NAISDA celebrates 40 years

2016 will see NAISDA celebrate its 40th anniversary and the celebrations will kick off with a US tour, which will begin at the 28th Annual International Conference and Festival of Blacks in Dance this January.

Four delegates from NAISDA will travel to Denver and Castle Rock, California, the University of Virginia, UArts Philadelphia and New York, as part of a cultural exchange and teaching arrangement. The delegates include NAISDA alumni Thomas ES Kelly, Taree Sansbury and Hans Ahwang, as well as artistic director emeritus and founder of NAISDA, Carole Y Johnson.  They will share the showcase Australian indigenous contemporary dance and culture, and share NAISDA’s style of Australian indigenous contemporary dance.

“Today NAISDA Dance boasts more than 100 independent professional dance artists creating, performing and touring dance throughout Australia and abroad,” says Johnson. “The College is also a catalyst and stimulus for the preservation of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance. We are honoured to represent NAISDA and the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance community as part of the Conference, which will host the broadest gathering of Black Dance professionals in the US and internationally from January 20 to 24 this year.”