Rubicon Dance; Australian Youth Dance Festival

April 2006

Sharon Teear, Dance Development Worker for Rubicon Dance reports on Rubicon’s Trip to Australia 13th- 25th April 2006 for the Australian Youth Dance Festival.

Rubicon wanted to take a group of young people to the Australian Youth Dance Festival 2006. The Festival was set up and run by Ausdance and was held this year in a small town called Horsham near Melbourne. It was a week long festival involving approximately 250 youth participants and youth leaders. With the help of funding by Wales Arts International along with additional fundraising we were able to make this a reality.

We decided to take 4 members from our flagship youth group ‘Nubrico’. This group is comprised of young people from the ages of 16-18 yrs who have been selected from our other various youth programmes for their skill and dedication. There are normally 12 dancers in Nubrico. However, due to high costs and the fact that we had not been to the festival before, we decided to take 4 members with 2 dance leaders in the hope of setting up an exchange for the future. The 4 young people chosen have all been involved with Rubicon for many years and were thrilled to be given this fantastic opportunity. It was wonderful to be able to offer such dedicated members of our group this chance of a lifetime.

Ausdance were a brilliant organisation to work with. From the outset they were extremely encouraging and supportive of our visit. Regular contact was established in the year prior to the visit and still continues. Our participation in the Australian Youth Dance festival was not only of importance to us but also to Ausdance and the local town of Horsham. Rubicon has a high reputation with Ausdance due to previous visits supported by Wales Arts International. We were the only international group at the festival and the first to do so. We were interviewed and featured in the local press and will also be in the next issue of Ausdance Magazine.

We travelled straight to Horsham which in total took 36 hours! The group handled this very well and were very excited. We had a spare day once we arrived to get ourselves acclimatised and to get over the jet lag. We were also welcomed by our contacts and registered for the festival. The festival lasted a week with a performance at the end involving 250 participants. We finally spent a day in Melbourne enjoying some sightseeing before we returned home.

The festival involved a full programme starting at 9am and finishing at 9pm. At the beginning and end of the day they held a forum to discuss how everyone was getting along and to get everyone together. The mornings were spent in specific groups working with various well respected choreographers. Each group worked on choreographing a section which would be put in the final show. In the afternoons the young people were involved in various taster sessions including a range of styles from hip-hop, ballet, Senegalese, fire dancing, indigenous dancing and many more.

As a leader I watched the full range of different choreographers in order to gain an overall perspective, see their varying approaches and offer support to our Nubrico dancers who were involved in different groups. In the afternoon I took part in the practical taster sessions. I learnt new styles such as dance from different cultures such as Senegalese and Indigenous and enhanced my knowledge of dance forms that I already practice and teach. I have been able to bring this training and knowledge back to Rubicon thus informing my work.

We took lots of video footage and photographs of the festival, which we have been able to show to our other various groups. This has enabled them to understand what Nubrico took part in and what they had been fundraising for. It also helped them gain new inspiration and enabled them to see a different approach from a different culture. This allows us to make the experience accessible to many more than just the 4 young dancers that we took over.

In the evenings Ausdance invited some of the youth groups to perform in the Town Hall. Our group performed on the opening night. The group were very nervous as they felt a great amount of pressure due to high expectations as we were from the UK. They were extremely well received and consequently thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Throughout the week the group continued to get fantastic feedback for their performance and general work ethic.

We really enjoyed watching the other groups perform for the remainder of the week. It was so beneficial to watch these performances as they gave us a great understanding of the standard, type and level of youth work in Australia. Watching performances from a different culture also enabled us to see new ideas, which could in turn influence our own creativity.

From watching the performances we were also able to establish which groups would be most suitable to try to establish links with for a possible future exchange. We had a great deal of interest and discussions with various group leaders and choreographers who were keen to link up with us at some point in the future. Some very strong links were made which we are keeping in contact with.

It was really useful to meet and discuss with many different teachers, youth leaders, choreographers and Audance members. We explored our various approaches to working with our youth groups and found it interesting to see the differences and similarities.

Our youth members made strong bonds and friendships with many of the other groups- constantly sharing dance ideas and laughs in their free time. They are still in touch with many of the youth members and are very keen for us to establish a future exchange at some point. The festival had a great effect on them – their confidence, skill and depth of dance knowledge was greatly improved, as they rose to every challenge.

Stacey:- “I absolutely loved it. Everyone was so friendly.”

Tamsin:- “Thank you so much! It was the best time of my life, I am never going to forget it…”

Hannah:-“ I want to move to Australia.”

Sophie:- “The festival was great in exploring, sharing and learning different dance styles as well as sharing our passion for dance. Having the chance to go to Australia has been a fantastic experience for me and one that I will never forget.”

As a dance development worker I gained so much from this experience. I now have a greater understanding of the dance world in Australia, established contacts, exchanged ideas and learnt new practical skills.

It has also helped me realised the strengths in our own company and the ways in which we work with our young dancers. I have also picked up on the positivism that was so prevalent at the festival and see how important and motivating it can be. I have also experienced a massive learning curve not only about Dance in Australia, but also what is involved in planning a trip and being responsible for a youth group as well as effectively representing and promoting Rubicon.

This was the first Dance festival I have ever been involved with. It was great to be surrounded by so many people whose love of dance was so apparent that it became infectious. It was wonderful to see so much talent at the festival with varying abilities working so well with each other.

The festival was extremely well organised and executed by Ausdance. Everything ran so smoothly and efficiently. Horsham itself was a great location to take a group of young people, as it was very safe, small and friendly. We were made to feel extremely welcome and our contacts in Ausdance were hundred percent reliable which helped make our trip such a success. 

Sharon Teear

Dance Development Worker

Rubicon Dance