DirtyFeet is seeking applications from choreographers for the Choreographic Lab. The Choreographic Lab provides a safe environment where early professionals can come together to explore their creative practice. The Lab builds relationships between artists, facilitates the development of methodology and skills, and can be the first steps towards the creation of new work.

The winner of the 2012 AICD Houston Ballet Scholarship, Jessica Brown, has her heart set on becoming a soloist in a professional ballet company. If her focus and dedication count for anything, she is on the right track.

Each year Dance Australia asks the country's dance critics nominate their most outstanding dancers for the year. This year we are asking YOU!

The Australian Ballet (AB) has announced that Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev of St Petersberg's Mikhailovsky Theatre will be joining the company for its season opener, Don Quixote. The Russian pair have an international reputation and are particularly acclaimed for their performances in Don Quixote. Osipova and Vasiliev will perform the lead roles of Kitri and Basilio for two special performances in Melbourne on 16 and 18 March.

Jason Coleman's Ministry of Dance in Melbourne celebrated the end of a busy year with a spectacular final performance at the Palms at Crown Casino. Called Lights Camera Action!, the performance moved swiftly through 43 items which paid homage to world of film, and included works by guest choreographers Tannos + Choice and Jason Gilkison.

Three New Zealanders and two Australians shared the gold and silver medals at the Genee International Ballet Competition on Saturday night.

Following a week of intense competition, all 71 competitors in this year's Royal Academy of Dance Genee International Ballet Competition lined up on the stage of St James Theatre in Wellington, NZ, at 5pm today to learn which of them had made it into the finals.

Hungarian-born contemporary dancer, Fanni Varga, has been awarded a scholarship from the Tanja Liedtke Foundation enabling her to travel to Adelaide and work with Australian Dance Theatre on internship, under the mentorship of Artistic Director Garry Stewart.

It is the end of an era. Julie Dyson, National Director of Ausdance, will retire from this position at the end of 2012, after over 35 years of service to the organisation. Dance Australia caught up with Dyson shortly after her official farewell in late November.

As regular visitors to this website will know, we are giving away two family passes to Blaze, a new dance show that will be hitting the Sydney Opera House this January, having performed in London, Paris, Berlin and Bangkok. Nina Levy spoke to Blaze's producer, Eric Holman, to find out more about the production.

The Royal Academy of Dance's 2012 Genee International Ballet competition is underway in Wellington, New Zealand. The competition will be staged in Wellington's St James Theatre, one of New Zealand's finest Edwardian Theatres.

For those who want a full ballet and dance experience that is not available on local stage, DVDs are still one of the best ways to discover the fantastic variety on offer all over the world. Production values have improved enormously, with the camera often taking you in closer than possible at a live performance, and many DVDs have added features such as interviews. Caitlyn Lehmann offers her 10 favourites for you to sample - or to treat someone with for Christmas!

Looking for a secondment opportunity? Australian Dance Theatre is currently selecting students for its 2013 Secondment Week. Graduating tertiary dance students from Australia and around the world are invited to apply. This is an opportunity to join an elite professional dance ensemble for a one-week intensive training experience.

With the announcement of his first season as artistic director of the Queensland Ballet (QB), Li Cunxin has made his position clear. His company will be a classical ballet company, pure and simple. Modern-day adaptations of period works or post-punk, way-out contemporary will be handled with extreme caution. His 2013 program is all about the success of tradition.

With 49 actors, singers, dancers and circus performers, the cast for the new musical theatre production of King Kong, which will open 15 June 2013 in Melbourne, is definitely Kong-sized.

Tapakoz will be holding two conferences in January for teachers to brush up on their skills. Each conference will be a three day event during which the founder, director and choreographer, Christine Denny, will work though the entire Tapakoz Syllabus. These seminars are considered a must for those delivering the syllabus and for teachers preparing students for exams during 2013.