2018 Australian Dance Awards winners
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....
Dance Australia sponsor the 2018 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography
Ausdance National is pleased to announce Dance Australia as a 2018 sponsor of the Australian Dance Awards.
Dance Australia magazine is the most respected dance journal in the country, with articles and reviews written by the cream of Australia’s dance journalists.
Foxtel Arts is a 2018 Australian Dance Awards sponsor!
Ausdance National is pleased to announce Foxtel Arts as a 2018 sponsor of the Australian Dance Awards.
Foxtel Arts (Channel 133 on Foxtel), a subscription television arts channel on the Foxtel platform, showcases arts performance and factual insights into art, artists and their creative achievements.
A first-time supporter of the Australian Dance Awards, Foxtel Arts has created an inspiring 30-second CTV for the Awards and has sponsored the award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance on Film or New Media.
MEAA sponsors Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer
Ausdance National is pleased to announce the continued support of Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) as an Australian Dance Awards sponsor.
MEAA is the largest and most established union and industry advocate for Australia’s creative professionals, and this year it has sponsored the award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer.
Harlequin Floors continues to support the Australian dance community
Ausdance National is pleased to announce the continued support of Harlequin Floors as Principal Sponsor of the Australian Dance Awards (ADAs).
World leaders in advanced flooring technology for dance and the performing arts, Harlequin Floors supports (literally) thousands of Ausdance members on a daily basis.
Athol Willoughby OAM to receive the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award
The Australian Dance Awards committee has announced the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2018 will be presented to Athol Willoughby, OAM, in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the dance profession in Australia for over 65 years.
We are launching our new branding across the Ausdance network!
The new Ausdance visual brand has been designed by Brisbane-based design firm Designfront.It is with great excitement that we announce the launch of our new branding across the Ausdance network! This new brand represents a strong and ambitious future for Ausdance. A future built on a legacy of national advocacy and the delivery of exceptional dance projects throughout Australia.
Over the next few months you will start to notice that we will commence updating our websites and other publications to reflect the new visual brand. We look forward to continuing to support, represent, and advance the wonderful sector that is dance in Australia.
Professor Gene Moyle, President, Ausdance National.
Apply for Sydney Dance Company Pre-Professional Year Program 2019
Calling all aspiring professional dancers aged 18–24 years, applications are now open for Sydney Dance Company's Pre-Professional Year 2019.
“Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year is an outstanding opportunity for aspiring dancers to gain exposure to Australia’s leading contemporary dance company. Pre-professional dancers will develop all the skills essential for a lifelong career in contemporary dance as well as being provided with unique professional development, networking and mentorship opportunities under the guidance of the artistic staff of Sydney Dance Company.” Rafael Bonachela, Artistic Director, Sydney Dance Company
Key information
Applications are open to Australian and New Zealand citizens or permanent residents only.
Application closing date: Monday 27 August 2018
Audition: The first round of Pre-Professional Year auditions will be an online application process that includes a video submission.
Successful first round applicants will be invited to a second round in-person audition at Sydney Dance Company Studios on 17 September 2018 between 9am and 6pm.
For more information please visit 2019 Pre-Professional Year Audition Application.
Congratulations to the shortlisted nominees of the 21st Australian Dance Awards
Celebrating 21 years, the Australian Dance Awards is one of the country’s most prestigious performing arts awards. The Awards acknowledge people working in the professional dance sector who have made innovative and exceptional work of national significance, or have made an outstanding and enduring contribution to the dance industry.
‘Arriving at the shortlist is a demanding job for the volunteer panel of 13 dance sector professionals representing all states and territories’, said Julie Dyson, nominations coordinator for the 2018 Australian Dance Awards.
‘Panel members include educators, independent artists, dance company directors, and writers/reviewers. We receive between 450 and 700 nominations each year. A thorough voting system is in place, with two, sometimes three rounds of voting.’
Presented by Ausdance National, the 2018 awards will take place on Saturday 8 September at the Brisbane Powerhouse, with tickets on sale from 9 July.
‘Ausdance National is honoured to present the 21st Australian Dance Awards in partnership with industry sponsors’, said Kerry Comerford, Executive Director of Ausdance National. ‘The Awards ceremony is the time we acknowledge and celebrate the dance profession’s depth and diversity, both on and off the stage.’
Presented in an afternoon of performances showcasing some of Australia’s best dance of the past year, the annual Australian Dance Awards rely on the generosity and goodwill of the dance sector. ‘It’s important that the event represents the excellence and diversity of dance in Australia’ said Sandi Woo, 2018 Award’s producer.
2018 Australian Dance Awards shortlist
Services to Dance
- Philippe Charluet
- Marilyn Miller
- Philip Piggin
- Hilary Trotter
Services to Dance Education
- Paige Gordon
- Raewyn Hill
- Sinsa Mansell
- Katrina Rank
Outstanding Achievement in Community Dance
- Annette Carmichael (choreography), James Gentle (sound design) for The Beauty Index
- Tracks Dance for Man Made
- QPAC, The Royal Ballet and Community Groups for We All Dance
- Sprung!! Integrated Dance Theatre for Share House
Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance
- Austinmer Dance Theatre for UNREAL
- Co3 for Project next
- QL2 Dance for This Poisoned Sea
- Moorambilla Voices for Gundabooka
Outstanding Performance by a Company
- Co3 for The Zone
- Dancenorth Attractor
- STRUT Dance for William Forsythe's One Flat Thing, Reproduced
- Queensland Ballet for Raw (triple bill): No Man’s Land, Glass Concerto and Ghost Dances
Outstanding Achievement in Choreography
- Lucy Guerin and Gideon Obarzanek for Attractor (Dancenorth and Lucy Guerin Inc)
- Raewyn Hill for The Zone (Co3)
- Stephanie Lake for Pile of Bones (Stephanie Lake Company)
- Stephen Page for Bennelong (2017) (Bangarra Dance Theatre)
Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance
- Martin del Amo for CHAMPIONS
- Australian Dance Artists for Restraint(s)
- Michelle Heaven for In Plan
- Nick Power (choreography), Jack Prest (sound design) for Between Tiny Cities រវាងទីក្រុងតូច
Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer
- Jana Castillo for construct (Australian Dance Theatre)
- Amber Haines for Spectra (Dancenorth)
- Ako Kondo for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (The Australian Ballet)
- Charmene Yap for Ocho (Sydney Dance Company)
Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer
- Richard Causer for Behind Closed Doors (Expressions Dance Company)
- Nelson Earl for Ocho (Sydney Dance Company)
- Beau Dean Riley Smith for Bennelong (2017) (Bangarra Dance Theatre)
- Kimball Wong for construct (Australian Dance Theatre)
Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Dance, Musicals or Physical Theatre
- Gravity & Other Myths for BACKBONE
- Michael Ralph for SELF
- Andrew Hallsworth for Muriel’s Wedding (Sydney Theatre Company and Global Creatures)
- Nicola Gunn and Jo Lloyd for Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster
Outstanding Achievement in Dance on Film or New Media
- Richard James Allen for Enchant
- Sophia Bender for Behind Barres
- Sue Healey for Eileen
- Catherine Moore & Jade Lowry for Unstilled
2018 Australian Dance Awards shortlist media release (50 KB PDF)
Executive Director’s May update
We are currently representing the dance sector by contributing knowledge to three urgent issues that impact healthy growth in Australia’s creative economy:
- Access to professional mental health support for those who work in the entertainment industry, because we can't tackle these issues in isolation. We need to support each other.
- Access to education and training resources to prevent discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and bullying, because these impact our mental health and wellbeing. Together we can create healthy work environments free from these threats.
- Sustainable access to international expertise that transfers skills to Australian organisations and creatives, because this will stimulate innovation.
Save the date: 2018 Australian Dance Awards
The 2018 Australian Dance Awards will take place on Saturday 8 September at 4.00 pm at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
We have appointed Sandi Woo as Producer. Sandi will work with local and interstate companies, independent dance artists and Ausdance Queensland to create a diverse program for the event. The late afternoon time slot has been selected so that everyone can enjoy Brisbane Festival’s Opening Celebrations, later that evening.
We will announce more details in the coming weeks, including details of sector meetings set to take place over that weekend, ensuring wonderful networking opportunities.
Archiving Ausdance National at the National Library of Australia
With about 250 Ausdance National archive boxes now housed at the National Library in Canberra, the work of cataloguing their contents continues.
This week marked a major milestone in this process, with Julie Dyson and Sandra Macarthur-Onslow reaching the 200-box mark in a collection that includes 40 years of Ausdance National’s achievements—submissions, funding applications, letters of support, reports, analysis of the dance sector, projects such as Safe Dance & Dancers’ Transition, strategic plans, minutes, publications, photographs, plus an impressive archive of Australian dance companies, large and small, and independent artists’ ephemera. It’s an amazing and impressive record of a 40-year period in Australian dance history between 1977 and 2017 which we are sure future researchers will find invaluable.
World Dance Alliance prepares for Panpapanpalya
As Secretary of WDA Asia Pacific, I am preparing agendas and papers for the annual general meeting of WDA Asia Pacific, to be held in Adelaide on Wednesday 11 July. Ausdance National supports the WDA through publication of conference proceedings on the Ausdance website and I represent Ausdance through board membership of both the Global Executive and the Asia-Pacific region.
Arts educators call for intervention in ‘flawed’ Arts curriculum review process
Following meetings in Canberra with politicians and the Secretary of the Department of Communications & the Arts in late February, the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) has again focused on what it considers to be the flawed consultation process being undertaken by the NSW Education Syllabus Authority (NESA).
2018 Australian Dance Awards nominations update
This year almost 200 nominations have made the 2018 long list. As acting nominations coordinator, I have been working with the panel to assess all nominations for eligibility, and we have been pleased to acknowledge the vast majority in the categories in which they were nominated.
2018 Australian Dance Awards long list
Ausdance National and the Australian Dance Awards selection panel and advisors are pleased to announce the 2018 Australian Dance Awards long list. Congratulations to all nominees.
Ausdance National Council President’s Report – April 2018
It is with great excitement that on behalf of the Ausdance National Council, I am pleased to announce that the recruitment process for our new Executive Director has been completed, and this week we welcome Kerry Comerford to our Ausdance community! Kerry is an exceptionally experienced senior executive and CEO who has worked for more than 30 years across the global arts and entertainment industries.
Kerry Comerford announced as Executive Director Ausdance National
The Australian Dance Council—Ausdance Inc, the national peak body for dance, is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Executive Director for Ausdance National.
Have your say! Entertainment Industry Wellbeing Survey
Five Australian entertainment industry professionals attempt suicide every week. The time for change is now!
We need you, as an Australian entertainment industry professional, to share your thoughts surrounding the mental health needs of our industry people, how they should be supported and what are the most pressing issues.
2018 International Dance Day message
International Dance Day is celebrated on the 29 April every year. Find out more about the day on the International Theatre Institutes's website.
This year the International Theatre Institute has selected five message authors to write a message—one from each of the five UNESCO Regions: Africa, the Americas, Arab Countries, Asia Pacific and Europe.