Pile of Bones (Stephanie Lake Company) for imaginative and visceral choreography that defied categorisation and that blended remarkably with its collaborative elements of music and design.
Photo: Bryony Jackson
Outstanding Achievement in Dance on Film or New Media
The Foxtel Arts 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance on Film or New Media goes to Sue Healey for Eileen, a haunting short film about a senior dancer, respectfully produced with exceptional lighting and use of colour in costumes and props.
Photo: Cinematographer Judd Overton
Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Dance, Musicals or Physical Theatre
The 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Dance, Musicals or Physical Theatre goes to Gravity & Other Myths for BACKBONE, an utterly exhilarating, skilled performance that demonstrates the cutting-edge evolution of circus/physical theatre as a form of dance that can tell so many more stories.
Photo: Darcy Grant
Services to Dance
The AON 2018 Australian Dance Award for Services to Dance goes to Hilary Trotter for her work with Ausdance National, initiating Australian injury prevention and management research and inventing the now internationally-recognised term ‘Safe Dance’, with implications for dance practice world wide.
Photo: Moruya Photographics
Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance
The QUT Creative Industries' 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance goes to Martin del Amo for CHAMPIONS, a joyously playful, expertly-crafted production that deftly positions 11 highly-skilled, independent female dancers into a football stadium to challenge pervasive notions of who qualifies as a champion.
Photo: Heidrun Löhr
Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer goes to Jana Castillo for construct (Australian Dance Theatre), an astonishing performance fusing strength, flexibility and the ability to illustrate raw and empathic emotions in ways which left audiences and critics in awe.
Photo: Chris Herzfeld Camlight Productions
Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer
The 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer goes to Beau Dean Riley Smith for Bennelong (2017) (Bangarra Dance Theatre) for a ravishingly beautiful, soul-stirring and career-defining performance that captured the conflict and pain endured by iconic Indigenous Eora elder, Bennelong, danced with extraordinary strength, grace and feeling.
Photo: Daniel Boud
Outstanding Performance by a Company
The Harlequin Floors 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Company goes to Dancenorth for Attractor, mesmerising and ritualistic, with the choreographic and musical momentum sustained from beginning to end by an outstanding display of energetic dancing.
