Australian Dance Awards

2009 Australian Dance Awards
Presented by Ausdance VIC
Dance Informa is a proud sponsor of the Australian Dance Awards

The landmark event recognising excellence in
Australian dance.
the Arts Centre, State Theatre
Sunday 7 June 2009

Hear from Kath Papas, Director of Ausdance Victoria and Executive Producer of the Australian Dance Awards

Why are the Australian Dance Awards important for our industry?

The ADAs are the major national gathering where the dance community recognises and honours our artists, and celebrates our art form. The official aims of the Awards are to: publicly honour and reward those who have, through their achievements, raised the standards of dance in Australia; raise the profile and prestige of dance and acknowledge the depth and diversity of the dance profession in our society; present a diverse performance program in support of the awards ceremony, representing excellence in the pinnacle of both innovative and established dance. I think the Awards do these things. When we are organising them these aims are very much at the forefront of our minds.

The Awards also engage the whole sector. As a dancer or choreographer, being shortlisted is significant recognition from your peers. And dance lovers who make nominations and come along to the Awards presentation also feel part of the community. We all get to celebrate together. Last year’s event in Melbourne was the largest ever attendance and an amazing atmosphere.

Photo by Six6 Photography
Dancer: Brooke McAuley, The Australian Ballet School

The Awards also attract significant media and political attention which we need to make the most of – I’m sure we all agree we need more dance coverage in mainstream media! Last year there were a record number of articles and coverage across all major print media, radio and TV. And it wasn’t just about the shortlist and winners. Lots of debate about dance more generally was provoked.

The Public and Industry Programs around the Awards have been created to maximise the impact of the event in the public mind, and to draw the dance community together to talk while so many of us are gathered in Melbourne. These are happening again in 2009 – it will be a wonderful long weekend of dance with the holiday Monday to recover!

How can we as dancers and dance teachers support the Australian Dance Awards?

Nominate! Ausdance wants the whole dance community to be involved in this part of the process.
Visit http://www.australiandanceawards.net.au/nominate.html
to nominate online!

Then, come along to the Awards night! And bring a friend who’s new to dance: the Awards night is a great ‘sampler’ of the best of the year’s work, and we received lots of feedback from people who didn’t usually attend dance about how they loved it. This year’s performance line up will once again include classical ballet, contemporary, commercial dance, musical theatre and more, as well as many of your favourite dance personalities as presenters.

How can we get involved?

There will be lots of ways to get involved, both as a dancer and an audience member.

I am delighted to reveal that Ausdance Victoria and Chunky Move have teamed up to create a really exciting event: we will be asking 100 members of the community to sign up to be the cast of a new short contemporary dance work to be performed at Federation Square as the closer to the Public Program on Saturday 6 June. Stay tuned for more details on that. We also hope to repeat our Open Stage performances this year, but are still waiting on a funding announcement to know for sure, so again stay tuned.

We will have a Dance History Symposium on Sunday 7 June – the day of the Awards – which will be focusing on ballet and contemporary dance in the 1970s and 1980s in Australia. Last year’s symposium was really special, so we hope to have a capacity attendance this year. And imagine the great hair and costumes we’ll see in the videos this year!

Last, but not least, the Awards gala on Sunday 7 June in the evening will have tickets starting from $10 this year. Dance Informa readers will get special advance notice of bookings.

Keep an eye on the website which will have regular updates from March.

How do we nominate our favourite dancers, dance companies etc?

This year we have a very easy-to-use online nominations system. Anyone can nominate: go to www.australiandanceawards.net.au/nominate

The Awards this year are for performances and works from 1 January to 31 December 2008. The deadline for making nominations is 20 February 2009.

All you need to do is put in a few basic details, and most importantly, write some comments about why you are nominating this person or company. The selection panel takes into account these comments in making their assessments, so it’s really important to take that extra minute or two to write something considered in support of your favourite artists.

If you want to see how selection occurs and who is on the panel you can follow the links from the main Ausdance website at www.ausdance.org.au

Then the final and most exciting part is coming to the Awards night to see if they have won!

Make sure you visit the Australian Dance Awards website for further information and updates.
http://www.australiandanceawards.net.au/