Episodes
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Dalisa Pigram is the Co Artistic director Marrugeku. She is a Yawuru/Bardi woman with Malay and Filipino heritage born and raised in Broome, Dalisa studied in Perth after high school to complete an Advanced Certificate in Aboriginal Musical Theatre, a course developed and facilitated by Michael Leslie and accredited by WAAPA (1995). At the end of study Dalisa was invited to join Marrugeku by Michael Leslie for its first project to create Mimi (1996) working closely with Kunwinjku storytellers and dancers of Kunbarlanja community in Arnhem Land with the larger group of Marrugeku artists over 8 years. Dalisa became co artistic director of Marrugeku with Rachael Swain in 2008 after the company began working in her homelands of the Yawuru in Broome (2003). A co-devising performer on all Marrugeku’s productions, touring extensively overseas and throughout Australia, Dalisa’s first solo work Gudirr Gudirr (2013) directed and co choreographed by Koen Augustijnen, earned an Australian Dance Award (Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance 2014) and a Green Room Award (Best Female Performer 2014).
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Daniel is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and creative from the Wiradjuri nation of Western NSW, and is currently Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre.
He began his dance training at Quantum Leap, ACT and since graduating from Queensland University of
Technology (QUT) in 2006 has danced for Leigh Warren & Dancers (2005-2006), New Movement Collective UK (2014), Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre UK (2014), Chunky Move (2019) and was a senior artist with Bangarra Dance Theatre (2007-2018).
In 2019 Daniel joined ILBIJERRI Theatre Company as an Associate Producer (2019-2020), and became the
company's Creative Associate (2020-2021). His time with ILBIJERRI allowed him to partake in an Executive Leadership Program where he gained executive level skills to lead and run an arts organisation in the future.
In 2020 he was appointed as a Lecturer in Contemporary Dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, where he launched and led Kummarge, a self-determined mentoring program for First Nations dance students. In 2021 he worked for Moogahlin Performing Arts as Birrabang Miil (outside eye) for the Yellamundie@HOMENaarm Festival and joined the cast of Stephanie Lake Company’s Manifesto for the first major creative development.
He has worked as an independent dancer, director, teacher, advocate, choreographer and sat on the Board of Chunky Move (2019-2022).
Daniel’s choreographic credits include Victorian College of the Arts: WAX (2021), RISE (2020), Louisville Ballet, USA: Tonal (2020), Sacred Shifts (2015), Melbourne International Arts Festival: Tanderrum (2019),
Dancenorth: Communal Table (2019), Bangarra Dance Theatre: Dark Emu (2018), Miyagan (2016), BLAK (2013), Riley (2010), Sydney Dance Company: Reign (2015), QL2 Dance: Hit the Floor Together (2013, 2018), QUT: Twelve Ascensions (2013), Thirteen Ascensions (Twelve Ascension Rework) (2018), Third Row Dance Company UK (2014).
His film credits as Director and Choreographer include: mulunma – Inside Within (2021) for RISING
Melbourne & Yirramboi, and ACT V (2021), for The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque Digital 2021. As performer: Dan Sultan: Under Your Skin, Stephen Page (Bangarra Dance Theatre): Spear in which he worked as Director’s Attachment.
He has been nominated at the Australian Dance Awards (2010, 2013) and for National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Deadly Awards (2010, 2012 & 2013). Daniel is highly experienced in conducting
masterclasses, facilitating workshops and teaching professional company class for a range of organisations, educational institutions and dance companies across Australia and around the world. -
Episodes manquant?
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Antony Hamilton is Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move. His work employs a sophisticated melding of choreography, sound and visual design to collaboratively imagine complete worlds in performance.
Antony has been the recipient of major fellowships from Bangarra Dance Theatre (the Russell Page Fellowship), the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, the Australia Council for the Arts and the Sidney Myer Foundation. In 2013, he was Resident Director of Lucy Guerin Inc and in 2014 was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria. He was also the inaugural International Resident Artist at Dancemakers Toronto from 2016 to 2018. Antony has received four Helpmann Award nominations, winning for Black Project 1 & 2, and Forever and Ever (Sydney Dance Co.). He has won numerous Green Room Awards and has also received a New York Performing Arts Award ‘Bessie’ for Outstanding Production for MEETING.
In his time as Artistic Director at Chunky Move, Antony has premiered Token Armies (2019), Universal Estate (2019), Nocturnal (2020), Yung Lung (2022) and Rewards for the Tribe (2022). He has also championed a range of sector support programs, including the Victorian Regional Artist Residency, commissioning program Activators and the Choreographer in Residence initiative. -
Alice was born and raised in Bendigo and started dancing at the age of four. After two years with Royal New Zealand Ballet, she joined The Australian Ballet in 2007. Her passion for choreography began when she created her first work, Trace, for the 2010 season of Bodytorque, the company’s choreographic showcase. From 2011 to 2014, she made three further works for the Bodytorque seasons; in 2016 she choreographed Little Atlas, which appeared in the company’s mainstage program Symphony in C in both 2016 and 2017. In 2018 her work Aurum, which was created with the support of a Rudolf Nureyev Prize for New Dance, had its world premiere as part of The Australian Ballet’s Verve program. It appeared at New York’s Joyce Theater in 2019.
In 2019 Alice won the Helpmann Award for Best Ballet for Aurum. She has also been nominated for a Green Room Award (Little Atlas, 2017) and for two Australian Dance Awards (Same Vein, 2014 and Trace, 2010).
She has choreographed music videos for artists including Megan Washington and Ben Folds, and has been invited to create works for Houston Ballet II and Queensland Ballet. She was appointed one of The Australian Ballet’s resident choreographers in 2018. -
In this episode Thomas Bradley and Felix Sampson, create an experimental soundscape to accompany the reading of Thomas’ essay ON A DANCING*, first published on Delving into Dance on 27 November 2019. You can read the full essay here, with an extract provided below.
The declaration is a precursor to the dancing, akin to preparation rather than a recipe. Ideas must be extradited from consciousness through speech or writing, like a clarification of behaviour, or practice of exorcism. And it is after these literary articulations that his liberation, and Good Dancing, will begin: post-declaration, and its attendant extrapolation. In this space, cliché postures may emerge, like archetypes of meaning and value, yet they remain personal somehow; the politics of the action must not be engaged as a communicative tool.
N.B. It’s important the audience see me not knowing,
so they know when I know, I don’t know.The distinction he is searching for is that between the personal and political. Though, perhaps there can be some value in flirting with politics just as he flirts with clarity. Generally, that should be encouraged, rather than the rampant fucking of art by ideology and ambition.
Do you prefer clarity to nuance?
Are clarity and dynamism mutually exclusive?
N.B. In this context, clarity gains its whole value by the creative digression that frames it.
As a measure of universality, clarity is vital in a dancing scene, where so often the desire to communicate
something directly overrides the expression of the dancing experience.
In this sense, clarity must be understood as a prelude to chaos.What about the becoming of clarity?
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This interview was conducted by Samual Gaskin, delving into being a person of colour making your mark in the Australian dance and entertainment community featuring Yvette Lee & Sophia Laryea. They talked about inclusion inspiration and appreciation.
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Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, currently Director of Mirramu Creative Arts Centre and Artistic Director of Mirramu Dance Company, founded Australia’s iconic contemporary dance company, Australian Dance Theatre and was its Artistic Director from 1965 - 1975.
Elizabeth was awarded an OAM for her contribution to contemporary dance in Australia. Included among her many other awards are an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship, an ACT Creative Arts Fellowship and several Canberra Critics Circle Awards. In 2015 she was inducted into the Australian Dance Hall of Fame and awarded the Canberra Times Artist of the Year.
Elizabeth was Head of the Dance Department at the University of Western Sydney from 2004 – end 2006. She has taught at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan where she has a long association with the Taiwanese dance community, also appearing annually in the Tsai Jui Yueh International Dance Festivals. She has also been a guest teacher at L’Ecole des Sables in Senegal and at Tans Atelier Wien, Austria.
Elizabeth’s career in dance spans more than six decades and she continues to explore new avenues in her work. In 2016 Elizabeth joined Teaċ Daṁsa as an actor/dancer in Michael Keegan Dolan’s Swan Lake/Loch na hEala. This award-winning production has been touring the world for four years.
In 2018 - 2019 Elizabeth worked with Director, Kenneth Spiteri, on a VR film project, Crone, and is currently working with Jacqui Carroll on a new solo work involving masks. She has recently received a Homefront grant from artsACT to research Dance-in-Nature: Preparing a book, video-tutorial and workshop.
During Covid; In my hibernation my creativity turned to writing. I spent hours happily at my computer with my writing, which sometimes feels like choreography. The results of these writing hours are some rough chapters recounting special experiences of my life, and in particular, my life here at Mirramu. This is an ongoing project which perhaps one day will evolve into a book.
As well, I have been working subliminally on two solo projects. The first is Crone which I developed with Kenneth Spiteri during 2018 and 2019. I am taking the ideas and choreographed sections that we created and were shot for a VR dance film, as raw material for a solo theatre production. The other project is a new solo program directed by Jacqui Carroll. Here I use masks to create seven different women in various different times and different circumstances. This project is an enormous challenge, but it is opening up a whole new world of performance for me. As soon as the warmer weather comes and the days get longer, I will be working hard on these two works.
This is the second interview on Delving into Dance, from the amazing Elizabeth Cameron Dalman.
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Lillian Crombie is a proud woman from the Pitjintjara/Yungkunjara Nation. She is one of Australia’s leading actors and studied acting, dance and drama at the Port Pirie Ballet School, NIDA, NAISDA, the EORA Centre and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, NY. Crombie has trained in classical, modern, jazz ballet and traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island dance.
She has had feature roles in numerous films including in Baz Luhrmann’s highly acclaimed Australia. She has extensive credits in television including the “Secret Life of Us” and most recently, 13 episodes of the children’s drama series Double Trouble produced by the Nine Network, Disney and Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association. Crombie has played leading roles in many successful theatre productions including Mereki the Peacemaker, Conversations with The Dead, Black Mary - Festival of Dreaming, Gunjies, Capricornia and recently Rainbow’s End.
In this interview Jacob Boehme takes on an extensive journey through Lillian’s life, from when she started dance, through to her journey to Sydney and across to New York. Lillian has worked extensively with community and schools, and has a passion for teaching. She has just opened Lillian Crombie's School of Dance and Drama, to inspire the next generation of dancers and performers.
The interview touches on the AIDS epidemic and sexual assault, but simultaneously brings hope, light and optimism for where we find ourselves as a society now.
Film and Television credits include:
Double Trouble (2008). TV Series, Milly (13 episodes)
Australia (2008). Feature Film. Director Baz Luhman. Character: Bandy Legs
Days Like These (2007). TV. Mum
Lucky Miles (2007). Evie
The Secret Life of Us (2003)
Deadly (1991). Sally
Ring of Scorpio (1990). TVTheatre credits include:
Rainbow’s End (2009), Riverside Theatre
Conversations with The Dead (2004), Belvoir Street Theatre
Sydney Stories, Sydney Theatre Company
The Cherry Pickers, Sydney Theatre Company
Black-ed Up, Sydney Theatre Company
Clan, Bangarra Dance Theatre
La Dispute, Sydney Theatre Company
Black Mary, Festival of Dreaming, Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
Capricornia, Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
Up the Road, Company B, Belvoir Street Theatre
Gunjies, Belvoir Street TheatreThis interview was conducted by Jacob Boehme. Jacob is a Melbourne born and raised artist of the Narangga and Kaurna Nations, South Australia. He is a multi-disciplinary theatre maker and choreographer, creating work for the stage, screen and festivals.
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Gregory is the author of the 2020 International Dance Day message – which so poignantly addresses the fragility of the world and humankind.
Gregory’s dance journey provides a powerful insight to the dance of dance as a political voice and his voice has carried across the world. His insightful, unflinching, International Dance Day message speaks to his empathy and insight as an activist and artist.
Gregory became interested in dance in the late 1980s as a means to escape the political tensions growing in his place of birth. He started his formal dance training in 1990 at Moving Into Dance wherein 2002 he became the Associate Artistic Director. Maqoma has established himself as an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher and director. He founded Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1999 when he was undertaking a scholarship at the Performing Arts Research and Training School (PARTS) in Belgium under the direction of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.
Maqoma is respected for his collaborations with artists of his generation like Akram Khan, Vincent Mantsoe, Faustin Linyekula, Dada Masilo, Shanell Winlock, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Theatre Director James Ngcobo.
Several works in his repertoire have won him accolades and international acclaim. This includes FNB Vita Choreographer of the Year in 1999, 2001 and 2002 for Rhythm 1.2.3, Rhythm Blues and Southern Comfort respectively. He received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance in 2002. Maqoma was a finalist in the Daimler Chrysler Choreography Award in 2002 and in the Rolex Mentorship Programme in 2003. He is the recipient of the 2012 Tunkie Award for Leadership in Dance. In 2014 he received a “Bessie”, New York City’s premier dance award for Exit/Exist for original music composition. He served as a nominator in the 2016–2017 Rolex Arts Initiative as well as curating the 2017 Main Dance Program for The National Arts Festival. His current works ‘Via Kanana’ and ‘Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero’ were touring in Africa and Europe when Covid colosed borders and dancers were forced to return to South Africa.
In 2017 Maqoma was honoured by the French Government with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Arts & Literature) Award. In 2018 was honoured by the South African Department of Arts & Culture with the inaugural Usiba Award for dedication to dance teaching.
In 2018 Maqoma collaborated with William Kentridge as a choreographer and performing in Kentridge’s opera ‘The Head And The Load’ toured to the UK, Germany, Austria, Holland and New York.
In 2019 Maqoma Collaborated with Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah in the production “Tree” produced by Manchester International Festival and the Young Vic. He is also part of the selection committee for Dance Biennale Afrique Festival which was to take place in Marrakech in 2020. -
In this episode, we meet Edna Reinhardt, a passionate creative dance and yoga educator with decades of experience in the field.
Edna’s commitment to dance education developed during her foundational training in the 1970’s at the former Managala studios in Carlton under the guidance of Dorethea Mangimele, where yoga, music and dance were married to cultivate this unique discipline.
As principal and founder of Over The Moon studios in Castlemaine, we discuss the integration of yoga and dance, education principles and her self-proclaimed life’s mission to develop community and culture through dance in a regional area.
Having been a mentor and inspiration for many, Edna’s wisdom and warmth hold valuable insights into a holistic approach to dance education, cultivating artistic, culturally informed and insightful students. Edna embodies how movement training co-exists with philosophy and lifestyle, to create an enriching existence through dance.
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Lloyd Newson is best known as the founder and artistic director of DV8 Physical Theatre, in London.
Born in Albury, Australia, Lloyd studied psychology and social work at Melbourne University, becoming interested in dance. This interest continued to deepen when he attended the London Contemporary Dance School on a full scholarship. He started DV8 Physical Theatre in 1986.
DV8 as a company has had a profound impact on shaping perceptions of dance and physical theatre, with performers of a range of backgrounds, and different types of bodies all having a place in different performance works. Lloyd has tackled a range of issues in his works including male violence and homophobia. In 2007, Lloyd placed an increased focus on the role of text alongside movement in his pieces, seeing him make works such as Can We Talk About This? and JOHN.
DV8’s work is highly acclaimed and has won countless international awards. In 2013 Newson was awarded an OBE from the Queen for services to contemporary dance. He has been cited by the Critics Circle as being one of the hundred most influential artists working in Britain during the last one hundred years.
In 2016, after 30 years of running DV8, Lloyd made the decision to step back from the company and to reflect on both the achievements and what he still wanted to say with the company. Running a company for 30 years is no easy task, with a small core team supporting an extensive output.
2020 sees the return of DV8 with the seminal work Enter Achilles, produced by Rambert. The work is touring internationally, starting at Adelaide Festival. This is the first ever remount of a DV8 production, first made in 1995. Enter Achilles set in a British pub, explores themes related to masculinity, stereotypes around men, male violence and men’s insecurities.
Lloyd doubts that he will ever make another full length work, and has found a sense of freedom outside the daily operation of arts company. -
Juliet Burnett grew up in Sydney, while spending considerable time in Indonesia. Dancing was in Juilet’s blood; her grandmother, was the Sultan’s star dancer at his court in Jogjakarta. At the age of five her parents enrolled her in ballet school to see if she took after her grandmother.
Later, Juliet studied at The Australian Ballet School, before joining the company in 2003. Juliet has worked in creations by Wayne McGregor, Stanton Welch, Alexei Ratmansky, Krysztof Pastor, Nicolo Fonte, Maina Gielgud, Rudolf Nureyev, Peggy van Praagh, Matjash Mrozewski, Stephen Baynes, Gideon Obarzanek, Graeme Murphy and Stephen Page.
In mid-2015, Juliet left The Australian Ballet after her final show as Giselle. She left to become a freelance dancer performing in Australia and Indonesia, working with a range of people including Melanie Lane, a childhood friend.
In 2016, Juliet made the move to Europe to join Ballet Vlaanderen, Belgium's premier dance company, under the directorship of renowned choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
Since 2016, Juliet has been a First Soloist with Ballet Vlaanderen, where she has had new creations made for her by Édouard Lock in The Heart of August and The Heart of August ... continued and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in his Requiem. Other roles include the title role in Akram Khan’s Giselle, in William Forsythe's Approximate Sonata and Workwithinwork, Pina Bausch's Café Müller, in Benjamin Millepied’s Bach Studies, as Marguerite in Jean-Christophe Maillot's Faust, as Queen Fabiola in Jeroen Verbruggen's Ma Mére L'Oye, Trisha Brown’s Twelve Ton Rose, in Alexander Ekman’s Joy, in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Firebird, Memento Mori, Exhibition and Fall, and the Snow Queen in Demis Volpi's Nutcracker. In 2017 she danced as Guest Artist with Dutch National Ballet, in Remi Wortmeyer's new creation, Passing Shadows.
Juliet is also a writer, having been a regular contributor for Dance Tabs, MDM Dancewear's website and The Australian Ballet's blog Behind Ballet. She has written for other publications including Vogue Australia, Dance International and Gourmet Traveller magazines. -
Juliet Burnett grew up in Sydney, while spending considerable time in Indonesia. Dancing was in Juilet’s blood; her grandmother, was the Sultan’s star dancer at his court in Jogjakarta. At the age of 5 her parents enrolled her in ballet school to see if she took after her grandmother.
Later Juliet studied at The Australian Ballet School, before joining the company in 2003. Juliet has worked in creations by Wayne McGregor, Stanton Welch, Alexei Ratmansky, Krysztof Pastor, Nicolo Fonte, Maina Gielgud, Rudolf Nureyev, Peggy van Praagh, Matjash Mrozewski, Stephen Baynes, Gideon Obarzanek, Graeme Murphy and Stephen Page.
In mid-2015 Juliet left The Australian Ballet after her final show as Giselle. She left to become a freelance dancer performing in Australia and Indonesia, working with a range of people including Melanie Lane, a childhood friend.
In 2016 Juliet made the move to Europe to join Ballet Vlaanderen, Belgium's premier dance company, under the directorship of renowned choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
Since 2016 Juliet has been a First Soloist with Ballet Vlaanderen, where she has had new creations made for her by Édouard Lock in The Heart of August and The Heart of August ... continued and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in his Requiem. Other roles include the title role in Akram Khan’s Giselle, in William Forsythe's Approximate Sonata and Workwithinwork, Pina Bausch's Café Müller, in Benjamin Millepied’s Bach Studies, as Marguerite in Jean-Christophe Maillot's Faust, as Queen Fabiola in Jeroen Verbruggen's Ma Mére L'Oye, Trisha Brown’s Twelve Ton Rose, in Alexander Ekman’s Joy, in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Firebird, Memento Mori, Exhibition and Fall, and the Snow Queen in Demis Volpi's Nutcracker. In 2017 she danced as Guest Artist with Dutch National Ballet, in Remi Wortmeyer's new creation, Passing Shadows.
Juliet is also a writer, having been a regular contributor for Dance Tabs, MDM Dancewear's website and The Australian Ballet's blog Behind Ballet. She has written for other publications including Vogue Australia, Dance International and Gourmet Traveller magazines.
With such an extensive career and so many interesting things to talk about this interview is presented in two parts. -
James Vu Anh Pham is from Perth, Western Australia, and was the first generation of his Vietnamese family to be raised in a Western society. James loved music as a child, playing piano, clarinet and saxophone, he planned on becoming a musician. Struggling with stage-fright a friend suggested he tried dance classes as a way to connect to his body. Starting hip-hop, he loved what he could express through his body. Subsequently, he switched his planned career in music to a career in dance, going on to study at New Zealand School of Dance.
His first professional contact was with Chunky Move, shortly after Anouk van Dijk started, performing in An Act of Now, in 2012. James continued to dance extensively for Chunky Move in a range of works including Rule of Thirds (2016), Depth of Field (2015), Complexity of Belonging (2014), 247 Days (2013) and AORTA (2013) – a Next Move production choreographed by Stephanie Lake.
He learnt Countertechnique for Anouk van Dijk and has since become an instructor.
James received the ‘Best Male Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Work’ (2014) Helpmann Award for his performance in 247 Days and the ‘Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer’ (2014) Australian Dance Award for AORTA.
In 2016, James relocated to Belgium to work at Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Eastman, where he performed in works including Babel 7.16 in the Palais Des Papes for the Festival d'Avignon, guesting in Ravel with Ballet Flanders and ICON with the Göteborg Opera Dance Company. He also performed with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in Les Indes galantes, a production by the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.
In 2019, James moved to London, where he now works as a company dancer with Akram Khan Company. He was involved in the creation of Outwitting the Devil, which had its world première in 2019. James has so much to offer the world of dance and continues to bring his own style and personality wherever he goes.
This is the second episode in a season looking at Australian dance artists working and living overseas. The next interview is with Juliet Burnett who dances with Belgium's premier dance company, Ballet Vlaanderen. -
Dan Daw is an Australian dance artist based in Birmingham. Dan grew up in Whyalla, in country South Australia. Starting dance at a young age, his grandmother was a callisthenics teacher, so was surrounded by dance and movement from a young age. "It gave me an outlet and a way to express myself, and to be in a space where I could see myself represented."
Dan started dancing with Restless Dance Theatre in 2002, before dancing with a range of different companies including; Australian Dance Theatre, and Force Majeure (Australia), FRONTLINEdance, Scottish Dance Theatre, balletLORENT, Candoco Dance Company (UK), and with Skånes Dansteater (Sweden).Throughout his performance career Dan has worked with Kat Worth, Garry Stewart, Kate Champion, Janet Smith, Adam Benjamin, Wendy Houstoun, Sarah Michelson, Rachid Ouramdane, Nigel Charnock, Matthias Sperling, Marc Brew, Claire Cunningham, Martin Forsberg, Carl Olof Berg and Javier de Frutos.Dan left Australia to work with Candoco Dance Company, finding a lack of opportunities in Australia, depressed at the prospect of needing to go on the dole after significant performance opportunities. There are bigger conversations that need to be had about who can be considered a dancer within an Australian context and who is missing out on professional opportunities.
Dan's work often blurs the lines between dance and theatre and can have a common theme related to time.
Dan has created solo works – ‘Beast’ by Martin Forsberg and ‘On One Condition’ by Graham Adey, the latter receiving the Adelaide Fringe Best Theatre Award 2017. In 2020 Dan will premiere his new work The Dan Daw Show, which explores inspiration, porn and audiences expectations of disabled artists.
Dan was interviewed during a successful run of Thank You Very Much by Claire Cunningham during Manchester International Festival.
This is the first episode in a season looking at Australian dance artists working and living overseas. -
Dance started for Cadi McCarthy at the youthful age of four, having been taken along to a ballet class by her parents. At the age of 17, she was accepted into the Western Australian Academy for Performing Arts (WAAPA). At WAAPA and the world of what dance was opened up for Cadi, sparking what has become a life-long commitment and investment into the potential and possibility of choreography and movement. Cadi was exposed to different ways of engaging with dance and the practise of dance-making, improvisation and tasking, “not just the performing aspect of dance”.
Cadi’s interest and dedication in the art of dance-making and its power is found in the body; “every human has a body and bodies tell stories”.
Cadi’s career has taken her all over the world - and spent time working with dance companies in Denmark, UK, Germany, USA, and Canada. The interest was always in meeting new people and seeing the way the different ways of engaging with life and dance, not just about learning new techniques: “it’s about making our world smaller and richer” as well as “connecting with like-minded people”.
In 2012, Cadi moved to Newcastle, and noticed the lack of engagement with dance-making and practice. She was inspired to create an artistic hub of sorts, providing a space for artists to have the liberty to just play and investigate - to see what they could come up with. Catapult Dance Choreographic Hub was born, a space that exists to nurture emerging and professional choreographers and artists and to “strengthen the presence of contemporary dance/art in the Newcastle community”. The Hub provides multiple residencies and support - for people to consolidate practise as well as to take personal and artistic risk.
This lack of a youth cultural, was the catalyst for the Flip-Side project. She sees this as an opportunity to nurture the individual voice that everyone possesses and the way in which dance can build foundational skills that transcend into everyday life. Cadi comments that “youth dance didn’t really exist” when she was younger and that this would have been a formative experience.
Cadi is a generous and open-person, with so much enthusiasm and insight into dance-making and the body. I really appreciated the way she views choreography and highlights the importance of nurturing and providing space for people to play and explore.
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Adam Rutherford an independent creative practitioner, performer, choreographer, Rehearsal Director and Artistic Director of both Rutherford Dance Company (RDC) and multi-award-winning Rutherford Dance Company Youth (RDC Youth). He explores Global Equality through choreographic projects spanning Europe. In 2018, he was awarded a Dance Hub Birmingham Artistic Commission and was appointed dance lead for the 2022 Commonwealth Games Handover from Australia to Birmingham. Adam was awarded a Lisa Ullman Travel Scholarship Fund (LUTSF) award in 2019 to visit Palucca ‘Hochschule für Tanz’ in Dresden, Germany.
Adam’s career in the performing arts spans over 15 years and has a successful track record in choreography, education, outreach, youth dance, and professional dance. Adam is a very intelligent and focused Director. He works very closely with his youth company dancers to create an experience for them that is hard to find in any other parts of England.
This interview with Adam focuses on his vision for his Youth Company. Adam provides the opportunity to his young dancers to help with his decisions in their process of creating works, which captures an exclusive experience in contemporary dance at a young age. -
Aparna was born in Chennai, India, into a very musical family. Formal training started “quite late at 15” but the joy of moving started long before then, and she remembers dancing around to ABBA music. She would run home from school, to catch the two hours of Western music on a radio station, kick her sister out of the room and just enjoying moving.
Aparna explored classical Indian styles of dance as well as Western, joining a school that offered a wide variety of classes. She acknowledges this as a strength of her early years of dance, explaining that dance is “vast for me”, describing her style as a “global fusion”.
After 12 years of dancing in the company in India, she travelled to New York at the age of 27 supported by a scholarship. Aparna remembers a period in New York, three weeks into the company of wanting “to pack it in” and return home. It was one of the many times of self reflection and growth, her relationship to dance being tested. Acknowledging that while they are highly uncomfortable, she recognises the value and strength in reflecting and checking in. “I treat dance is like a relationship” and sees it as a time to “to be by myself and with myself”.
High Kicks is a youth ensemble founded, in 2011, with a focus on empowerment, challenging boundaries and the diversity of dance. The company has recently shifted from being an all girls collective, to being inclusive of anyone who identifies as female, as well people who gender-diverse or gender fluid. Aparna acknowledged the need for this shift to ensure that everyone feel included and able to dance in a safe space. She imparts the importance of everyone’s individual journey, and states the important truth of “just because they know something you don’t , doesn’t mean that you don’t know anything.”
Aparna is a generous, enthusiastic and reflective person who was an absolute pleasure to interview. Her honesty and genuineness was infectious and the way she talked about dancing was highly inspiring. Aparna’s commitment to dance and the significance of moving and being with other people is affirming. Being able to talk with someone liked minded and excited about dance, just reinforces why we do what we do. -
"In term of my career, I've spent most of it - if not all of it - in youth dance."
And she has. Anna Kenrick, from her beginnings training at the Northern Contemporary School of Dance through to her current position as Artistic Director of YDance in Scotland, has forged a career pushing for the voice of young people.
Over her career as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer, Anna's passion for social issues drives her work. From working in prisons, rural areas, with mothers, disabled people, and young dancers who wish to continue professionally, Anna opens the doors of dance to as many people as she can.
In this episode, Anna talks about her experience with not only youth dance, but also teaching collaboration, choreography, and touring.
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Isabella Stone is a contemporary dance performer, choreographer, and teacher. Isabella believes in the power of movement and performance to connect, communicate, transform and inspire people and communities through performance experiences.
Based in Perth, Isabella is a graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2009) and LINK Dance Company (2010). As a performer, Isabella has worked for Maxima Circus Catch!, Thomas ES Kelly Junjeiri Ballun – Gurul Gaureima, Paul Blackman and Christine Gouzelis (Jukstapoz) Fragile Matter, and many more. Isabella participated in extensive research residencies in Tasmania (T.R.I.P Tasdance), Finland (JoJo Dance Festival), Bilbao (ACTFestival) and Bundanon, as well as workshops nationally and internationally. Teaching has become an integral part of Isabella’s development as an artist, with a strong focus on working with youth. Isabella cherishes the role young people have played, in her ambition to remain curious and always learning while teaching. In 2019, Isabella became a member of Tasdance, performing in MONA FOMA and creating new solo work for Junction Arts Festival, and performed with Maxima Circus in the season Catch!
Isabella is a very kind and hopeful person. She trusts that by the time she is 50, she will be at the peak of her creative and physical abilities. This was quite an eye-opener for me as I have never really thought about my life at that age. As a young dancer, it was a pleasure to interview her as it made me realise what keeps drawing me towards dance.
- Montre plus
