2019 Artistic Program
Major Production
Global Positioning
Darwin City Smith Street Mall and Surrounds: August 18 - 24
Darwin Festival
In a perambulatory performance, Tracks Dance Company loops you into the past, grounds you in the present and elevates you into the future. In an attempt to understand our place, inform our spirit and find our position within the manmade centre of our city, Global Positioning both takes in the voice of the local and looks through the eyes of a visitor.
Participation Program
We believe that everyone should have the chance to enjoy dancing. The Tracks Participation Program is about engaging in dance as a whole of life activity and presenting it publicly. This program provides diverse opportunities to be involved in a project at Tracks, including everything from large-scale events to smaller pop-up performances.
The Grey Panthers
Darwin and Batchelor: Febuary - November
Tracks believes in dance as a whole of life activity. The Grey Panthers dancing troupe for the over 60's is a prime example of this.
The longest continually running seniors community dance group in Australia. The group has a weekly class in Darwin and Batchelor and regularly performers on the Darwin and surrounding region’s presenting a mixture of repertoire and new works.
En Masse
Brown’s Mart Theatre courtyard and Civic Park, Darwin: Sunday 14 July
En Masse is a brand new, large-scale, participatory dance work created by and for locals. This 7-minute dance extravaganza brings together 100 diverse performers to take a cheeky look at the dry season tourists in our city.
Dead Singers Dance Society
Tracks Dance Studio, 8 McMinn St, Darwin: Three short courses during the year
You want to dance to great music? Join the Dead Singers Dance Society.
In this 4-week course you will learn a fun and achievable dance routine that celebrates the music of a legendary ‘dearly departed’ singer. Society Meetings (dance classes) are held in an inclusive and supportive dance space led by an experienced teacher.
Lajamanu Community workshops
Lajamanu: May 27 - 31
One week of youth dance workshops in Lajamanu school and the creation of a short film built upon choreography and music from Milpirri 2018.
Find out more about this project
Find out more about the long term relationship between Tracks and Lajamanu
Development Program
With no tertiary dance courses available in the Northern Territory, there is limited opportunity for independent artists to develop their skills or to network. Tracks’ Development Program seeks to fill the gap of entrance level dance making with the Choreographic Development Program for adults, and Make a Dance In A Week for youth. Further support for independent dance practice is through the Space Time Studio Residency program.
All Development Program activities are at Tracks Dance Studio, 8 McMinn St, Darwin
Make a Dance in a Week
October 7 -11
The Tracks annual school holiday program, Make a Dance in a Week (MADIAW), is the place for creativity in the October school holidays. The program is led by professional dancers and provides a unique environment for students to engage in thinking, moving, problem solving, and teamwork.
Choreographic Program
The Choreographic Program provides an opportunity for emerging movement artists and dance-makers to explore the mechanics and creative scope of choreography in an artistically rich environment.
Space Time Studio Residency
October 2019 - March 2020
If you’re a local, independent dance or movement artist, this program is for you. Space Time Studio Residency provides you with access to development time in a studio space, and mentorship from the Tracks staff.
National Dance Forum
August 9 - 10 (program announced in March)
Expand your thinking about Dance
In 2019 Tracks Dance Company will work closely with the National Council and the Ausdance National team to host the National Dance Forum (NDF) in Darwin. This will be the first time the NDF has come to the Northern Territory and is a strong signal to the national sector about the strength and relevance of regional dance.
Costume Exhibition
August, 2019
Live Darwin Hub, Smith Street Mall, Darwin City
Telling our Tracks story through costume and design
Throughout August, Tracks will install a costume exhibition in the Live Darwin Hub showcasing costumes from 5 past Tracks shows, Struck (2008), The Cook, the Queen and the Kelly (2010), Crocodile Man, Pineapple Woman (2011), 8 to 80: The Architecture of Age (2012) and In Your Blood (2018) and highlighting original costume designs by Ann Gibb, Lynn Ferguson and Tim Newth.
Legacy/Succession
This year we expand our Animateur Program. Resident Animateur Kelly Beneforti will be joined by previous Animateur Jess Devereux to expand the reach and depth of engagement with our dance community. Jess will also be mentored by the Artistic Directors around specifics of the impact of artistic decision making on the larger runnings of an organisation. We will also be employing Bryn Wackett across several projects. Previously Bryn has worked as an independent dance artist with the company and the wider dance community, and her employment will help consolidate her skills in a supported company structure. All of this is underpinned by a slow burn approach as the company mentors the Animateurs across a suite of programs, ensuring the Tracks’ methodology into the future.
Mentorships
To assist in the creation of pathways for artists’ development, Tracks takes on mentorships of emerging and/or mid-career artists. This year’s mentees are: Jordan Bretherton (Studio Residency) and Katy Moir (Space and design).
Jordan will take up a studio residency throughout the year, as well as being involved in a diverse range of the company's projects and activities. Tracks artists will mentor Jordan through the development of his own work.
Katy, graduate of architecture and emerging spacemaker, is passionate about how people interface with space, and so are we. She will be mentored by the Artistic Co-Directors who will work closely with her in the process of activating city spaces for ‘real people’ interaction.
Dance Body Design
Tracks dance artists have a 30 year relationship working in the remote Indigenous community of Lajamanu with initial connection with Lajamanu began in the late 80’s. This time was shared with anthropologists, educators, linguists and cultural workers. Many of these relationships have survived to the current day.
Track’s Lajamanu legacy is of national and international significance and needs to be documented in a manner in which the body of knowledge is accessible and usable by Lajamanu community members as well as the world at large, and which incorporates other researchers fields of expertise.
Building on the Milpirri Banner Home Page which is defined by the Jukurrpa (dreaming/law) meanings held with the Banner designs, Body Dance Design aims to research the knowledge embodied within the Milpirri dances and associated body designs captured on documentation through video and photographs. Collating this knowing and working out how to share this rich Australian Warlpiri knowledge with the world will be done through initial research in Darwin and Lajamanu, the development of academic writing and research Warlpiri knowledge found internationally.
Tracks has also worked with Lajamanu artists outside the community, including in Darwin, Victoria, and New South Wales. There is potential to extend this work to include those activities
Company Partners
Tracks Inc is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body; and is proudly sponsored by the Northern Territory Government.
Tracks 2019
Artistic Co-Directors: David McMicken and Tim Newth
Company Director: Adelaide Wood
Administrator: Jessica Mellor
Production Manager: Duane Preston
Dance Animateur: Kelly Beneforti
Bookkeeper: It Figures
Committee Members: David Taylor (Chairperson), Mary Durack (Outgoing Chairperson), Glenn Bernardin (Treasurer), Michael Grant, Ken Conway, Venaska Cheliah, Sudha Coutinho, Max Dewa Stretton. David McMicken, Tim Newth, Adelaide Wood (Ex-Officio Members)
Public Fund Trustees: Dr Anita Toth
Patron: Her Honour the Honourable Vicki O’Halloran AM, Administrator of the Northern Territory