In 2022 the NSW Northern Rivers region experienced its biggest flood event in recorded history. Lives and livelihoods, studios and homes were lost and many people experienced trauma and were displaced as a result.

As a direct response to this, Arts Northern Rivers undertook three streams of focus to support the region’s activation, recovery and renewal. These project streams arose from the outcomes of the Creative Industries Recovery Forum where Public Art, First Nations Arts, and Dance/Physical Theatre were identified as areas of focus.

At the Creative Industries Recovery Forum, local dance maker and producer, Philip Channells led the discussions around dance. Philip works across art forms including dance/theatre, film, performance installation, community art projects, site-specific work and artist residencies with collaborators who value, challenge, redefine and inform our different perspectives of contemporary life.

Philip was contracted by Arts Northern Rivers (ANR) to lead the Dance Sector Uplift project, which was designed to reactivate dance, physical theatre and experimental performance across the region.

In consultation with local artists, ANR was committed to stimulating the region with a revitalisation of the dance sector by supporting activities which nourish and promote the region as a creative, thriving and growing centre of diverse embodied practice.

“Approaching the Dance Sector Uplift (DSU) research project through a broad lens of diversity and inclusion enabled conversations amongst the sector, acknowledging the diverse cultural influences, creative practices and lived experiences of practising artists. This conversational approach led us to realise the need for various stages of research to ensure a broad set of important voices were caught in the process.” Philip Channells

This project was informed by a multiplicity of consultation methodologies with members of the Northern Rivers performing arts sector, including local Bundjalung, Yaegl and Gumbaynggirr leaders, knowledge keepers of dance, dance makers and performers and global Indigenous and CALD artists living in the region.

Philip conducted a survey for ANR inviting all artists working across an embodied practice to contribute to the research and design process for the reactivation of dance. The results of these surveys and consultations results were analysed and complied into a full report by research agency Patternmakers in order to inform the direction and outcomes of the project. The full report is available to download here. This can be downloaded and used as a resource for all those in the dance sector.

The findings from the report were presented as a webinar to all the participants from the local dance sector, it was a valuable and interactive way to share this research with the sector. You can also listen to it below.

In his role as Creative Director / Producer of Dance Integrated Australia, Philip strives to lead some of the Long Term recommendations suggested in the report including:

• founding a flagship dance festival
• expanding capacities for dance residencies
• development and retention of producing skills.

Main image: Shane Rozario for The Draw IN by Geraldine Balcazar