• Dance & Sport partnership
• Publications
• SCOPE project

Research Publications

Ausdance National has been working for many years to address the issues of dancers’ transition. We first commissioned and published a report called ‘Dancers Transition’ in 1989, researched by Catherine Beall,

which revealed for the first time many of the concerns of dancers, including their education, lack of access to counselling, career guidance and further training, other work experience opportunities, etc. At the same time we commissioned and published the first Safe Dance report, researched by Tony Geeves, and we found that many of the issues were linked to the health and education of dancers. This led Ausdance National to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), where we began to identify common problems but, more importantly, solutions in their well-resourced programs for elite athletes.

Ausdance National is proud to have worked with authors, Professor David Throsby and Virginia Hollister on the production of the publications Dance in Australia—a profile and Moving On—career transition of professional dancers in Australia. They were commissioned by the International Organisation for the Transition of Professional Dancers (IOTPD) as part of its aDvANCE Project.

David Throsby was also co-author of the larger publication Making Changes—facilitating the transition of dancers to post-performance careers, also commissioned by the IOTPD, which was presented to a conference as part of the Monaco Dance Forum in December last year.

With assistance from the Australia Council, Shane Carroll, Chair of the Dance Board, and Julie Dyson, Ausdance NEO, attended this conference, where they were able to contribute to the discussion and consider the challenges and the potential for professional development in Australia. Other Australians attending were Hilary Crampton, Sally Collard-Gentle, Lucinda Sharp and, of course, David Throsby.

Dance in Australia: A profile

by David Throsby (available as a downloadable 1MB PDF file)

In 2004 the dance industry in Australia is a well-developed and highly differentiated branch of the performing arts, covering all genres and styles, and operating through a range of commercial and non-commercial channels. This report considers the organisational structure of dance in Australia, the situation of individual dancers, the characteristics of audiences, funding issues, and dance education and training. It also includes observations about the problem of transition as it affects dancers and choreographers.

Dr David Throsby is Professor of Economics at Macquarie University. He is internationally known for his work in the economics of the arts and culture. He is the author of numerous publications, including Economics and Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and Don’t Give Up Your Day Job (Australia Council, 2003) which was the fourth in a series of surveys over the past twenty years assessing the economic prospects of Australia’s professional artists.

Moving On—career transition of professional dancers in Australia

by David Throsby (available as a downloadable 1.49MB PDF file) This is a companion volume to Dance in Australia: A Profile

Dancers are unique amongst creative artists in terms of the brevity of their professional careers—most dancers are obliged to withdraw from active performance during their thirties or forties—and the issues relating to career change for dancers are some of the most important that these artists are likely to face in their entire lives. This report is the Australian component of a major international research project to examine problems and prospects for career transition amongst professional dancers.