Ausdance National update—September 2009

Ausdance skill set for Teaching Dance

This is a short course that provides dancers with the skills to successfully teach dance in schools (with supervision), in the community and for recreation and enjoyment. The course focuses on three areas of learning: Dance Teaching Methods; Safe Dance and Ethical and Legal issues.

The units of competency have been selected from the Community Recreation Industry Training Package SRC04, a nationally endorsed package. Those who complete the course will receive a Statement of Attainment which is nationally recognised and which indicates competence in the skills developed through the course. It should be emphasized that the skill set will enable practitioners to work in schools in a supervised capacity only—this is not a degree in education.

There has been strong early interest from the field, and it’s exciting to find how many dance artists already have a Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training, as they will be eligible to deliver the courses. All State and Territory Ausdance offices are committed to delivering the new skill set in the next 12 months.

Australian Guidelines for Teaching Dance

With the skill set based on the original 1998 Australian Guidelines for Dance Teachers, the guidelines have been renamed and revised, and are now going through a review process with a range of industry advisers before publication for wider feedback. Ausdance National’s Leanne Craig is also preparing a range of fact sheets to support the guidelines, and these will gradually be published as part of our publications plan. They will include topics such as dance floors, nutrition, occupational health and safety issues, assessment, copyright, etc.

National Advocates for Arts Education

All NAAE members have been invited to participate in the new Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) reference group for the National Curriculum.

Dance people on the reference group are Jeff Meiners, Nanette Hassall, Ruth Bott and Julie Dyson, and the first of two meetings was held in Sydney on 18 September (with a second meeting scheduled for October). ACARA’s general manager, Robert Randall, chaired the meeting and it was especially exciting to hear confirmation by ACARA that there will be five art forms included in the National Curriculum from years K-12, including dance.

NAAE has developed a new consultation paper about how implementation might be effected, and it is now published for feedback.

Treading the Pathways

The National Indigenous Dance Co-ordinator, Marilyn Miller, again visited Canberra in September to work with Ausdance National staff on various aspects of the project, including its finances and web presence.

Marilyn continued to work with Denis Newie in September to further develop the Torres Strait Islander Playdance kit for schools, in consultation with dance curriculum experts. The team has already filmed a first draft of demonstration dances, and has since visited the Torres Strait to work with a children’s performance group to film the dances in full costume. The kit will be reviewed by a national reference group before being piloted next year.

Ausdance NT

National Director Julie Dyson visited Darwin in September and met with many dance people working in companies, communities and local schools. She and Jenelle Saunders, the Director Ausdance NT, also met with ArtsNT to discuss Ausdance’s strategic plan and its priorities for the next triennium, including those embedded in Dance Plan 2012. This was a very useful meeting, with a great exchange of ideas and strategies for ‘building capacity’ in the dance community.

There was an excellent meeting with local school and studio teachers to discuss the new Ausdance skill set for Teaching Dance, and with Tracks Dance to hear about the company’s latest projects.

Ausdance NT has recently developed a long-term dance plan for its activities in the Territory, assisted by consultant Darren Jones. Jenelle is currently working with Tracks Dance for six weeks on a community dance project in Lajamanu, with Bryn Wackett in charge of the office in her absence.

Ausdance Qld

Julie also spent two days in Brisbane in September, participating in an Ausdance Queensland dance sector forum Stepping up II: connecting community, along with other guests from the Australia Council and Arts Qld. Forum participants had an opportunity to review last year’s event and heard from the speakers about progress made with Dance Plan 2012, followed by an open discussion about the dance community’s own strategies for action.

The next day Ausdance Queensland launched a weekend for dance educators, the Ausdance Educator’s Network (Queensland) conference, with a wonderful array of guest speakers and workshop leaders. Held at the premises of the Queensland Ballet, there was an opening event at which Julie and Josephine Wise spoke about progress with the National Curriculum and the role of the National Advocates for Arts Education, and the annual Osmotherly Awards were presented to Jude Smith and Julie.

Katrina Rank, Education and Training Manager for Ausdance Victoria, presented the second keynote address the next day, focusing on the new skill set for teaching dance, followed by a range of workshops with local and visiting artists – an impressive program!

World Alliance for Arts Education (WAAE)

A great deal of preparatory work for this meeting took place in September, with participants allocated a working group each, and a website developed to enable a sharing of presentations in advance. Julie Dyson and Jeff Meiners will represent Australian dance education as part of the World Dance Alliance delegation.