Dance Australia

WE start the year with a new arts political landscape. The Morrison Government has announced that the Commonwealth Department for Communications and the Arts will be merged (should that be submerged?) into a new mega-agency called the Department of I

MELBOURNE is currently playing host to Asia-TOPA, a three-month-long festival of arts from the Asia-Pacific region. Among the 30 new works on the program are some curious and sometimes definition-defying dance offerings and collaborations. As just a

SHAUN Parker, artistic director of Sydney-based Shaun Parker and Company, is passionate about reaching young people through the arts. In the lead up to the National Day of Action against Bullying on March 20, the company will present his award-winnin

VICTORIA will be seeing a lot more of the classical dance company Projection Dance this year, thanks to a state-wide tour supported by Regional Arts Victoria. Projection is directed by Tim Podesta, a former Australian Ballet dancer and international

Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, presenting Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Lac as part of The Australian Ballet’s 2019 season. This exciting and stimulating reimagining of Swan Lake was invigorating and captivating and magnificently danced. Stanton Welch’s Syl

HAVING reviewed NAISDA’s graduation performances for several years now, I have come to expect the school to put on a good show, and this year was no different. What was new this year was a much higher standard of production, especially the integrated

GRADUATE seasons are such a great opportunity to see emerging dance talent and they also give a wonderful insight into the priorities, pedagogies and approaches of the institution that is showcasing its training. It has been my good fortune to be inv

TOO often graduation performances feel like glorified auditions: all about the virtuosity and ego of the individual. The school of dance at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is a regular and welcome exception to the rule. There’s an integrity o

LOOKING back over the past 12 or so Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Dance graduation seasons, there has been little change in the programming format. In the 2019 program (at Gardens Theatre in October), the third year graduating students ag

EACH year the “Verge” season provides second and third year dance students from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) invaluable performing experience and the opportunity to work with Australian and international choreographers. I

AN exciting future lies ahead for talented Perth ballet dancer, Noah Benzie-Drayton. In 2019, Noah reached the finals of the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland and received a number of offers to study at different ballet institutions throughout the wor

FOR young Sydney dancer Kaya Weight (17), competing in the Alana Haines Australasia Awards in 2019 resulted in a sliding doors moment. One of the judges of the competition was the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s (RNZB) artistic director, Patricia Barker w

THE array of syllabus organisations and dance societies in Australia is so extensive that it can be hard for the uninitiated to know exactly what’s what! Some organisations support just one form of dance, such as Tapatak Oz (tap dance) or Australian

Australasian Dance Association commenced as the FATD in Sydney in 1931, making it the oldest dance organisation in the southern hemisphere. All syllabuses have undergone continual upgrades to ensure our members are capable of performing and teaching

AUSTRALIAN DANCE iNSTITUTE (ADi) – A REGISTERED TRAINING ORGANISATION RTO 91600 is dedicated to the provision of nationally recognised vocational qualifications in dance and dance teaching, responding to the need to provide better support for the pri

Founded in 1989 Australian Dance Vision (ADV) created a wholly Australian dance education system. This curriculum offers a holistic approach to dance, embracing creativity, musicality, body science, history , safe dance, stage craft and teamwork – th

BAL (Ballet Australasia Ltd) was founded in 1989 by dance educators who wanted an Australian-based organisation catering for the syllabus needs of dance teachers and students. Initially providing exam syllabi in Classical Ballet, Jazz, Tap, and Natio

Italian-born Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1928) followed an illustrious career as a dancer at La Scala in Milan and the Maryinsky Theatre in Russia with an equally illustrious career as a teacher. Among his pupils were Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky. In

In 2018 CSTD was rebranded to COMDANCE. The COM identifies our history, personifies communication of which dance is a primary form and identifies the importance of community to us. ComDance – A Global Community of Dance. The Commonwealth Society of T

The Association for EDUCATION IN DANCE THEATRE ARTS Incorporated (EDTA Incorporated) is dedicated to the promotion of Dance and Theatre Arts in the Asia Pacific Rim. Uniquely Australian in origin, it offers children through to adults an all-encompass

The Les Griffith Tap Dance Academy (LGTDA) syllabus was established by the late Mr Les Griffith in 1980 in Newcastle, NSW. Mr Griffith devised the famous double beating style of tapping. This is the original “Newcastle Tap” syllabus, and is currently

Founded in 1920 to set standards for dance teaching, today the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) has a presence in 89 countries, with approximately 13,000 members worldwide. We count more than 1,000 students in our teacher training programmes, and more th

Founded in 1930 by Edouard Espinosa, bbodance (formerly BBO) is an international dance awarding organisation that provides syllabi, teacher training (online & in London), CPD (some live-streamed), and inspiring events for students in Australia, New Z