Ausdance SA Newsletter October 2023

A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Members,

It is with great enthusiasm and pride that I introduce myself as the President of Ausdance SA, an organisation dedicated to the promotion and development of dance in South Australia. I endeavour to share with you my passion for dance and to express my commitment to advancing the mission and vision of Ausdance SA, to promote and develop dance both locally and nationally. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to our outgoing President Jen Guest, former past President Sebastian Anian-Cooper, Vice President and Education sub-committee President  Robyn Callan, and the Ausdance SA committee for their continued support and guidance during the transition to the new committee. The dance community has long benefited from Ausdance SA’s expertise, resources and networks. I am proud to lead Ausdance SA and excited to continue strengthening the dance sector during my tenure.

Over the past few months we have dedicated time to developing the structure and defining the roles of the new committee and redeveloping membership services. At a national level, Ausdance held their first National Dance Forum meeting since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The outcomes of the September meeting will be circulated to Ausdance SA members in the coming weeks. We participated in the ‘Minister’s Arts awards’, where outstanding contributions to the arts sector were recognised and appreciated. Award recipients will receive prizes valued at $8000 and will be recognised later in the year. We would like to see an even greater representation of dance teacher nominees in the future. These awards are an excellent opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the outstanding contributions of our dance teachers in the community. In addition, allowing dance educators to further their own development while giving back to their own community. As arts funding and grants become available, Ausdance SA are here to share information and provide assistance to studios, teachers and artists in accessing these resources and further supporting their endeavours.

I have been involved in the world of dance for more than 30 years, beginning my journey as a passionate dancer and later transitioning into a role as an advocate for dance education and performance in South Australia. Ausdance SA has always played a pivotal role in my training and development as a dancer.  Firstly, as an ‘Dancers in Schools’ tutor, and the ‘Ausdance Skill Set for Teaching Dance’ Certification. Ausdance SA afforded me the opportunity to present at the Panpapanpalya Joint Dance Congress and to launch Professional Development Creative Dance workshops for teachers.

Ausdance SA remains committed to facilitating connections and encouraging the sharing of narratives. It continues to exist as a non-for-profit member-driven organisation that actively promotes, presents and engages in the advancement of dance skills,  practices, research and methodologies in the dance sector.

My strengths lie in introducing dance methodologies, curriculum and teaching practices to schools and locations with limited or no access to dance. I introduced dance classes and curriculum to Metro and Regional South Australia in my role as a Dance Studio Teacher and freelance artist in my business, Essential Arts (formerly Essential Dance and Fitness). By establishing a collaboration with the Active After Schools program in SA, I enabled a network of dance instructors to lead recreational dance programs. This initiative aimed to promote student engagement in dance, fostering their physical health and overall well-being.  I continue to actively promote dance through my role as a conference presenter for ACHPER and my past involvement with the Australian Dance Festival.

As a dedicated dance educator, I’ve developed online dance curriculum materials designed to equip teachers with the necessary knowledge in dance elements, choreographic techniques, and safe dance practices. This empowers them to effectively incorporate dance into their teaching curriculum and lessons.

With seven years of service as an organiser for the Finance Sector Union SA/NT, I’ve acquired the skills and expertise necessary to support and advocate for members, preparing me to extend these capabilities in the dance sector.

These experiences provided me with a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities that our local dance community and the dance industry faces.

With ongoing reductions in dance sector funding, Ausdance SA perseveres, continuing to remain unfunded and existing through voluntary efforts. On behalf of the Ausdance SA committee, we express our gratitude to our members for their ongoing support. It remains crucial for us to collectively work towards sustaining our membership, services and contributions to the dance sector.

We seek your assistance in helping us to grow and continue our great work. Currently, we have several board positions that need to be filled. This includes a secretary position to maintain transparency, accountability and efficient board operations. We are also actively seeking individuals to fill a number of ordinary member positions. We also strongly value any volunteers from the Ausdance SA community who are willing to assist with future workshops, activities and events. If this resonates with you or if you can contribute, we would greatly appreciate your involvement. If you would like more information regarding the board positions with Ausdance SA or to express your interest, please send an email to sa@ausdance.org.au. We are excited to welcome more Ausdance SA members to join our committee.

Regards,
Rebecca Williams
President – Ausdance SA

Ausdance SA Board

• Rebecca Williams – President/Acting Secretary
• Robyn Callan – Vice President/Eduacation Officer/Treasurer
• Lana Adamuszek – Social Media and Communications
• Valeria Alonso – Members Relations Officer
• Susan Howard – Ordinary Member
• Sabrina Turtur – Ordinary Member
• Judy Swan – Ordinary Member

 MEAA Equity is currently negotiating with Live Producers Australia, seeking to modernise the Performers Collective Agreement which covers your live performance work. The key claims for MEAA Equity and its members are primarily about safety and real pay rises. Producers are resisting these claims and don’t want to hear about real world performers’ experiences. I am asking that you sign the open letter and share with your colleagues to do the same, so that performers can stand together to push for a better outcome in the negotiations. We need to make sure all performers are engaged so LPA sees clearly that performers are watching and want to be valued.  Sign the letter here and check out the PCA web site to see all the claims https://modernisingthepca.carrd.co/#,

Stomping Ground Studios is looking for a talented dance teacher to join their friendly team in Term 4 2023! We are looking for a teacher who is experienced in teaching either Hip Hop, Acro or both.

ABOUT US

Stomping Ground Studios is a Dance & Pilates centre located in Stepney.

We offer a range of Dance & Pilates classes for kids & adults.

Our members experience a safe, caring and supportive environment, where they can follow their passions and strive for their goals.

We have a strong, supportive team of staff who are dedicated to excellence in customer service and treating all of our members and fellow staff with respect and kindness.
 

OUR VALUES

Respect. Kindness. Persistence. Courage. Community.
 

THE JOB

We are looking for an experienced Hip Hop &/or Acro dance teacher for Saturday mornings 10:30am – 1pm starting in Term 4 with the possibility of more teaching hours.

You’ll be working with our wonderful students who are eager to improve their dance and acro skills.

Our ideal candidate should have experience teaching, strong communication skills, and the ability to create a positive and encouraging learning environment.

If you’re passionate about teaching children and are interested in joining us at SGS, please send your resume, cover letter and relevant certifications to: info@stompinggroundstudios.com.au

We look forward to hearing from you!

A note from our Dance Physio…

The Marvellous Fascia and how it facilitates our movement.

Fascia exists within our body and is made up of layers of connective tissue. The connective tissue rests just beneath the skin and is continuous throughout the body, wrapping around muscles, through the fibres of the muscle, around the organs, along nerves, blood vessels and other pipes and connecting with the joint ligaments and capsules. Fascia is comprised of 80% extracellular matrix and embedded with elastin and protein resulting in a glossy continuous fibrous network of multidirectional fibres that can lengthen and contract to create tension and movement. In fact, if you were able to take out every part of your body, skin, bones, organs and vessels, you would be left with a perfect fascial model of YOU. That’s how extensive it is.

In considering how well fascia moves and how it connects all areas of our body, we also need to think about what might happen if we let it get stuck or immobile. We lose that ability to move. This might present as that ‘I have stuck bit in my hamstring here’ or I have a tight not in the middle of my back there’

Do you know when you get up in the morning and you have that urge to stretch like a cat? This is the body stretching and waking up the fascia after it has been still overnight. We stretch and pull it apart to wake it up and allow the fascia to glide and slide and facilitate beautiful movement. The same can be said for when we are limbering up; it is not just the muscle stretching but also the fascia. If you consider having an injury such as a sprain ankle in a moonboot, the muscle begins to waste away and the fascia begins to thicken and adhere and loose its glide, thus limiting movement. 

I like to consider our muscle groups as long strings of sausages.  They are individual muscles wrapped in fascia and twisted to the next sausage, and so forth. In anatomical terms, we call this a myofascial sling. The body has many myofascial slings which link the areas of the body and work in equal and opposite unison to create stability, coordination, and flow of movement.

With modern day science, we are now discovering the ability Fascia has to communciate and how it does this. Yes, it is not just our nervous system that sends messages around our body, but the fascia also. Those working in the field of Feldenkrais and Rolfing, more than 20 years ago, increased their research into their methods and the effect on fascia. This combined with a German invention whereby, scientists were able to place mobile cameras inside living humans to traverse around live anatomy and see how it functions. Prior to this, all dissection was in cadavers, which is infact is dead tissue, and this is why we thought fascia was an inert structure, rather than an extensive living communication viable tissue that we see today.  

A newly rediscovered field is fascial interoception, which relates to mostly subconscious signalling from free nerve endings in the body’s viscera – as well as other tissues – informing the brain about the physiological state of the body and relates it to our need for maintaining homeostasis (Schleip and Jäger, 2012). While sensations from proprioceptive receptors are usually projected via their somatomotor cortex, signalling from interoceptive endings is processed via the insula region in the brain, and is usually associated with an emotional or motivational component. The sensory nature of fascia also includes its potential for nociception (nociception is the ability to feel pain, caused by stimulation of a nociceptor). 

This resonates well with us, because as dancers, we feel our movement and we create movement from within, deeper than the physical muscle, but from our soul.  

So, when you are in the studio warming up next, let’s give some consideration to our fascia as well as our muscles. Let us warm up and stretch our gorgeous glossy white fascia by performing whole body stretches, stretching through movement and releasing the sticky bits in our myofascial by foam rolling or tennis balling areas.  

When working with our students, particularly those going through puberty, we have these delicious bodies that are mailable and learning down at a cellular level. This is the opportune time to create free moving and vibrant fascia which in turn assists with l9ong flexible muscles and tendons. This is what gives us good flexibility. This allows beautiful movement to be created and prevents injury. 

Next newsletter, I will break down some of the key myofascial slings and relate them to our dance positions and movements.  

Now after sitting at your computer reading this newsletter, so and jump on the floor and stretch like a cat.

Schleip, R., Jager, H., 2012. Interoception: A new correlate for intricate connections between fascial receptors, emotion and self recognition. In: Fascia: The Tensional Network of the Human Body. (Eds: Schleip, Findley, Chaitow, and Huijing), pp. 89-94. Churchill Livingstone. 

Jen Guest  

Dance Physiotherapist 

Pilates Practitioner

World Premiere, Sydney Opera House, 2014

We are thrilled to announce the Proceedings from the remarkable Panpapanpalya 2018 global dance congress held in Adelaide are now published on the Ausdance National website under the duress of the last few years.
https://ausdance.org.au/public…/details/panpapanpalya-2018
Ausdance SA helped facilitate the “Creative Gatherings” project as part of this which was nominated for Best Community Event at the DCP Ruby Awards in 2019.
: Panpapanpalya 2018 featuring dancers from Australian Dance Theatre and ADT Youth Ensemble, Restless Dance Theatre, Felicia Hicks and son, and Conference Organiser Jeff Meiners and Coordinator Julie Orchard.

Seacliff Uniting Church, located at 5 Wheatland Street, Seacliff, has a large and small hall, with adjoining kitchen and toilets available for hire at various times.

– Rate for Large Hall/Kitchen/Toilets $31.50/hour
– Rate for Small Hall/Kitchen/Toilets $21/hour
– Available hours and ‘Conditions of Use’ by enquiry to:
– 8296 1517
– office@seacliffuc.org