Categories: News

Australian Dance Awards Winners 2014

Returning to the Opera House for the first time in 8 years, the Australian Dance Awards were held at the Joan Sutherland Theatre over the weekend, honouring the country’s finest dancers in a gala ceremony hosted by Frances Rings and Kip Gamblin.

L-R Kip Gamblin, Ghenoa Gela and Frances Rings during the audience participation at Australian Dance Awards, 2014. Image by Pia Moore

The annual awards event features 11 categories of achievement covering dance artists, educators and administrators was attended by the who’s who of Australian Dance and also showcased diversity of dance with performances ranging from Team9Lives parkour to The Australian Ballet’s excerpt from Cinderella and almost everything in between – including a beautiful, silent Auslan inspired performance piece and some excellent audience participation! (2000 people spontaneously dancing to Michael Jackson with special white gloves to boot!)

The Awards have been running in their current format since 1997 and have become the peak event on the dance industry calendar. In recent years the Awards toured Australia, with gala ceremonies held in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra.

The Awards were judged by a panel of dance professionals representing many different sectors of the industry from all over Australia, following an open public nominations process.

2014 Australian Dance Award Winners

SERVICES TO DANCE

Annie Greig [Artistic Director, Tasdance]

SERVICES TO DANCE EDUCATION

Janet Karin OAM [Kinetic Educator, The Australian Ballet School; President, IADMS]

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN YOUTH OR COMMUNITY DANCE

Buzz Dance Theatre for Look the Other Way WA

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHOREOGRAPHY

Stephanie Lake for Aorta [Chunky Move] VIC

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A COMPANY

The Australian Ballet, for Cinderella VIC

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN INDEPENDENT DANCE

Dalisa Pigram for Gudirr Gudirr WA

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE DANCER

Leanne Stojmenov for Cinderella [The Australian Ballet] VIC

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE DANCER

James Vu Anh Pham for Aorta [Chunky Move] VIC

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMMERCIAL DANCE OR MUSICAL THEATRE

Red Hot Rhythm for Rhythm Junkies

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE ON FILM/NEW MEDIA

Sue Healey for On View NSW

Erin James

Erin James is AussieTheatre.com's former Editor in Chief and a performer on both stage and screen. Credits include My Fair Lady, South Pacific and The King and I (Opera Australia), Love Never Dies and Cats (Really Useful Group), Blood Brothers (Enda Markey Presents), A Place To Call Home (Foxtel/Channel 7) and the feature film The Little Death (written and directed by Josh Lawson).