Dance 18, 40th Anniversary Season, 30 October - 3 November 2018

Program from the second semester 2018 dance performance by Queensland University of Technology Dance Students. From the 2018 program: "Welcome to Dance ‘18—the end of year performance season that celebrates our graduating students as they undertake the final stages of their transition into the dance profession. 2018 is a particularly special year, as it marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of dance training at QUT and its predecessor institution.

Dance has always been integral to our culture, but it is also important to recognise that the land on which we stand has been a site for Indigenous Australian dance and culture for at least 60,000 years, and so tonight we respectfully acknowledge its traditional custodians and their Elders both past, present and emerging.

For the young artists you will see tonight, it is a culmination of three years’ worth of learning, commitment and hard work—technically, artistically, and developmentally—as they seek to hone their skills and to formulate their values and beliefs about who they are and how they might contribute to the cultural life of their communities.

Throughout their time at QUT they have been challenged by diverse choreographers in a range of new and restaged creative works. For this season, the third-years have been privileged to work with QUT graduate and Bangarra Dance Company member Daniel Riley, as well as independent Australian choreographer Adam Blanch.

For the first-year and second-year students involved, this season gives them a great opportunity to develop their performance and stagecraft skills, operating in a similar fashion to a professional dance company. This has included working with two wonderful choreographers, international guest artist Yasim Coronado Veranes, and Expressions Dance Company artist Scott Ewen.

This is also a moment to acknowledge the many people that are critical to getting our students and Dance ‘18 up on stage and performing out in public: QUT Precincts, Technical Production students and staff, QUT/CIF Marketing, QUT Media, the School of Creative Practice, and the wonderful Dance staff whose commitment to the success of their students is an inspirational story in its own right.

We are also very grateful to you, our audience members, for your patronage, support, and encouragement of our students—particularly those family and friends who have shared the long and sometimes difficult journey with them, and have witnessed their wonderful development first hand. I am very grateful to lead a great team of professionals who have contributed significantly to the learning journeys of all our students over many years—students of whom we are very proud!

We hope you enjoy the show.

Dr Mark Radvan Discipline Leader – Dance, Drama and Music School of Creative Practice QUT Creative Industries Faculty