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May 2003
Closer contact with the dance community
Working in
the new Ausdance premises (which we share with Tracks, the Northern Territoryˇs
dance company) is proving to be an exciting and inspiring experience.
Our rehearsal space, which
is used for Tracks rehearsals and for dance development activities, has
brought us into much closer contact with the dance community. In the
first
few weeks alone, over 300 people used the space, including 140 young
dancers who answered an audition advertisement for the Arafura games
Opening Ceremony.
Although the games have been cancelled this year because of fear of the
SARS virus, the young dancers with the Grey Panthers over 50s womenˇs
group performed a segment of the opening ceremony to an enthusiastic
audience
of families and friends in the sports stadium.
Youth Dance
Youth dance has taken off in Darwin, largely
due to the influence of the Tracks youth performance Ignite, and to a
youth audience development project funded by the Australia Council and
facilitated by Ausdance, the Festival of Darwin, Tracks and artsMARK in
August last year. We had young audiences queuing for tickets, and word
of mouth now has dance as a favoured youth activity. Youth Week saw the
young male dancers whoˇd been to Bellingen in January demonstrate their
skills to a huge audience in the food mall of a local shopping centre,
and around 100 youngsters of all ages turned up to a hip hop break workshop.
In Alice Springs Youth Week projects included
acro-balance demonstrations in Todd Street Mall, followed by two free
workshops. Also in Alice from June 16 to July 12 Kat Worth, artistic director
of Restless Dance, will be visiting to provide training and mentorship
to assist local arts workers facilitate high quality projects for people
with disabilities. Kat is one of four experienced community disability
arts practitioners taking part in a pilot project, Mapping New Territory,
being organised by CASA Central Australia.
Workshops and Master Classes
Ausdance NT has been able to extend the number
of workshops and masterclasses offered using its new space. In April,
Melbourne contemporary dancer Martin Kwasner delivered workshops for senior
students, and for independent professional dancers. Students travelled
from Katherine (600 kms in one day) to attend his class. We have also
run an Introduction to Pilates workshop, a class with a visiting Sri Lankan
dance troupe, and a Greek dancing class.
Dance Week
For
Dance Week 60 free dance classes were offered to new participants in
our 'Dip into Dance' program – up from
45 last year. We also held an open day on May 18 in our new premises
with a Dancersˇ Picnic in the beautiful grounds, which surround the
office.
Now on to planning our major performance activity for the year which
will be 'Streets of Dance' dance of all types in site specific performances
or the Festival of Darwin in August.
Useful Link
Ausdance NT
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