Residency program could attract more men into dance

A new dance residency program at UNSW could help enhance practice-led scholarship and research in the creative arts – and perhaps also encourage more men to enter this heavily female-dominated field. Erin Brannigan, lecturer in dance in UNSW’s School of English, Media and Performing Arts, believes the 2009 dance residency will help raise the research and coursework profiles of dance – and the creative and performing arts generally – within academic circles. Brannigan, who joined the academic ranks this year after completing a PhD in dance and film, says the direct exposure of students to accomplished performers that the residency program allows is invaluable as a teaching tool. “Before we introduced the residency program, there was no immediate connection between learning and creative practice,” she says. “We depended on video resources, which lacked the colour and immediacy of live performers. The videos were often outdated – it can take a while to produce and distribute them – and in many cases weren’t even local. The program allows students to learn direct from practitioners about the work and how it is created.” The program serves those studying towards the BA (dance major)/BEd combined degree, leading to high school teaching careers, as well as performance and arts administration. The program is well-timed, with Excellence for Research in Australia including practice-led research in its submission guidelines for the humanities and creative arts discipline cluster – a reform that the arts industry and academics in the creative and performing arts have welcomed. Academics’ work in this area can potentially be recognised as contributing to their university’s research profile – even if the details of how it will be measured and peer-reviewed remain hazy. The first resident under the program – Anton, a former dancer with the Australian Dance Theatre who goes by his first name only – took dance classes with students in the mornings before their lectures. He has been followed by Adam Linder, an exciting new choreographer based in Europe, who presented his work in the composition and analysis course – normally, students have to be satisfied with reading about US and European practice in these areas. Linder shares the second residency with new media artist Jordana Maisie, who works in photography, video and sound. The new media introduces a highly interactive element to performances – “very sophisticated technological systems to track movement, and trigger sound and image”, explains Brannigan. The dance program is heavily female-dominated – just one of its current 100 students is male. Brannigan says this is to some extent a self-reinforcing problem. “Because there are so few male dancers, they are in high demand as performers, and are correspondingly less inclined to pursue academic studies and teaching careers at either the secondary or tertiary level. So there are very few male role models for today’s students, which means fewer males are drawn towards a dancing career. “We’re hoping that male residents like Anton and Adam can help reverse this vicious cycle,” she says.