2011 Australian Dance Festival
Wrap Up and Thank You!

What an amazing weekend it was! Back at the wonderful Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre, the 2011 Australian Dance Festival was the best yet! The shows were spectacular, workshops were jam packed, the photo booth went crazy with all the dance celebrities, and the level of the competitions this year was out of this world.

Photo: Project Dance Performance,  courtesy of JCPhotography.com.au

Some highlights from the weekend for us were of course the debut performance from Project Dance (Choreographed by Squared Division) - what an amazingly talented bunch of kids! Having Tony Czar and Lil Bigz all the way from USA and the wonderful girls from ReQuest Dance Crew from New Zealand, Timomatic's packed workshop, Skyping Jason Coleman all the way in Singapore, and seeing the schools who came from Tasmania coming together for a big group shot (this is what the Australian Dance Festival is about for us)!

A big thank you goes to everyone who made this weekend the spectacular event it was. We would like to thank all of the amazing instructors who provided us with a weekend of inspiration, all of the performers and choreographers who put in so much effort to bring together an amazing production, the judges who had the difficult task of choosing winners, the dance teachers who brought their students to the festival (we know how much work you put into it!) and all the parents, families and friends.

Thank you to our sponsor Fantastic Delites who provided us with delicious, guilt-free snacks througout the weekend, and our supporters - Dance Around the World, Eclipse Textiles, DanceStar Party, Crossmark and Innovative Production Services, as well as all of the exhibitors and our charity - the Butterfly Foundation.
Behind the scenes there are so many people that make the event a reality, so thank you to our incredibly talented production company - Innovative Production Services, our videographers - Mindfor, the wonderful staff at the State Sports Centre and Gema Catering, all the volunteers who helped over the weekend, our publicist Anna Rizzo from Publissimo, and all of our staff who have worked with us this year.

But of course - a big Thank You to Jason Coleman, our Patron, who helped us so much this year, despite his crazy schedule!

It was a wonderful weekend that has inspired us to make next year bigger and better!

2012 Australian Dance Festival Dates

• Photos of the performances can be viewed and purchased at jcphotography.com.au
  You can purchase the entire set PLUS the video of the performance, on a USB to share with your group for only $330 for group performances (only $130 for DATW Solo Competitor Performances - great for portfolios!).
  
  
• Videos of the shows are up on the Australian Dance Festival YouTube channel >> Check them out here
  
  
• Photos from the Celebrity Booth are up on the Fantastic Snacks Facebook page >> Check them out here
  
  

 Congratulations to the winners of competitions at the 2011 Australian Dance Festival

Australia's Best Dance Crew:

• Brent Street                          - Best Choreography
• All Starz Performing Arts    - Most Technically Excellent
• Theatre & Dance                 - Most Entertaining
• PAWS                                     - Best Costume (sponsored by Eclipse Textiles)
  

Photo: Theatre & Dance, winner:  Most Entertaining, Australia's Best Dance Crew

Dance Around the World Solo Competition:

• Simon Plant (VIC) - winner of the return airfares to LA and 14 day SourceDance Hollywood Tours package

Photo: Simon Plant, Winner of the Dance Around The World Solo Comp

• Brandon Atoui (NSW)    - Style Academy voucher
  
• Daniel Camilleri (VIC)   - Village Performing Arts workshop package
  
• Emily Yuen (NSW)          - Jason Coleman's Ministry of Dance summer school program
  
• Rachel Ward                   - Electric Safari workshop package
  
• Sam Malseed (SA)         - Jason Coleman's Ministry of Dance summer school program

Our signature charity is the Butterfly Foundation. They help Australian's with eating disorders and negative body image.

The Teachers/Parents Workshop was a stimulating and informative session that finished with a discussion around some of the specific issues that some teachers were facing in their schools.  Paula Kotowicz from the Butterfly Foundation facilitated the discussion.  Paula has put together a summary of the points discussed during the workshop, which included strategies on what dance schools can do to address negative body image and eating disorders.  If you would like a copy of the notes, please email us (angela@australiandancefestival.com.au) and we will send you a copy.

If you didn't get a chance to visit them at the festival, please check out their website thebutterflyfoundation.org.au.

The 2011 Australian Dance Festival Merchandise
t-shirts were an absolute sell out - literally!
So we are looking at ordering some more.

If you are interested please contact us with the number of t-shirts you are interested in and the size (they come in extra small, small, medium and large).  Please note that we need to put in a MINIMUM order
of 100 tshirts to be able to price them at $25 each + postage. If we do not get enough demand for them, we will not be able to order them.

Please email us the number of t-shirts you want, and the sizes to:
Email: angela@australiandancefestival.com.au
Phone: 1300 132 152

We love staying in touch with you all on Facebook - finding out what you are up to and keeping you in touch with the latest news from us.  Facebook only allows you to have a maximum of 5,000 friends, and a few weeks ago, we reached this limit of friends on our Facebook. If you have sent a friend request to us, please "like" our fan page here so that we can keep in touch with you and keep you in the loop!

HELP US IMPROVE OUR FACEBOOK INTERACTIONS WITH YOU!
We are currently looking at making improvements to the Facebook page and your help in completing this survey will provide us with the means to do so!
We want to make Facebook a place where all dancers can meet to connect and share the latest in photos, YouTube performances and most importantly chat about your experience at the festival!  Consider it your good deed for the day!
 
The following link will take you straight there: http://utsbusiness.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_brSN6rkyCAShVty