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May 2004
The Northern Territory is known for the youthfulness of its population,
so dance for and by young people is a significant part of the sector.
Youth dance has been a priority within the Ausdance NT program for
the last two years and this is paying off in increasing numbers of
young people studying dance and performing. Especially pleasing has
been the spectacular growth of male dance throughout the Territory,
and the demand from remote Indigenous communities for dance tutors,
although this demand has often been hard to fill. The growth in youth
dance has been fed by the enthusiasm of the young Territory men who
attended Peter Stock’s Stamping Ground, and passed on skills and enthusiasm
for dance to others throughout the Territory.
Also extremely important in the Top End have been the performance opportunities
and disciplines offered to young dancers by Tracks, especially in their
two sellout youth dance performances—Ignite in 2002 and Fast in May 2004.
Fast has been the culmination of a joint Ausdance NT – Tracks youth dance
project called UpFroNT which has included a major program of workshops
and training opportunities for young dancers from the wide variety of
cultures in the Territory. Particularly pleasing has been the opportunity
to employ a young dancer, Marko Taopo as a youth dance trainee for a
significant portion of the year.
The first half of 2004 saw a very popular performance for and by young
women, Beautiful, directed and choreographed by Joanna Noonan, Juliette
Hubbard and Lizzie Moore of Sometimes Dance Collective. It is hoped to
re-present this show as part of this year’s Darwin Fringe.
Other groups outside Darwin have also been creating youth performances.
Katherine Community Youth Theatre Group which involves around thirty
Indigenous young people from town communities and schools, has been developed
to invest in and showcase the talents of local young people. They developed
a series of performances for Youth Week and are continuing to train in
dance and performance skills to take part in other community events.
The new cultural centre In Tennant Creek, Nyinkka Nyunyu and Barkly Arts,
through its administrator and Indigenous dancer, Lynette Lewis, has organised
a sustained program of traditional and contemporary dance classes for
local young people.
In Alice Springs, the youth arts group InCite has a strong ongoing performance
program which includes significant dance components. Ausdance NT will
be supporting their contribution to the Alice Springs Festival in August
with a series of dance workshops.
Major challenges for youth dance are the shortage of dance teachers in
Territory schools, especially outside Darwin, the difficulty of finding
tutors to travel the immense distances to reach young people in remote
communities and the short-term nature of most project funding, making
it almost impossible to provide the sustained activity necessary to engage
and develop the talents of young dancers.
November 2003
The Indigenous performing arts sector
August 2003
Festival of Darwin
May 2003
Closer contact with the dance community
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