Professional resources
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Professional business practice for dance studios
Includes ethical, legal and professional standards identified by the dance teaching profession in Australia.
Child safe dance practices
Children have a fundamental right to be safe while involved in dance, sport or associated activities and teachers need to be aware of their legal obligations.
Safe Dance ® practice
These Safe Dance ® practice guidelines include how to set up a safe learning environment, what makes a practice or performance venue safe, the importance of cater for physical different bodies and abilities, how movements might impact on the body, and simple injury prevention and management strategies.
Recommendations arising from the Safe Dance IV research project
In professional dance, as with all physical and athletic endeavours, there will always be a realistic expectation of some musculoskeletal complaints. The information gathered through the Safe Dance research studies develops a better understanding of the changing profile of professional dancers in Australia and their experience of injury. The findings can be used to assist in the tailoring and evaluation of evidence based injury prevention initiatives with the long-term goal of safely sustaining dancers in their professional dance careers for as long as they choose.
Safe spaces for dance
Do the safe spaces checklist before you teach a dance class, lead a social dance event or give a dance performance.
Projects View all
Ausdance Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship
A biennial fellowship of $5,000 – $10,000 awarded to a mid-career choreographer.
Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship
The biennial Keith Bain Choreographic Travel Fellowship supports international travel and experiences by emerging choreographers (under 40 years) across any dance genre.
Support Ausdance National with a tax-deductible donation
The Australian Dance Council—Ausdance has for over forty years led, inspired, supported and informed the Australian dance community.
Now we need your support to continue this work. All donations to Ausdance National above $2 are tax deductible.
As an entirely voluntary organisation, we invite you get behind us as we continue to represent, advocate for and support all sectors of the Australian dance industry.
Vote for Arts – 2 July 2016
For the first time in a generation, the arts are claiming space in the lead-up to a federal election. While ‘jobs and growth’ and ‘putting people first’ are dominating the debate, after 18 months of cuts, despair and confusion, the arts community is coming together and calling for our voices to be heard.
Here's our guide to putting arts on the political agenda.
2015 Commonwealth Budget decisions on the Arts
The Commonwealth Budget 2015–16 announced major changes to arts funding. With funds cut from the Australia Council, the Federal Minister for Arts established the National Program for Excellence in the Arts. This led to reduced funding programs across the professional dance sector, increased uncertainty about the sustainability of artists' careers, and the potential loss of arms’ length funding and genuine peer assessment.
We are working with our members and ArtsPeak to contribute policy direction and provide advice.
Publications View all
Australian guidelines for teaching dance
The Australian guidelines for teaching dance outlines codes of ethical and professional behaviour and emphasises the importance of safe dance practice and teaching methodology.
We designed it to help dance teachers and students by providing minimum standards, and by suggesting ways teachers can maintain or upgrade their teaching skills. Parents can use the Guidelines to help choose a dancing school or group for their children.
Return To Dance: Principles and framework for restarting dance activities post-Covid-19
This document provides guidelines for practising dance safely whilst meeting the required health and safety guidelines in a new post-Covid environment. It applies to all members of the dance community: dancers, teachers, studio owners, companies and organisations.
The guidelines directly reference the Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment developed by the Australian Institute of Sport. The Ausdance guidelines have received the endorsement of Dr David Hughes, Chief Medical Officer, Australian Institute of Sport Medical Director, Australian Olympic Team, Tokyo 2020.
Professional business practice guides
This information is designed to help dance teachers who are small business owners.
Ausdance National newsletter
Published every two months, and themed around an event or popular dance topic, our email newsletter reflects on professional dance practice and shares ways for you to get involved.
Dancehouse Diary
The Dancehouse Diary aims to bring the independent dance makers’ thinking to wider audiences. It aims at developing rigorous content around their work and triggering new perspectives and connections around their research. It is a catalyst for provoking critical thinking, discourse and a poetic vision of dance and other related arts forms. It is Dancehouse’s mission to cultivate access and appreciation of this art form and for that, the Diary is a less ephemeral and a more in-depth attempt to make those connections.
News / Blog / Press Releases / Events View all
Return to dance: Principles and framework for restarting dance activities post-Covid-19
In response to huge demand from dance teachers, dancers, independent artists and dance companies across Australia, Ausdance, the peak body for dance, has today released Return To Dance: Principles and framework for restarting dance activities post-Covid-19.
This document provides guidelines for practising dance safely whilst meeting the required health and safety guidelines in a new post-Covid environment. It applies to all members of the dance community: dancers, teachers, studio owners, companies and organisations.
The guidelines directly reference the Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment developed by the Australian Institute of Sport. The Ausdance guidelines have received the endorsement of Dr David Hughes, Chief Medical Officer, Australian Institute of Sport Medical Director, Australian Olympic Team, Tokyo 2020.
We recognise that our sector has been decimated by this pandemic, but COVID-19 has also provided an extraordinary opportunity for individuals, companies, small and medium businesses and communities to work together as never before to ensure a safe and productive future as soon as possible.
We also recognise that all dance in Australia sits within the context of 100,000 years of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance continuum. This is a powerful and extraordinary fact, and protection of First Nations Elders as the source of First Nations storytelling and knowledge in Australia is the first principle of this framework.
Teachers, parents, students, organisers and administrators can use the ‘Return to dance’ document to inform dance practice in classes, rehearsals and performances.
It’s important to remember that these are guidelines for operating within State or Territory directives: they are not an exemption from these directives. If necessary, the Ausdance network may seek exemptions to specific directives supported by ‘Return to dance’, alongside Workplace Health and Safety documentation through the COVID-19 Taskforce.
The Australian dance community has been united in its support for these guidelines which were developed by Ausdance Queensland in collaboration with BlakDance, and with the support of Arts Queensland and the guidance of many vital members of the dance and arts community.
All media enquiries: Julie Englefield, ph 0426296050
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.
Fatigue identified as major contributor to injury in Australia’s professional dancers
The Safe Dance Report IV: Investigating injuries in Australia’s professional dancers, published today on the Ausdance National website, examines the Australian context and occurrence of injury in professional dancers and makes recommendations to support sustainable, healthy, and productive dancing careers.
A collaboration between The University of Sydney and Ausdance National, Safe Dance IV is the fourth in a series of Safe Dance research projects. It continues the important work started by Ausdance National almost 30 years ago.
The survey of 195 Australian professional dancers found 97% experienced at least one significant injury in their dance career, compared with 89% in 1999. And 73% of dancers reported experiencing a dance-related injury in the past 12 months.
Author and lead researcher Amy Jo Vassallo, a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Health Sciences at The University of Sydney, said the consequences of these injuries can be quite substantial and include missed performance opportunities and income, ongoing pain and disability, and expensive treatment including surgery. Serious injuries can even lead to early retirement from dance careers and lifelong disability.
‘The proportion of dancers reporting fatigue as a contributing factor to their injury has increased from 26% in 1990 and 33% in 1999 to 48% in 2017’ she said.
‘However, compared with previous Safe Dance survey results, fewer dancers reported poor technique or environment as a contributor to their injury. This demonstrates the benefits of education, policies and interventions regarding safe dancing practice for dancers and teachers at all stages of a dance career, including early teaching and pre-professional training’.
Ausdance National President, Professor Gene Moyle, said the Safe Dance Report IV continues an important lineage for the Australian dance community. Hearing the words “safe dance practice” being so much a part of our language and approach within the dance sector today is a testament to the impact and contribution of the collective Safe Dance reports within our industry.
Recommendations have outlined that access to dance-educated or dance-specialised healthcare services is essential; addressing the cultural aspects of injury reporting is critical; and that a better acknowledgement of the psychological and psychosocial aspects of injury is required.
Key findings
Survey respondents’ employment as a dance performer was most commonly with a dance company (66%) or as an independent dance artist (38%).
Injuries remain common in professional dance, with 73% of professional dancers reporting experiencing an injury in the past 12 months. The most common site of injury was the ankle (26%), followed by the knee (11%) and hip (10%).
The most common injury type was a strain (25%), followed by chronic inflammation (19%) and a sprain (18%).
There was one accidental or traumatic injury for every two overuse or gradual injuries. The most common responses regarding the self-reported contributor to injury were fatigue (48%), followed by new or difficult choreography (39%) and ignoring early warning signs (31%).
Despite 62% of respondents reporting belief that there is still stigma associated with sustaining injuries as a professional dancer, 75% of dancers did say they would seek professional opinion if they suspected an injury. However, only 50% stated they would tell someone within their dance employment and 49% said they would also take their own preventative steps to manage their injury.
Despite seeing a clinician for treatment of their injury, 40% of dancers whose injury was currently unresolved were unsure if their injury would resolve in the foreseeable future. This indicates that many dancers need to be provided with improved and realistic expectations of their injury, capacity to dance during their injury and likely return to full dance ability.
For interview contact:
Amy Vassallo | PhD Candidate
Faculty of Health Sciences
The University of Sydney
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 02 9351 9010 and 02 9351 9108
Ausdance National Council – Ausdance Inc.
Email: [email protected]
Download Safe Dance Report IV media release
National Advocates For Arts Education May 2017 update
by Julie Dyson, Chair
NAAE is coordinating the publication of a new edition of its highly successful More Than Words Can Say – a View of Literacy Through the Arts, last updated in 2003. This has meant re-engaging with the original authors and commissioning a new Foreword. We’re delighted to announce that this will be written by arts educator Professor Robyn Ewing AM of the University of Sydney, author of the influential research paper The Arts and Australian Education: Realising potential.