Elizabeth Cameron Dalman, currently Director of Mirramu Creative Arts Centre and Artistic Director of Mirramu Dance Company, founded Australia’s iconic contemporary dance company, Australian Dance Theatre and was its Artistic Director from 1965 - 1975.

Elizabeth was awarded an OAM for her contribution to contemporary dance in Australia. Included among her many other awards are an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship, an ACT Creative Arts Fellowship and several Canberra Critics Circle Awards. In 2015 she was inducted into the Australian Dance Hall of Fame and awarded the Canberra Times Artist of the Year.

Elizabeth was Head of the Dance Department at the University of Western Sydney from 2004 – end 2006. She has taught at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan where she has a long association with the Taiwanese dance community, also appearing annually in the Tsai Jui Yueh International Dance Festivals. She has also been a guest teacher at L’Ecole des Sables in Senegal and at Tans Atelier Wien, Austria.

Elizabeth’s career in dance spans more than six decades and she continues to explore new avenues in her work. In 2016 Elizabeth joined Teaċ Daṁsa as an actor/dancer in Michael Keegan Dolan’s Swan Lake/Loch na hEala. This award-winning production has been touring the world for four years.

In 2018 - 2019 Elizabeth worked with Director, Kenneth Spiteri, on a VR film project, Crone, and is currently working with Jacqui Carroll on a new solo work involving masks. She has recently received a Homefront grant from artsACT to research Dance-in-Nature: Preparing a book, video-tutorial and workshop.

During Covid; In my hibernation my creativity turned to writing. I spent hours happily at my computer with my writing, which sometimes feels like choreography. The results of these writing hours are some rough chapters recounting special experiences of my life, and in particular, my life here at Mirramu. This is an ongoing project which perhaps one day will evolve into a book.

As well, I have been working subliminally on two solo projects. The first is Crone which I developed with Kenneth Spiteri during 2018 and 2019. I am taking the ideas and choreographed sections that we created and were shot for a VR dance film, as raw material for a solo theatre production. The other project is a new solo program directed by Jacqui Carroll. Here I use masks to create seven different women in various different times and different circumstances. This project is an enormous challenge, but it is opening up a whole new world of performance for me. As soon as the warmer weather comes and the days get longer, I will be working hard on these two works.

This is the second interview on Delving into Dance, from the amazing Elizabeth Cameron Dalman. You can find the other episode here. You can find a written transcript of this episode here.

INTERVIEW AND TEXT BY LIZ LEA

DELVING INTO DANCE IS SUPPORTED BY THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT THROUGH CREATIVE VICTORIA AND THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL, ITS ARTS FUNDING AND ADVISORY BODY. IF YOU ENJOY DELVING INTO DANCE PLEASE CONSIDER LEAVING A CONTRIBUTION. CONTRIBUTE HERE.

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