From 1984 until now: Ausdance ACT Youth Dance Festival celebrates 40 years

Posted on 15 October, 2024

For some, it was the moment that set the path for a future career in the arts. For others, it became a cherished memory. It’s no wonder that the Ausdance ACT Youth Dance Festival is a remarkable Canberra success story.

And as the long-term favourite on the Canberra arts and education calendar celebrates its 40^th anniversary, it’s looking to the future.

Beginning in 1984 as a pioneer program on a mission to get dance into the Australian Curriculum, for the first time since COVID, the Ausdance ACT Youth Dance Festival (YDF) will take over the Canberra Theatre Centre stage for three full nights from Wednesday 6 until Friday 8 November.

Featuring an exciting mix of live dance performances made by secondary schools from all over the Canberra region, over 800 students will participate in this year’s festival.

Boasting a second generation of participants, proud alumni of over 50,000 students, and a strong legacy, Ausdance ACT Creative Director Dr. Cathy Adamek says that the timelessness of the event resides in its simplicity – it gives young people the chance to express themselves through dance and music.

“It’s the consistency of it that has remained the same. It’s co-creative, it enables young people to create theatre work in a dance context which has broad appeal because it’s not verbal,” she says.

“It allows young people who aren’t necessarily trained dancers to access performance.”

2023 Youth Dance Festival, Melrose High School.

Encouraging a student-led approach to dance making, choreography, theatre, and filmmaking, it’s this shared artistic experience that launched the successful careers of several locals in the dance industry.

And to mark the significance of the 40^th anniversary (and the impact the festival has made on the lives of thousands of young people), opening night will see YDF alumni, star teachers and choreographers stage their own special performance.

“We’ve brought back three local success stories with Francis Owusu from Kulture Break, KG from Passion & Purpose, and Caroline Wall from Fresh Funk. They all run their own schools and have a strong community following for street style, which is a real Canberra trademark,” explains Cathy.

“We’re doing a bit of a retrospective over the decades from when the Youth Dance Festival began. I’m compiling footage with my videographer going back to the ‘80s through to the ‘90s and 2000s so it will contain historic flashback footage from the old YDFs. It’ll also incorporate the three choreographers!”

But while the opening piece pays tribute to the past, the rest of the festival will look to the future.

Ausdance ACT Executive Director Dr Cathy Adamek. 

With the theme ‘What Do You Dream?’, Cathy is tasking the students to use their imagination to think about what life can be, asking the questions ‘What sort of world do you want to live in?’ and ‘How do you manifest your future?’

“It ties into this idea of dreaming about your life. I think, for the first time coming out of COVID, people can dream again about what they might want to do. Because the performing arts were hit so hard, a lot of young people maybe chose not to go into performing arts training,” she says.

“In the opening piece, you have three performers – now mentors and teachers – whose dream was to perform…and they did it. The idea that you can dream of a life that’s based around being a dancer is one thing that tracks through it. But it also opens the idea up to get young people to connect to their dream state.”

As for the Youth Dance Festival’s future? Continuing its long track record of supporting young people in theatre performance and dance, after four decades the YDF isn’t going anywhere. But like the program itself, with each new set of students that participate, it will continually reinvent itself.

“Art does that in the way it reflects contemporary society. All of the themes that I’ve evolved over the past few years have tried to tap into what’s going on…that make them reflect on their current circumstance,” says Cathy.

“It reminds us that that’s what art can do. It gives us a way to be able to express and mediate what’s going on in the world.”

Donate to secure the future of Youth Dance Festival here.

Images: Art Atelier Photography.