Artistic Co-Director: Tim Newth

Tim was Artistic Co-Director from Tracks inception to his retirement in 2023. He was responsible for the company’s program, conception and artistic direction of all productions. Also responsible for managing commissioned work and for the engagement of all artists and performers to realise these works.

A great strength of Tracks was the artistic talent and collective skills of the Co-Artistic Directors, Tim Newth AM and David McMicken AM, who consistently produced excellent work together for over three decades. They approach the making of their work through a multi-arts lens, backing up their skills in dance, visual arts and design, drama, music, and literature. They use performance to inspire a wide range of Territorians of diverse cultural backgrounds: from youth through to the elderly, city to remote community.

David and Tim have an extraordinary ability to work collaboratively, honed since the early 1990's. This is a core value of their creative process.

Tim excels at uniting the visual with the physical. He is passionate about space, movement, and how things look, and doesn’t mind a good story. It’s important to him that he uses his artistry in connection to his community. He has gained recognition for creating large-scale, outdoor, visually spectacular dance performances that connect people to place.

Born into a life of sheep and football in rural Victoria, Tim trained as a visual artist, however by the mid-1980’s he was working with dancers and choreographers, and also directing and designing community events. In 1988 he came to Darwin. While maintaining established relationships with artists, companies and communities in Victoria and Tasmania, the Northern Territory quickly became home. The north introduced Tim to an Australia he had not yet experienced; exposing him to Indigenous Australia, and to the many different cultures and people that live and work in a city that is so close to, and has such strong ties to Asia. After spending much time in the late 80’s and early 90’s in the Aboriginal community of Lajamanu, the question of “What does it mean to be an Australian” became an ongoing exploration within Tim’s work. His early work in the Northern Territory became the seeds for what became Tracks Dance Company, of which he was a founding member. Tim is currently Artistic Co-Director of Tracks, a position he has held with David McMicken since 1994.

In 2014 Tim, along with David McMicken were made Members (AM) in the general division of the Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts, particularly through the development of Indigenous dance. Tracks was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award in 2004. Their work has earned them five Australian Dance Awards, and Tim and David were short-listed for services to dance in 2007.

Iconic Tracks Works

Lajamanu / Milpirri Home Page