Dance News

To finish off a very successful year that has included sold out seasons at the Geoff Gibbs Theatre and Dolphin Theatre and a tour of 33 second and third year dancers to Beijing, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) Dance Department will celebrate the end of the academic year in style. The second and third year dance students will perform Jardi as their season finale and the postgraduate LINK Dance Company will present Hanging Space, followed by a short tour to Sydney and Melbourne.

For the first time, Dancehouse is organising a Tertiary Dance Week, bringing together postgraduate students from five universities including Deakin University, Victoria University, Victoria College of the Arts, University of Sydney and WAAPA/Link Dance Company. Set for 9 - 17 November, the program will be a site for sharing and discussion around the research explored in these tertiary institutions.

Norwegian Cruise Line will be holding auditions in Australia in late October and early November for dancers, singers and actors. Auditions will be held in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

German artist Joerg Hassmann will lead a contact improvisation workshop in Sydney entitled Suspension: The Art of Waiting at the choreographic research and development centre Critical Path on November 23 and 24. The workshop, offered through Ausdance NSW, will work on subtle inner stretches, connecting to the fascia system of the body, and noticing how pre-tension can be built up.

Emily Umbrazunas, a former student of the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy (TPCCA), has been accepted into the prestigious Royal Ballet School in London. Having already participated in three summer school programs with the Royal Ballet, 14-year-old Umbrazunas was offered a place at the highly regarded finishing school and began her education last month.

Big, back and busting all the right moves, So You Think You Can Dance Australia is returning to TV with a line-up sure to make heads turn and feet tap. International music and TV powerhouse Paula Abdul will bring her experience and star power to the judging panel along with renowned choreographers and performers Jason Gilkison, Aaron Cash and Shannon Holtzapffel. Logie-winning Carrie Bickmore will serve as show host.

Audiences can catch a glimpse of the future of contemporary Australian circus in Circus Showcase 2013, a performance being presented at the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) in Prahran from 27 November to 7 December. As part of the show, 23 final-year students perform jaw-dropping feats of sublime beauty using a wide range of circus apparatus.

Flying in from the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the beloved production Peter Pan will captivate both the young and young at heart in the upcoming performance season presented by West Australian Ballet. Choreographed by Russell Kerr in 1999, Peter Pan will be presented 22 November to 15 December at His Majesty’s Theatre with the accompaniment of the West Australian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Experience the glitz, glamour and intense competition as Australian and international champions of dancesport kick up their heels at Australia’s only international dancesport event, the 68th Australian DanceSport Championship at Hisense Arena on 6, 7 and 8 December.

Brisbane Powerhouse Artist-in-Residence, Topology, will come together with rhythmic genius and drum soloist Grant Collins and tap-dance wizard Bill Simpson to create bold new territory in both music and dance in the anticipated production of Three: Tap Into Topology.

FORM Dance Projects will present the official debut of the Dance Makers Collective at this year’s October Dance Bites program. FORM, an organisation fostering dance culture in Western Sydney, will present the premiere performances of the company, entitled Big Dance in Small Chunks, at Lennox Theatre at Riverside on 23-26 October.

This week, Ausdance WA and West Australian Ballet will launch the Masters Workshop Series, a sequence of creative dance workshops led by some of WAB’s most renowned national and international guest artists. On Thursday, October 24, Marc Ribaud, Artistic Director of the Royal Swedish Ballet, will lead a workshop.