It is time to trade those rehearsal daks for party frocks! The 13th Australian Dance Awards Gala is returning to Melbourne’s State Theatre this June and it is going to be even bigger and better than last year. Dance writer Jordan Beth Vincent tells us about the behind-the-scenes preparation for Australian dance’s night of nights.
On a Thursday afternoon in May, Kath Papas, Creative Producer of the Australian Dance Awards Gala, sits calmly amongst an avalanche of papers, taking notes and issuing instructions to a team of Ausdance staff and interns. The topic under discussion is the running order for the Gala performances, and it is clear that Papas is leaving nothing to chance. Fortunately, she already knows her way around the Ausdance offices at Fitzroy Town Hall– she was the director of the organisation from 2003 to 2009 and served as Administrator before that. Papas has recently embarked on the next stage of her career as an independent producer, but relishes her time working on the ADA’s at Ausdance. “It’s like going back to the family home,” Papas says, “You know where everything is and you’re really relaxed there.” Papas was one of the driving forces in Victoria’s bid for and subsequent production of the event over the past three years, and, as Creative Producer, has ultimate responsibility for everything that happens onstage in the biggest night of the year for the Australian dance industry. In addition to consulting a curatorial board from around the country to select the performances, she has worked closely with Creative Director Neill Gladwin to creatively shape the evening, and with the dedicated staff at Ausdance to bring the whole event together.
Papas is brimming with confidence that this show will be even better than the last. Amongst the ten major awards up for grabs are Outstanding Performance by a Male and Female Dancer, Outstanding Achievement in Choreography, and Outstanding Performance by a Company. There are also honours for dance education and youth or community dance, with a special presentation to this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner. However, as Papas notes, just to be short-listed for an award is a huge honour. Nominees are initially selected by the public (over 450 nominations this year!) and then narrowed down by a selection panel made up of dance professionals from across the country. A massive audio-visual presentation will show excerpts from every short-listed work, exposing Awards attendees to dance from all around the country.
It’s hard to believe that this event began in 1986 as a humble picnic for the dance community in New South Wales. In 1997, the event went national and was held at the Sydney Opera House. Since taking the reins in 2008, Victoria has further upped the ante in its celebration of Australian dance. This success is at least partially due to the significant contribution of founding donors Joan and Peter Cleminger. “Their support has really allowed us to take the event to a new level in terms of the diversity of that performance program,” Papas notes. Her feelings are echoed by President of the Ausdance Victoria Board, Jill Rivers. “The whole of the dance community of Australia is indebted to them to allow us the opportunity to raise the profile of dance in the country by creating such a sophisticated major event,” she says, “They are true patrons of the Australian arts, particularly dance.”
The fabulous Neil Pigot (best known for his role as Inspector Falcon-Price on Blue Heelers) takes over from Paul Mercurio and Lucinda Dunn as host this year, graduating from his role as the voice-over man from previous ceremonies. “We’re letting him out of the box,” laughs Papas, and anybody who has attended the two previous Dance Awards will remember that rich voice cracking jokes over the loudspeaker. In addition to the number of dancers and dance-makers who will step onstage as award presenters, the event will feature performances by Bangarra Dance Theatre with Ochres, Lucy Guerin Inc. with Untrained, Australian Ballet with Coppelia, a hip-hop contemporary fusion from Buzz Dance Theatre and a surprise musical theatre number which Papas hints might have something for fans of Ten’s television hit, So You Think You Can Dance Australia. “I love the diversity of the program,” says Board member Jennifer Barry, “It’s like a chocolate box for dance, with something to suit everyone’s tastes.”
Audiences will also see a performance from Western Australia’s Ludwig, the company that wants to “dispel the notion that you need to wear a tiara or a tuxedo to take in a dance performance.” Formed in 2009 by Emma Sandall, Timothy O’Donnell, Joseph Simons and Cass Mortimer Eipper, Ludwig combines the technical ability of highly trained dancers (most performed with the West Australian Ballet) with exciting, diverse and accessible work. The company will present an excerpt from Soul Searching, a work choreographed by Eipper and inspired by the blues and roots music of Dan Kaplan. Eipper has tried to reflect the “sensual quirkiness” of the music in the movement, and will perform as a young boy “grappling between the sin of lust and torn between his faith and this new thing that’s building in him.” Ludwig has shot into the public eye this year, choreographing two numbers for this season’s So You Think You Can Dance. “We’ve got new stuff,” Eipper says. “I’ve had a fair bit of success as a young choreographer in Perth and I’m really excited about having the opportunity of getting to show the rest of Australia… and see what they think.”
Ludwig is not the only company travelling cross-country for the Awards; the flight from Perth to Melbourne is nothing compared to the circuitous route that eight young Indigenous men travelling with Tracks Dance Company will be taking to get to Melbourne. For over two decades, Tracks has worked with residents of Lajamanu, a remote town located on the edge of the Northern Territory’s Tanami Desert. Three times in the past six years, the company has produced the Milpirri project, an outdoor performance that combines the ceremonial structure of its Indigenous inhabitants with contemporary dance. “We work with the community to get the themes and essence of the correct family connections,” says Tracks co-director Tim Newth, and “the kids work with a break-dancer to create contemporary work” resulting in a “sense of belonging for everyone– young and old.”
The dancers coming to perform an excerpt from Milpirri are all around twelve-years old and most, according to co-director David McMicken, have never seen a stage in their life, let alone performed on one as big as that at the State Theatre. As much as the dancers are looking forward to seeing all the dance-related events in Melbourne, they are as thrilled at the prospect of seeing an AFL game. “The boys are absolutely football mad,” remarks David McMicken, who hopes to help make this trip to Melbourne a memorable one for the dancers. For both McMicken and Newth, the exciting thing about attending the ADAs is the chance to see the performances by other Australian companies, hang out with their peers and see all the multicultural performance, youth performance and public dance events that accompany the Gala evening. “It’s like a festival,” enthuses McMicken.
Melbourne’s dance festival, called Dance Card, is completely free and open to the public, beginning with Dance Hall at the Melbourne Town Hall on Saturday 12 June. “We’ve already got over six hundred dancers from Victoria’s full-time schools, studios and companies,” reports Melanie Moravski Dechnicz of Ausdance Victoria, “and there might be more!” Other events include ACCESSion, and Guerrilla, a season of short works by choreographers thirty years and younger at Federation Square from June 17th to 19th.
For Josh Wright, Director of Ausdance Victoria, it was important that events like Dance Card be made accessible to everyone, and so Fed Square will also host ACCESSion, a free and open-to-the-public workshop that offers accessibility for dancers with and without a disability, on Sunday, 13th June. Even the Awards on Sunday night at the State Theatre will be completely Auslan interpreted, allowing those who are deaf or hard of hearing to fully take part in this amazing event. “Ausdance Victoria loves being able to host our colleagues and friends from around the country and showing them all how much we love dance, dancers and dancing,” Wright says, “It's a great opportunity for us to show off.”
The public programs culminate with the big night on Sunday, June 20th at the Arts Centre and the Ausdance offices are abuzz with excitement. “The Dance Awards gala evening is very, very special,” Wright laughs. “It's the only time you'll get to see me in a suit!” The fashion choices of Ausdance Victoria’s Director aside, the dance events in June will show us the depth and breadth of talent in Australia’s dance community.
If that isn’t something to celebrate, then what is?
Australian Dance Awards
The Arts Centre, State Theatre
Sunday 20 June 2010, 7pm
Tickets start at just $15 (for under 26s) and until 16 May Early Birds get A Reserve tickets for just $55.
Book online at www.theartscentre.com.au by phone on 1300 182 183 or in person at the Arts Centre Box Office.
www.australiandanceawards.net.au
Stamp your Dance Card!
Dance Hall
Melbourne Town Hall
Saturday 12 June, 11am-4pm
FREE
ACCESSion
BMW Edge, Federation Square
Sunday 13 June, 10am-2pm
FREE
Guerrilla
Tour begins Federation Square Atrium
Thu-Sat 17, 18, 19 June, 6pm
FREE
For more information about Dance Card events contact Ausdance Victoria on 03 9417 1200 or email
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www.australiandanceawards.net.au/dancecards
