An exploration of youth dance companies in Victoria
Sarah Taylor was asked by Ausdance Victoria to put on her research shoes and find out what she could about youth dance companies in Victoria. Below are her findings:
Dance in Victoria is vibrant, challenging and exciting. This statement holds true for students of dance as it does for professional dance artists and choreographers. With the demand for dance training steadily increasing, Victoria hosts many exceptional full-time schools, choreographic initiatives, such as those found at Chapel off Chapel, Theatreworks, Splash Dance and the National Theatre in St Kilda, along with a number of project companies offering innovative performance and mentoring experiences.
Youth Dance companies1 have come and gone in this state, and after some research, it seems that at the moment, we have two companies that call Victoria home. ‘Project Y’ and ‘Young Dancers Company’ are both giving performance opportunities to young dancers, which simulate real world dance work and further enhance students’ technical ability with some performance experience. These two companies currently exist without any government funding and exist from project to project.
This is a drop from three companies after the team behind Geelong based ‘Room2Move’, Rachel Sheehan and Lyndel Quick, decided to pursue other performance ventures. Room2Move has been a versatile company, varying from youth focused works, both funded and un-funded, to community ventures, with their final year, 2010 focused on running professional development and skills exchange sessions. Starting at the end of 2005, their youth dance credits commenced with their first work, ‘Salt’ which was funded by a community arts grant. This was followed by their self funded production of ‘head space’ in 2007 and in 2008 they received some hefty funding for ‘A Thousand Words,’ where they were fortunate enough to employ professional artists to work with their ensemble. The luxury of this funding also helped to create a highlight for the dynamic pair behind the company. From 2009 they began to venture into community based projects and professional development. They did consider starting their own government funded youth dance company in the early days of Room2Move, but soon learned that with families and full-time jobs, this was not feasible for them.
The lucky youth of Tasmania, Perth and Canberra have Stompin, Steps and QL2, all successful, long standing funded companies that have offered high standard performance opportunities to a range of youth, including those with little previous dance experience. While constantly fighting the funding battle, these companies receive funding that enables them to have a strong, successful presence in the youth dance scene.2
This year there was also another notable youth dance performance in Melbourne- ‘It Sounds Silly’ hosted by The City of Melbourne, presented at ‘Signal’ and choreographed by Adam Wheeler in collaboration with the performers and four of Chunky Moves’ ensemble. Adam created this work through Chunky Moves’ ‘Next Move’ season and is also resident choreographer for Stompin Youth Dance in Tasmania. When interviewing Wheeler about his experiences with Youth Dance, he raised the important point that these interstate youth companies have launched the love of dance for many youth that has seen them through to a career in dance.
The Young Dancers Company is the result of Nicole Ryan’s hard work. She is the Artistic Director and runs the entire company on her own. The company was set up to provide an experience similar to that of a ballet company, for young, talented Victorian dancers. The rehearsals take place at the Whitehorse Centre in Nunawading, with a cast of 40 – 50 dancers, depending on the production. She has a strong relationship with a variety of dance schools, which helps in sourcing dancers and ensuring that the experience with the company enhances their technical training, without being considered a threat to the schools. Amazingly, she receives no government funding to operate this company.
Project Y was founded by Paul Malek in 2009 and offers a contemporary performance experience to interested young dancers aged between 12 and 22. This year alone they have had over 200 performers across their 4 productions, with 82 in the most recent work ‘Gallery,’ which offered a unique experience for its performers, an installation piece with the audience guided through a gallery of dancers. Malek states on his website that he strives to offer dance for all, with no group being excluded. He is based across a range of studios, from The Space Dance and Arts Centre, in Prahan, out to the Edge Performers School in Eltham and more recently have found their home at Jason Coleman's Ministry of Dance and MAPA Australia.
Similar to ‘The Young Dancers Company,’ all of this is conducted without government funding, but through the performers paying a small production fee. All other costs are covered by the umbrella company- ‘Collaboration The Project’ and through ticket sales. Malek also generously offers a number of scholarships as part of the program.3
Youth Dance Companies offer a whole swag full of opportunities that can sit nicely next to the learnings on offer at technically based institutions and schools. Youth dance companies play a vital role in:
• Providing a bridge between local dance schools and the professional dance scene. These companies give their performers an accurate taste of how the professional dance scene works.
• Giving opportunities to keep on dancing and experiencing the joy of performing to those who aren’t interested in refining their technique, or pursuing dance as their chosen profession.
• Offering an alternative to the structure of local dance schools, to give the option of making performance the ultimate outcome, with less time devoted to technique and where competition dancing isn’t even part of the equation.
• Fostering the development of relationships between the dancing youth, to open up opportunities for motivated young people to work together to create their own inspired, independent works.
In 2007, Hampshire Dance and Laban in England validated youth dance through scientific research. They found what all dance teachers know to be true. The results have been summed up quite simply:
‘Overall the dance programme had a positive effect on both physical fitness and psychological wellbeing. These findings support what is known anecdotally amongst dance practitioners and scientifically validate the potential health benefits of dance.’
To see further details about this research and other similar studies for yourself go to http://www.hampshiredance.org.uk/youth_nrg.php
I asked Adam for his opinion on Youth Dance in Victoria. We shared some quite similar view points, that there are excellent schools, some great little companies that come and go ‘which is great, it allows flexibility.’ He also noted that it’s a little unusual that we don’t already have a permanent youth dance company like QL2 or STEPS here and revealed to me his plans for youth dance in Victoria:
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"Youth dance in Victorian is about to take a huge leap forward"
He is in the stages of finding funding and a home for his own Youth Dance Company to be launched in 2012. He made it clear that he wants there to be partnership and clear communication between the schools and the company, for the students to be offered another high standard experience to add to and even further enhance their technical training.
He knows he won’t have any trouble finding performers, over 80 kids auditioned for ‘It sounds silly’ and they were already amazing dancers. He wants for this company to also host people like himself, who get into dancing in their teens with no technical experience.
With an announcement like this it seems that youth dance in Victoria is looking up. Hopefully, performance experience for young dancers is on the rise.
- Sarah Taylor
Footnotes:
#1 Just to be clear here, the term ‘Youth Dance Companies’ refers to a company that exists purely to give performance experiences to those under 26.
#2 Editor’s note: The youth dance companies mentioned here do receive funding, however the funding does not cover all the expenses incurred by the organisations. There is a shortfall, which companies must find ways to cover to remain solvent. Inadequate funding is a problem for all these initiatives.
#3 If you’re interested in working with Project Y, keep an eye out auditions. They specialise in contemporary, but often dabble in hip-hop, ballet and even tap. The auditions are via workshop, where auditionees work with choreographers for the day.
