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February – August:
My sister, my brother
Our annual Quantum Leap at the Playhouse major dance creation project, for ages 15–26 involves 45 dancers from Canberra, Cowra, the Blue Mountains, Batemans Bay and Moruya who will be working over 6 months to develop a full-length contemporary dance work for presentation at Canberra Playhouse in July/August. They will be joined in July by eight dancers from Thailand, Perth and Melbourne in our Visiting Dancer Program.
“In the flesh and in online social networks, young people drive cultural change, mapping new relationships with people and cultures from around the world. Borders and boundaries, privacy and communication, tradition and transgression: is it a global village, a virtual city, a family?”
The choreographers include ex-Canberra dancer Paul Zivkovich (Australian Dance Theatre, Bonachela Dance Company London); Paul White (Australian Dance Theatre; DV8, London); Carol Wellman (Australian Dance Theatre); Patrice Smith; and Alice Holland (WA), with composers Nicholas Ng, Julian Day, Warwick Lynch and Adam Ventoura. Video producers Oliver Waghorn and Heather Coquio from Bearcage Productions will be developing a film component of the work.
February – November:
Company training program
We offer a training program for dancers in Quantum Leap projects, aimed at filling the gaps in their existing skills and preparing them for the requirements of the commissioned choreographers. This includes contemporary (senior and junior), strength and conditioning, and introductory ballet.
February – November:
Licence to Move
We aim for gender balance in our projects and want to support boys’ entry into dance, so we target those who may not have considered dance, as well as boys who have movement skills that are transferable. Licence to Move starts in February with regular boys-only classes in our studios, introducing boys and young men to a masculine style of dance. We will also be taking a group of senior Quantum Leap boys into schools to assist with delivering workshops. Later in the year, we will be commissioning a male choreographer and selecting a group who will develop a short performance program to tour to local schools in early 2009.
March: Soft Landing 1
Soft Landing 1, for recent graduates from tertiary dance institutions, is a major project focussing on their practice as dancers in a collaborative project. 11 young dance graduates have been selected from WAAPA, QUT, VCA, and AC Arts, to work with choreographer Solon Ulbrich, and assisted by Amelia McQueen to develop a short piece — including all the associated production, marketing and administrative challenges — to be shown in an ‘in-progress’ season. This aims at providing orientation to professional dance work.
May – August: Restaging of ‘Blue Danube’
As part of the ARC-funded research project Intention and Serendipity, in collaboration with the University of Western Sydney and Victorian College for the Arts, we will restage the heritage work “Blue Danube”, originally choreographed by Gertrude Bodenwieser and later adapted by Margaret Chapple.
August – October: ‘Pig Out’
Our annual ‘Chaos’ project for younger and less-experienced dancers (ages 8–17), builds confidence and skills whilst creating and presenting a new dance work. They work with professional choreographers including Aimee Smith and Chafia Brooks, together with a group of older Quantum Leapers. The project will explore eating habits: people who eat too little, people who eat too much; good food, bad food; fast food, slow food.
August – September:
Soft Landing 2 ‘Exhibitionism’
Soft Landing 2 for young dance graduates brings choreographic practice to the fore. In a 4-week fulltime process they will develop and present Exhibitionism: a site- and time- specific “circuit-performance” at the National Gallery of Australia, choreographed and curated by Brian Lucas in collaboration with six young choreographers, and performed by up to 14 dancers. It explores individual responses to visual art and the ‘gallery experience’ in both emotional and behavioural terms. Audiences will experience a perambulatory tour with a continuous performance element (“The viewers”), with six short performance pieces (“The Artwork”), each presented in proximity to an artwork that provided inspiration. The graduates will be mentored and challenged by Brian, focussing and honing their work to engage a largely non-dance audience.
September – Health Promotion: Live Ad
Quantum Leap will create and perform a short “live advertisement”: a live dance piece, which promotes a significant health message. It will open each of the three nights of the ACT Youth Dance Festival.
September – November: Hot to Trot
Hot to Trot gives Quantum Leapers an exciting opportunity to create and refine their own short dance works, often in preparation to continuing on to tertiary dance studies. Mentored by Ruth Osborne, and with peer support, they will develop their works for a performance season in our theatre.
November – December: On Course
Designed especially for young people in tertiary dance studies interstate who have not yet graduated, this two-week program brings them back to Canberra to build and display the choreographic skills they are developing. It ends with a short performance season, bringing their new ideas to a Canberra audience.
All year: Grants of space
Grants of Space are available to local and visiting professional dance artists to develop and present new works, particularly those involving Quantum Leap dancers. We also support other local performing artists and groups with subsidised use of our theatre.
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