Cultural Residencies
At the heart of all NAISDA learning is the cultural residency program.
For more than 30 years NAISDA Dance College has been building long lasting links with traditional communities. It is through these links that NAISDA has been able to contribute so greatly and uniquely to the development of contemporary indigenous dance throughout Australia.
NAISDA residencies deliver a multi-layered three-fold cultural immersion program.
1. College Residency I
Between four and six traditional tutors leave their home communities early each year to live on campus at NAISDA Dance College on the NSW Central Coast for between two and four weeks. During that time, NAISDA students immerse in all aspects of traditional dance and lifestyles, with a learning focus ranging from dance, song and cultural understanding to traditional prop and costume-making.
When the traditional tutors return home, NAISDA’s own tutors are responsible for rehearsing the dances throughout the year. This also greatly influences developing artists’ introduction to choreography and their own individual dance styles.
2. Traditional Residency
Toward the end of the year, NAISDA’s students return the visit in the traditional tutors’ own homelands. These residencies run from 10 days to three weeks, providing NAISDA’s young developing artists with a transforming experience.
The developing artists live in the community with their hosts, gaining in-depth experience of traditional life. They are accepted into the community, form bonds that last a lifetime and are immersed in a unique cultural experience that has a profound emotional and spiritual effect on them.
These field trips are life changing experiences that leave participants with a true sense of themselves and their culture. To dance on the land where the dances were created and passed down creates the essential close connection that grounds a developing artist’s cultural dance understanding and technique.
3. College Residency II
The final visit for the year is when the traditional tutors return to the college once more to teach and take part in NAISDA’s annual end of year show. This residency focuses on the performance and costume aspect of the dance and its performance in a contemporary context while remaining true to its traditional form. This is when artists and audiences start to understand the value of the cultural residency program.
Traditional TSI dances are created for performance and so there is a natural transition process that never fails to excite audiences.
But in traditional Aboriginal dance, the relationship is between the dancers and the musicians. To transfer this to a stage with an audience involves a delicate balance. It is the job of the director to work with the traditional tutors and developing artists to retain the integrity of the form while also entertaining a contemporary audience, which is the essence of this program.