COVID-19 has impacted dance communities across Australia. As the pandemic unfolded in early 2020, the Ausdance network (led by Ausdance Queensland) sought to capture data about the immediate and medium-term needs of dance professionals in order to develop sector-specific responses to the impact of COVID-19. I was engaged to analyse and report on data collected…
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Extremely thoughtful and respectful of age. Ballet for Seniors Teacher Training participant, 2021 In 2020 and 2021, I led the development and pilot delivery of Queensland Ballet’s Ballet for Seniors Teacher Training Program. This work focused on upskilling ballet teachers to work with active older adults and addressed: cognitive and physical aspects of primary ageing,…
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The COVID-19 pandemic is changing the way people engage with arts, culture and creativity. Artists and cultural organisations are faced with decisions about how to connect with audiences and adapt to the changing circumstances. Patternmakers, 2020 In response to this challenge, a large-scale nationwide study is being undertaken to capture actionable data about how audiences…
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With the recent and urgent shift for dance practitioners (teachers in particular) to move their work online, I have been leading sessions on interactive Zoom pedagogy to support this transition. These sessions give participants the experience of my interactive online classroom where I model approaches that I have developed in the higher education sector over…
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In 2019 I guest edited the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship (JEDS) with Sarah Knox (University of Auckland). JEDS is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal and is designed to serve the needs of international dance scholars who are undertaking graduate research or within five years of having graduated from a graduate program in dance. JEDS has…
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From 2018 to 2021, I taught Ballet for Seniors classes at Queensland Ballet. Grounded in ballet technique, my classes included barre work, centre practice and choreographic sequences pitched for older adults who are new to dance (or coming back to it. I worked through exercises slowly, explained technique, listened to my participants as experts of…
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The Quest (2019) was a movement workshop program led by professional artists to develop a new performance work. Working with a team of teaching artists, led by Sandi Woo, we undertook the development of community performance work in two stages. The first stage was weekly workshops with three community groups: Access Arts, Micah Projects, and…
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In 2018 I had the absolute pleasure of leading a ‘daggy dancing’ session for QUT Library’s team-building day. My task was to ‘reinvigorate’. So, naturally, I led 30 librarians in embodying zombie-like qualities and we danced to Thriller. This was a particularly memorable session as the group had an incredible enthusiasm for trying something completely…
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In 2018 I undertook a two-month teaching residency with Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council. My task was to saturate five regional Western Australian towns in contemporary dance. This project gave every school student in the region an opportunity to dance, as well as offering classes for children aged 5 years and under, and adult classes. Promoting…
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In 2017 I led a 10-month mixed methods research project on teaching practice for delivering ballet to active older adults and the subsequent wellbeing outcomes for participants. The findings strongly indicated that ballet participation was considered to be a highly pleasurable activity with positive outcomes felt across social, emotional and physical wellbeing. The research received…
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