A wide variety of dance occurs in Australia. Classical ballet companies include the Australian Ballet. Other ballet and contemporary dance companies include the Australian Dance Theatre, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Leigh Warren & Dancers, Chunky Move, Mirramu Dance Company and the Sydney Dance Company. The Australian Dance Council (or Ausdance) is the peak body for dance in Australia. For other uses, see Dance (disambiguation). ... Painting of ballet dancers by Edgar Degas, 1872. ... Australian Ballet is a leading Ballet dance company in Australia. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Australian Dance Theatre is a contemporary dance company based in Adelaide, South Australia. ... Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Australian contemporary dance company. ... Leigh Warren & Dancers is a contemporary dance company based in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. ... Chunky Move is a contemporary dance company based in Southbank, Victoria founded in 1995 when it debutted at the Melbourne International Arts Festival by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek. ... The Sydney Dance Company is one of Australias most successful and well-known dance companies. ... The Australian Dance Council (Ausdance) is a national dance advocacy organisation for dancers, choreographers, directors and educators. ...

The 1992 film Strictly Ballroom was set in Sydney, New South Wales, this initiated Australian awareness of competitive dancing and the Australian version of Dancing with the Stars has led to increased awareness and popularity of dance and dancesport. Strictly Ballroom is the name of a 1986 play and its 1992 film adaptation. ... This is about the city of Sydney in Australia. ... Dancing with the Stars is a multi Logie Award winning Australian light entertainment television series based on the British Strictly Come Dancing. ... An amateur dancesport competition at MIT. Dancesport denotes dance as a sport activity. ...

Bush dance has developed in Australia as a form of traditional dance, it draws on traditions from English, Irish, Scottish and other European dance. Favourite dances in the community include dances of European descent, such as the Irish Céilidh "Pride of Erin" and the quadrille "The Lancers". Locally originated dances include the "Waves of Bondi", the Melbourne Shuffle and New Vogue. Bush Dance is a style of dance from Australia. ... A céilidh (pronounced ) is the traditional Gaelic social dance in Ireland, Scotland and Atlantic Canada. ... for the equestrian form of quadrille, see Quadrille (dressage) Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. ... The Melbourne shuffle is a style of dance, which originated in the late 1980s in the Melbourne underground scene. ... The New Vogue dance style is an Australian form of sequence dancing that originated in the 1930s. ...

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 Indian, Indonesian or African dance being taught at community centres 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.

Indigenous Australian dance

Traditional Indigenous Australian dance was closely associated with song and was understood and experienced as making present the reality of the Dreamtime. For the people in their own country it defined to roles, responsibilities and the place itself. These ritual performances gave them an understanding of themselves in the interplay of social, geographical and environmental forces. The performances were associated with specific places and dance grounds were often sacred places. Body decoration and specific gestures related to kin and other relationships (such as to Dreamtime beings with which individuals and groups). For a number of Indigenous Australian groups their dances were secret and or sacred, gender could also be an important factor in some ceremonies with men and women having separate ceremonial traditions.^[1] Australian Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Australia. ... Representation of the Rainbow serpent, the Waugal The Dreamtime is the central, unifying theme in Australian Aboriginal mythology. ...

The term Corroboree is commonly used in general Australian culture to refer to Australian Aboriginal dances, however this term has its origins among the people of the Sydney region. In a number of places Australian Aboriginal people will perform "corroborees" for tourists. A Corroboree is a ceremonial meeting of Australian Aborigines. ...

In the latter part of the 20th century the influence of Indigenous Australian dance traditions has been seen with the development of concert dance, particularly in contemporary dance with the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association providing training to Indigenous Australians in dance and the Bangarra Dance Theatre. The National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA) Dance College was established in 1975 to train Indigenous Australians in dance. ...

See also: Songlines

Songlines - the British based world music magazine featuring the greatest artists in the current music scene on the web at [Songlines http://www. ...

Major dance companies

Those dance companies funded by the Major Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council and from state arts agencies are: The Australia Council for the Arts (commonly called the Australia Council) is the Australian Governments arts council. ...

• Ballet companies
  • The Australian Ballet
  • The Queensland Ballet
  • The West Australian Ballet
• Contemporary dance companies
  • Australian Dance Theatre (Garry Stewart
  • Ballet Lab
  • Bangarra Dance Theatre (Stephen Page)
  • Chunky Move
  • Company In Space
  • Dancenorth
  • Expressions Dance Company
  • Force Majeure (Kate Champion)
  • Lucy Guerin Inc
  • Mirramu Dance Company
  • Phunktional
  • Sydney Dance Company
  • TasDance

A ballet company is a group of dancers who perform ballets. ... The Australian Ballet was founded in 1962. ... The West Australian Ballet is the premier ballet company of Western Australia and is based in Perth at His Majestys Theatre, Western Australia. ... The Australian Dance Theatre is a contemporary dance company based in Adelaide, South Australia. ... Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Australian contemporary dance company. ... Stephen Page was born in 1965, in Brisbane. ... Chunky Move is a contemporary dance company based in Southbank, Victoria founded in 1995 when it debutted at the Melbourne International Arts Festival by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek. ... The Sydney Dance Company is one of Australias most successful and well-known dance companies. ...

Post secondary dance education

NSW:

• National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA)
• University of NSW (Kensington Campus)
• University of Western Sydney
• Wesley Institute

Victoria The National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA) Dance College was established in 1975 to train Indigenous Australians in dance. ... University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ... The University of Western Sydney (UWS) is a large, multi-campused and comprehensive metropolitan University with 35,000 students and 2,500 staff members. ... The Wesley Institute is a tertiary education provider in Sydney, Australia. ...

• Australian Ballet School (Senior School only)
• Box Hill Institute (Centre for Performing Arts)
• Deakin University (Melbourne Campus, Burwood)
• Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne)
• Victoria University of Technology (Footscray Institute
• The Space Dance and Arts Centre (Prahran Melbourne)

Queensland The Australian Ballet School was founded in 1964 as the school of The Australian Ballet. ... The Box Hill Institute is a TAFE institute located in the eastern suburb of Box Hill in Victoria, Australia. ... Deakin University is a large Australian public university with around 32,000 students studying Bachelor, Masters, Doctoral and Professional programs as of 2004. ... The Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) is an educational institution in Melbourne, which offers courses and training in fine art, dance, drama, film and television, music and production. ... The University of Melbourne, is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. ... Victoria University (formerly known as the Victoria University of Technology), located in Melbourne, Australia, is one of the five dual-sector universities in Australia offering both Higher Education and Technical and Further Education courses. ...

• Queensland University of Technology (Kelvin Grove Campus)

South Australia QUT Gardens Point Campus Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is located in Brisbane, Queensland, and is one of Australias largest universities, however is globally known as one of the worst in the region. ...

• Adelaide Institute of TAFE (Performing Arts) part of the Helpmann Academy
• Tabor College

Western Australia The Helpmann Academy was formed in 1994 as a partnership of the major tertiary arts training institutions in South Australia. ... Tabor College, Australia is a tertiary Christian Education Centre offering a range of courses from Certificate to post-graduate in the areas of counselling, education, ministry and mission. ...

• Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Edith Cowan University)

The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) is a school within the Communications and Creative Industries faculty of Edith Cowan University. ...

List of operating dance companies

A-C

• Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre
• The Australian Ballet
• The Australian Choreographic Centre
• Australian Dance Theatre (Meryl Tankard Australian Dance Theatre 1993-1999)
• BalletLab
• Bangarra Dance Theatre
• Bjelke-Petersen School of Physical Culture
• Buzz Dance Theatre
• Canberra Dance Theatre
• Chunky Move

D-M The Australian Ballet was founded in 1962. ... The Australian Dance Theatre is a contemporary dance company based in Adelaide, South Australia. ... Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Australian contemporary dance company. ... Chunky Move is a contemporary dance company based in Southbank, Victoria founded in 1995 when it debutted at the Melbourne International Arts Festival by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek. ...

• Dance Exchange
• Dancenorth
• Dance Works
• Dancehouse
• Expressions Dance Company
• Force Majeure (dance company) led by Kate Champion
• Igneous
• Kage Physical Theatre
• Leigh Warren & Dancers
• Mirramu Dance Company
• Jive by Night - Dance Adelaide

O-Z Leigh Warren & Dancers is a contemporary dance company based in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. ...

• One Extra Dance
• The Queensland Ballet
• Raw Metal Dance Company
• Razzle Dazzle Dance Studio
• Restless Dance Company
• Strange Fruit
• Sydney Dance Company
• TasDance
• Tracks Dance Theatre
• West Australian Ballet
• Wu Lin Dance Theatre

The Restless Dance Company is a contemporary dance company based in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. ... The Sydney Dance Company is one of Australias most successful and well-known dance companies. ... The West Australian Ballet is the premier ballet company of Western Australia and is based in Perth at His Majestys Theatre, Western Australia. ...

Defunct companies

• Australian Choreographic Ensemble (ACE) (1992 - 1998) founded by Paul Mercurio

For the comedian, see Paul Mecurio. ...

See also

• Australian contemporary dance

Notes

1. ^ Dance in Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Volume 1 pp. 255-7

References

• Dance in Australia - a profile (a 1MB PDF file) by David Throsby, Professor of Economics at Macquarie University.

External links

• Australian Dance Council
• The Australia Dancing portal, hosted by the National Library of Australia
• Australian Performing and Media Arts magazine