‘We value everyone equally, but you know, of course each person has a role to play in the team that's been created, but no one is, you know, less valuable than another.’
Read More
Cadi McCarthy
“every human has a body and bodies tell stories”
Read More
Vicki Van Hout
“I love my track pants and I wouldn't be seeing dead in the pair of tights.”
Read More
Image includes Harrison Elliott - Image by Brett Boardman
Danielle Micich
“I want us to all be held responsible for watching what is happening on stage, as opposed to 'I can't see the person next to me. And so therefore, it doesn't matter'. Actually, I want us to all take part in what I'm putting on stage and be responsible and have thoughts about that. If we do that, then we're having a bigger conversation about what has actually on our stage today.”
Read More
Dancers Shian Law, Rebecca Jensen, Jo Lloyd and Deanne Butterwork - Image by Peter Rosetzky
Jo Lloyd
“I have this curiosity for what my body remembers, also pre this life that I've known. And that's not to be esoteric, that's actually anchored in some of the incredibly fascinating research to do with trauma in the body and generational trauma.”
Read More
Photo Pia Johnson
Joel Bray
“Dance has the ability to take the moment and to expand that out, so you can almost, you can take one or a few things, and really pull them apart and really understand them. […] Dance allows the possibility for authentic human to human encounters; that I think are becoming more and more precious in this digital world.”
Read More
photo credit Pia Johnson.
Lauren Langlois
“I am such an instinctual person as well, I really trust in the process, and allowing things to evolve and come up. So the work, in away makes its self along the way.”
Read More
Photo credit: Joseph Lau
Bridget Fiske
“you actually can you have agency in designing your own career”
Read More
Mette Ingvartsen, photo by Danny Willems
Mette Ingvartsen
“The fact that the sexual undertone, or the desiring undertone that a lot of dance is operating through, for me it was very important to make it explicit. To actually say ‘okay part of what is happening here is a question of desire, it is a question of being stimulated physically. Then there are many different levels or layers of this happening of course. In my work it was about saying, we have to recognise that these underlying structures are there, and if we recognise it and even expose it explicitly then maybe we can actually look at for something else or question ourselves….”
Read More
Bruno Isaković
"I am observing them, observing me."
Read More
Luke George
“Dance is an embodied space, it is a visual space, it’s a sensual space and I just have such a strong desire for the audience to be in their bodies as well as the performers and for them not to be sitting in a black box as if they are watching television, in their heads thinking about things, analysing.”
'Brasilia' collaboration with Matthew Bird (2015) Photo credit Vitor Schietti
Phillip Adams
“New York was my mentor”
Read More
IETM Ball 2014 - Produced by Tristan Meecham © Image by Bryony Jackson
Bec Reid
“I have committed to rest of my dancing life, to making dance as inclusive as possible because my experience was very welcoming.”
Cheryl Stock
photo provided by Cheryl Stock
Associate Professor Cheryl Stock PhD AM, has had a diverse and influential career with the common theme of dance running throughout. Cheryl has worked as a dancer, choreographer, academic, teacher and advocate.
Cheryl has created over 50 dance works and has been a pioneer in collaborative exchanges with Asia, of particular note is her work in Vietnam. This resulted in her PhD, Making intercultural dance in Vietnam.
Cheryl has choreographed for Australian Dance Theatre, Australian Opera, Vietnam Opera Ballet Theatre, Footnote Dance Theatre (New Zealand), Dancenorth, along with many other independent projects nationally and internationally.
In 1985, Cheryl became the inaugural Artistic Director of Dance North (now written Dancenorth). Cheryl helped put the Townsville based company on the map. This legacy can be seen through incredible dancers like Samantha Hines, who was recently profiled on Delving into Dance.
As a researcher Cheryl has made an enormous contribution to academic and sector wide discourse. She has presented at endless conferences around the globe, published extensively and has nurtured many students. Between 2000–2014 Cheryl was Associate Professor in the Creative Industries Faculty of QUT. In 2016, she was appointed the Head of Cultural Leadership at NIDA and Director, Graduate Studies.
Cheryl was National President of Ausdance between 1996-2000 and was elected as Secretary General of the World Dance Alliance (WDA), in 2009.
Cheryl’s long list of achievements include being a recipient of the Australian Dance Lifetime Achievement Award (2003) and Order of Australia (2014). She was honored by the Vietnamese government for Services to Dance in Vietnam and the other for Services to the Women’s Movement (1995).
Read more about female leadership in dance from Jordan Beth Vincent.
This episode is part of a special season Ancestors & Anecdotes, in partnership with Ausdance Victoria. Find the other episodes here.
Delving into Dance relies on donations to continue. Tristan Meecham’s recent donation has helped pay for the latest website update. Tristan thank you for your support in archiving and preserving the amazing legacy of people like Cheryl Stock.
credit: Fieldworks.JPG
Elizabeth Cameron Dalman
Elizabeth Cameron Dalman has frequently been described as the high priestess of Australian dance. Elizabeth trained in both classical ballet and modern dance with Nora Stewart, later obtaining a Masters of Creative Arts degree from University of Wollongong.
Elizabeth left Australia in 1957, continuing her studies in Europe, London and New York. She studied with Martha Graham, James Truitte, Murray Louis and Alwin Nikilais.
In 1965, Elizabeth founded the Australian Dance Theatre. As the artistic director she introduced Australian audiences to a diverse range of works including: Hallucinations (1966), This Train (1966), Landscape (1967), Sundown (1967), Sun and Moon (1968), Homage to Boticelli (1969), Creation (1969), and Release of an Oath (1972). The company toured internationally, including to Italy, Switzerland and Holland (1968), through South East Asia, India and Papua New Guinea (1971), and to New Zealand (1972).
Her works were innovative and often controversial, introducing her dancers to visual artists, composers, writers and a range of other artistic disciplines. These types of collaborations were unique for their time, challenging preconceptions about dance as an art form and what was possible into the future.
In 1975, Elizabeth’s career changed sudden change in ADT restructuring and became an independent artist throughout Europe for 10 years.
Elizabeth has continued dancing and challenging ideas that dance is just for the young. Elizabeth is a central feature in Sue Healey’s incredible film En Route. Elizabeth is currently Director of Mirramu Creative Arts Centre and also the Artistic Director of Mirramu Dance Company and WEEREEWA – a Festival of Lake George Inc.
Elizabeth completed her doctorate at the University of Western Sydney in 2012 with a thesis entitled The Quest for an Australian Dance Theatre.
Elizabeth was awarded an OAM in 1995 for her contribution to contemporary dance in Australia and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Australian Dance Awards in 1997.
Activist, visionary and all-round inspiration.
Read more:
Read more about female leadership in dance from Jordan Beth Vincent.
This season produced in partnership with Ausdance Victoria. This episode is part of a special season Ancestors & Anecdotes, in partnership with Ausdance Victoria. Find the other episodes here.
If you have enjoyed this episode and you want to continue to hear a diversity of dancers and dance makers experiences, leave a contribution. With arts journalism around the world in decline, now more than ever, platforms like Delving into Dance are critical in providing artists a space to talk about their work to a dedicated audience, while also archiving their experiences.
Gareth Chambers
“I think when people are exposed to something, like queer dance or queer art, it can either trigger two things: it can firstly make them want to learn or understand it, or secondly, they refuse it because it scares them. I think both actions can trigger change.”
Read More
Meryl Tankard
“People say to me, ‘are you still dancing’, and I go ‘well what is dancing? What does dancing mean, I go into the studio and put music on?’ Maybe I dance when I play with my niece. […] we are sort of dancing everyday aren’t we?”
Read More
Sue Healey
“I am interested in how we talk about dance. Because: a. I think many people are scared about it, they don’t really understand it. b. we don’t often, really get to uncover it, and talk about it much. ”
— Sue Healey
Read More
Daniel Jaber
“Movement gave me a greater sense of freedom and expression.”
Read More
“I like working with the dancers, I like working on the detail of the choreography and the structure of the work.”
Lucy Guerin
“I like working with the dancers, I like working on the detail of the choreography and the structure of the work.”
Read More