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In 1999 The Australian Research Council, through its Strategic Partnerships with Industry - Research and Training Scheme (SPIRT) granted the sum of $180,000 for research into choreographic practice at the Victorian College of the Arts School of Dance (University of Melbourne). Professor Shirley McKechnie leads the team as chief investigator with fellow chief investigator Mr Robin Grove, also of the University of Melbourne. The industry partners are The Choreographic Centre and the Australian Dance Council - Ausdance, both based in Canberra. To open up new research possibilities in cognitive psychology, Dr Kate Stevens, from the University of Western Sydney (Macarthur Auditory Research Centre) has joined the artists and industry partners in a singular collaboration in university-industry research, certainly the first research project of its kind in Australia. The development of the proposal was the subject of consultation and discussion between the two Chief Investigators and the two Industry Partners over many months.

Focus of the Research

The research addresses problems which beset the dance industry at its most creative level - the methodology and practice of the craft of choreography. It is applied research, in that it is original work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge with a specific application in view. It is also strategic basic research, in that it is experimental and theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge which will provide the broad base necessary for solving recognised practical problems.

The current situation in Australian dance is marked by the short and expensive life of most choreographic products. Large amounts of time, talent and money are expended by the industry and its funding bodies in support of choreographic practice without any basic understanding of the complex thought-processes or strategies deployed by choreographers in their search for significant new forms.

Universities, which now contain departments of dance-study, are uniquely positioned to work with the industry to advance the kind of knowledge which will enrich and enhance choreographic invention. At present, even within our most prestigious dance companies, choreography is often treated as a matter of putting steps together, a task usually assigned four or five weeks at most. While such efforts may then be given a costly, if short-lived production, Australian choreographers are seldom given time to explore, test, or revise their creations, for the work is hardly ever treated as a form of thinking.

World-wide, there are a few choreographers who are less constrained by the terms of their commission. Such artists often take a year or more to complete a work, but the results are there for all to see. The works of Germany's Pina Bausch, France's Maguy Marin, Frankfurt's William Forsythe, and other such independent artists, last for years, touring internationally, and seeding new creations in other environments as well. By contrast, the Australian dance-industry suffers a perpetual shortage of highly evolved new work; its widely acclaimed performers have all too little material which can develop either them or their audiences. The research seeks to investigate and understand ways of addressing these problems.

In awarding the grant the ARC reported that international assessors advised:

The research proposed is not only excitingly original, it is a shining indication of Australia's leadership in dance and the intellectual investigation of its art and practice. The outcomes have the potential to alter and improve choreographic methods, to create a rich pool of data on how and why choreography is created, and to make investment of funds in choreographic programs both more economic and more productive.

This is a world-class proposal for a project which is at the sharpest of cutting edges in its field.

The proposed research represents a very bold step forward in a field long dominated by tradition.

This is an ambitious and exciting research proposal and deserves to be supported for the originality of its long-term analysis of choreographic processes and for its collaborative methodology which includes a national structure for the analysis and dissemination of research findings.