Dance in Australia
Ceremonial dancing has a very important place in the Indigenous cultures of Australia. They vary from place to place, but most ceremonies combine dance, song, rituals and often elaborate body decorations and costumes. The different body paintings indicate the type of ceremony being performed. They play an important role in marriage ceremonies, in the education of Indigenous children, as well as storytelling and oral history. The term
The Australian
The Australian Ballet is the foremost classical ballet company in Australia. It began in 1962 and is today recognised as one of the world's major international ballet companies. It is based in Melbourne and performs works from the classical repertoire as well as contemporary works by major Australian and international choreographers.
Indigenous Australian dance
Traditional
The term "corroboree" is commonly used by non-Indigenous Australians to refer to any Aboriginal dance, although this term has its origins among the people of the Sydney region. In some places, Australian Aboriginal people perform corroborees for tourists.[2]
For
20th–21st centuries
In the latter part of the 20th century, the influence of Indigenous Australian dance traditions was seen with the development of concert dance, particularly in contemporary dance with the
The establishment of National Aboriginal Dance Council Australia (NADCA, also referred to as National Aboriginal Dance Council of Australia
NADCA was still in existence in 2007, when it was in the process of developing a document on "Cultural Protocols on Aboriginal Dance".[5]
Other varieties of dance
Many immigrant communities continue their own dance traditions on a professional or amateur basis. Traditional dances from a large number of ethnic backgrounds are danced in Australia, helped by the presence of enthusiastic immigrants and their Australian-born families. It is quite common to see dances from the Baltic region, as well as Scottish, Irish, Indian, Indonesian or African dance being taught at community centres and dance schools in Australia.
Still more dance groups in Australia employ dances from a variety of backgrounds, including reconstructed European Court dances and Medieval Dance, as well as fusions of traditional steps with modern music and style.
is among Australia's best-known ballerinos.The Nutbush
The Nutbush is a classic Australian line dance—typically performed to the American song "Nutbush City Limits" by Ike & Tina Turner—was created in the 1970s disco era; it took off in Australia during the 1980s, and it has seen sustained success to this day, including gaining viral popularity internationally through TikTok.[11][12] A common way of first hearing the song is when schools typically make students dance to it as part of a physical education.
Major dance companies
Those dance companies funded by the Major Performing Arts Board of the
- Ballet companies
- The Australian Ballet
- The Queensland Ballet
- The West Australian Ballet
- The
- Contemporary dance companies
- Australian Dance Theatre (Garry Stewart)
- Phillip Adams BalletLab[13][14]
- Bangarra Dance Theatre (Stephen Page)
- Chunky Move
- Company In Space
- Dance Hub SA (previously Leigh Warren & Dancers)
- Dancenorth
- Descendance
- Australasian Dance Collective, previously Expressions Dance Company
- Force Majeure (Kate Champion)
- Lucy Guerin Inc
- Mirramu Dance Company
- Phunktional
- Sydney Dance Company
- TasDance
- Youth dance companies
- Dance competitions
- (Showcase) Australian Dance Championships, established in 1994
Post-secondary dance education
- NSW
- Australian College of Physical Education
- Australian Dance Institute[18](ADi)
- Excelsia College formerly Wesley Institute
- Macquarie University (North Ryde)
- National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association(NAISDA)
- University of NSW(Kensington Campus)
- Victoria
- Australian Ballet School
- Box Hill Institute (Centre for Performing Arts)
- Deakin University (Melbourne Campus, Burwood)
- Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne)
- Victoria University(Footscray Campus)
- The Space Dance and Arts Centre[19]
- Queensland
- Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts
- Queensland University of Technology (Kelvin Grove Campus)
- South Australia
- TAFE SA), a member of the Helpmann Academy
- Western Australia
- Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Edith Cowan University)
- Youth Ballet Centre of Western Australia
List of operating dance companies
- A-C
- Ambition School Of Dance
- Anything Is Valid Dance Theatre
- The Australian Ballet
- The Australian Choreographic Centre
- Australian Dance Theatre
- BalletLab (Contemporary dance company – Artistic Director, Phillip Adams)
- Bangarra Dance Theatre
- Blink Dance Theatre
- Buzz Dance Theatre
- Canberra Dance Theatre
- Chunky Move
- D-M
- Dance Exchange
- Dance Hub SA (previously Leigh Warren & Dancers)
- Dance Works
- Dancehouse
- Dancenorth
- Descendance
- Expressions Dance Company
- Force Majeure (dance company) led by Kate Champion
- Igneous
- Kage Physical Theatre
- Mirramu Dance Company
- Move Through Life Dance Company
- Nunukul Yuggera Aboriginal Dancers
- O-Z
- One Extra Dance
- Passada School of Afro Latin Dance[20]
- The Queensland Ballet
- Raw Metal Dance Company
- Restless Dance Company
- Strange Fruit
- Sydney Dance Company
- TasDance
- Tracks Dance Theatre
- The Dance Collective
- Visible Dance
- West Australian Ballet
- Wu Lin Dance Theatre
- youMove Dance Company
Defunct companies
- Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre (1976–1998)
- The Australian Choreographic Centre (1996–2007)
- Australian Choreographic Ensemble (ACE) (1992–1998) founded by Paul Mercurio
- Australian Theatre Ballet (1955–1955)
- Ballet Australia (1960–1976)
- Ballet Guild (1946–1967)[citation needed]
- Ballet Victoria (1967–1976)
- Bodenwieser Ballet (1939–1959) founded by Gertrud Bodenwieser
See also
References
- ^ Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Volume 1 pp. 255-7
- ^ Shaping the Landscape: Celebrating Dance in Australia.
- ^ Wiltshire, Kelly (27 October 2017). "Audiovisual Heritage of Torres Strait Singing and Dancing". AIATSIS. Archived from the original on 21 March 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
- ^ a b "History". Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern. 25 January 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
- ^ )
- ^ Meiners, Jeff (2 September 2019). "How we're losing the history of Australian dance". ArtsHub. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- Tandanya. January 1998. p. 8. Archived from the originalon 13 May 2001.
- Australia Council
- ^ Ballet, The Australian. "Our History". The Australian Ballet. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
- ^ Ballet, The Australian. "Our Story". The Australian Ballet. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
- ^ "Thanks To TikTok The World Has Discovered Australia's Obsession With The Nutbush". Junkee. 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
- ^ "Smac on TikTok". TikTok. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
- ^ "Phillip Adams BalletLab – Ballet Lab". www.balletlab.com. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
- ^ Hannah Francis, (15 Mar 2017), Temperance Hall move gives new lease of life to Phillip Adams BalletLab, Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 May 2019
- ^ QL2 Centre for Youth Dance
- ^ Extensions Youth Dance Company
- ^ Urban Ignition Youth Dance Company
- ^ Australian Dance institute
- ^ The Space Dance and Arts Centre
- ^ Passada School Of Afro Latin Dance
Sources
- Dance in Australia – a profile by David Throsby, Professor of Economics at Macquarie University
External links
- The Dance Collection, Performing Arts Collection, at Arts Centre Melbourne
- Ausdance : the Australian Dance Council
- Australia Dancing[usurped], a directory of dance resources in the National Library of Australia and National Film and Sound Archive
- Australian Performing and Media Arts magazine
- List of Australian dance schools by state