QPAC

We All Dance

Tue 25 Oct 2022

We All Dance is the largest community engagement project QPAC has undertaken as part of the QPAC International Series.

We All Dance was about creating and sharing stories through the language of dance and movement. Our bodies and the way we carry and use them in our everyday lives projects our history, experiences and ideas and allows us to interact with other people and the world in unique and individual ways.

From March to July 2017, community participants from Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Caboolture and Cairns worked with local teaching artists and two teaching artists from The Royal Ballet, David Pickering and Liz Foster.

We All Dance explored dance and movement from hip hop to ballet, and incorporated opportunities for self-expression, skill development and performance. The program also delivered professional development for the teaching artists and partner community organisations.

We All Dance culminated in two public performances. One at QPAC (Brisbane) featuring dancers from The Royal Ballet alongside community participants, and another performance in Cairns which took place before The Royal Ballet’s Cairns Gala Performance.

Community Partners 

We All Dance contributed to the health and well-being of communities. Community organisations helping to make the We All Dance program accessible across the selected communities included: Micah Projects, MDA, Access Arts, Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts, InsideOutside Theatre Company, yourtown, Ipswich Civic Centre, QUT, Biddigal Performing Arts, ARC Disability Services, PCYC Cairns, Centacare, Trinity Bay High School, 3M Prideon participants.

Teaching Artists 

Teaching Artists played a vital role in the design and delivery of We All Dance. They provided the creative and educational leadership within local workshops, guiding and supporting participants to create, learn, and dance.  

The Teaching Artists collaborating on We All Dance were: Nerida Matthaei, Pauline Lampton, Sandi Woo, Sammie Williams, Yenenesh Nigusse, Sally Wicks, Timothy Brown, Veronica Vivian, Velvet Eldred, Rebecca Youdell, Rita Pryce, Charlie Mallie, Shellie Bin-Garape, Kirstie Beatson and Kate Ryan.

The Royal Ballet Teaching Artists

David Pickering - Education Administrator

He trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined the Company in 1990, promoted to First Artist in 1994 and Soloist in 1999. He retired from dancing in 2014. He was appointed Education Administrator in 2008 and in 2013 completed a course in Ballet Education Practice at the Royal Opera House.

As Education Administrator for the Company, Pickering is involved with several projects organised by the Learning and Participation department at the Royal Opera House, including Insights, such as The Royal Ballet in Rehearsal, and Schools’ Matinee performances.

Elizabeth Foster - Dance Practitioner and Lecturer

Foster holds an MA in Dance/Movement Psychotherapy and is a lecturer in Dance Movement Studies at the College of Health and Social Care at the University of Derby. Foster delivers modules in Dance, Diversity and Inclusion, Physicality and Technique and Creative Expressive Therapy.

Foster’s work includes education and choreographic project work with the Royal Opera House, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Buxton Opera House and the Royal Ballet School. 

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