Co-Design: Imagine a festival for dance in Melbourne
Dancehouse and Arts House, with support from Creative Victoria, have appointed four independent arts practitioners – Mariaa Randall, Luke George, Priya Srinivasan and Tam Nguyen to lead a Co-Design
Mariaa Randall, Luke George, Priya Srinivasan and Tam Nguyen are leading a community co-design, to explore the potential of a dedicated contemporary dance festival in Melbourne.
The Co-Design team will be leading the sector consultation between September and November 2020.
Read their biographies here.
From the Co-Design Team:
In order to understand the current state of dance and what the term “contemporary dance” might mean in Melbourne, we have used a decolonising methodology to guide this artist led dialogue with the sector.
What now? What next? What do we all want next?
Our creative process aims to rethink existing structures by employing an intersectional and dialogic framework to address race, gender, age, sexuality, access and class.
We will be listening in three ways to hear your input:
1. An online survey
Open until 31 October.
2. Focus groups
Intentionally targeted to bring together diverse voices drawn from our lived experience. Nine conversations which includes four intersectional conversations and five conversations for participants who might share commonality in their practice or cultural background. Perspectives invited to take part will include: First Nations artists, culturally diverse artists, independent artists, artists with disability, gender diverse artists, teachers, presenters, street and club artists.
3. Individual consultation
Deep listening of elders and pioneers from the selected categories above.
Each consultant will work individually and collectively to record their findings which will be submitted to Dancehouse and Arts House early November, 2020.
We invite you to have your say by answering the online survey which will be distributed end of September and close 31 October. The Victorian dance sector is extensive. We don’t presume to know everyone. Please help us by sharing the survey to your networks and community. The more people we reach the better we can help represent the diverse voices of our dance communities. If you have not received the survey, please email us so we can send you the link.
– Mariaa Randall, Priya Srinivasan, Luke George and Tam Nguyen
