Dance Archives
Bold = open access
AusStage “online resource for researching live performance in Australia and New Zealand. … AusStage is a data set of live performance events with dramatic content covering all of Australia and New Zealand plus many additional International links. … The AusStage database has seven major tables for recording information about the performing arts”: event, contributor, venue, organisation, work, resources, financial.
Blog 2013+ Vicki Van Hout’s dance blog for Form Dance Projects
Brolga: an Australian journal about dance 1994—2017. Brolga published ‘current research and critical thinking about dance including: dance artists … cutting edge and emerging practices … historical events … performances and people … dance and education … research papers about philosophy, composition, criticism, music and costume for dance … reviews of recent dance publications.’
Critical Path: Critical Dialogues 2013+ ‘Critical Path’s publication that provides a space for deeper thinking o choreographic practices. it is a platform for dance artists who work with text as a medium, or use written words to reflect on their practice. And a space for scholars to elaborate on dance from a theoretical perspective. Each issue is themed to reflect critical discourses of the time.” Also see Critical Path reports 2008+
Dancehouse Diary 2012+ ‘a free intermittent publication published by Dancehouse Melbourne Australia. The publication invites an international cross-disciplinary approach with a view to articulating the many and subtle connections between the moving body, the body politic and the body social. It's aim is to activate creative thinking regarding how we choreograph our place in the world.’ Also see Dancehouse Resources
Dance Research Australia ‘Amplifying Australian dance praxis amid its ever present histories, current critical discourses and southern oceanic location’
Dancing Sydney Review Platform 2025+ ‘supports local dance writers and scholars who see dance criticism as an essential part of any healthy dance ecology. In supporting new and emerging writers through editorial support and guidance, we hope to sow some seeds for future quality writings on dance.’ (Sydney)
Dialogues with RealTime 2019 ‘In Response: Dialogues with RealTime was co-curated by Dr Erin Brannigan and the featured artists Branch Nebula, Martin del Amo and Vicki Van Hout. … This audio-visual collection was created to accompany the exhibition.’ University of NSW (Sydney)
National Library of Australia guide to dance resources (ACT)
Oral history Collection 1981+ see partial listing in Dance Talks
Performance Review 2021+ ‘a space for the development of discursive and experimental writing about live art … including dance in the gallery … through partnerships with Gertrude, Melbourne Art Fair and the Keir Choreographic Award, Performance Review expanded its mandate into the presentation of performance and the covering of theatre-based dance, and with it, the prioritisation of new opportunities for emerging Australian writers and artists engaged with this medium.’
Precarious Movements 2024. ‘This freely available, online resource focuses on choreographic work in the context of the museum and addresses how we can better serve and represent the artist in this context. Drawn directly from our research into the field of practice through interviews, consultations and practical case studies, all information is designed specifically to improve conditions for artists working in this field and to assist museums and arts workers with this task. Equally, it is intended as a reference for artists working with museums to provide knowledge and to support their agency and autonomy in such situations.’
Realtime 1994-2023. Website
Realtime Archive1994-2016. Digitised copies of Realtime, National Library of Australia (ACT)
ReelDance Archive ‘contains significant examples of local and international dance on screen work and tracks the development of dance on screen as an art form over the last two decades in Australia and Internationally through the work of more than 200 renowned and emerging artists. … The archive provides resources for teaching, research and artistic development in dance’. UNSW (Sydney)
Oral History interviews with Contemporary Dancers and Choreographers 2019+ ‘This oral history collection comprises four interviews and accompanying photographs of contemporary dancers and choreographers, as part of the project, Dancing Sydney. The interviews discuss the history of dance, particularly contemporary dance, in Australia.’ Interviews conducted by Erin Brannigan with Julie-Anne Long (2019), Martin del Amo (2020), Narelle Benjamin (2020), Dean Walsh (2020), The Fondue Set, Branch Nebula, Patrick Harding-Irmer, Anca Frankenhauser (forthcoming 2026).
Oral History and Sound Collections: Theatre, dance and film, 2016. Martin Portus interviews Stephen Page (2016), Graeme Murphy (2016), Rafael Bonachela (2016), Kate Champion (2016)
University of Melbourne Special Collections
Theatre and Dance Platform “hosts a range of digitised material, including photographs, scenic and costume designs, video recordings, posters and textual material such as programmes, reviews, correspondence and related research, and is easily searchable by key words and standard catalogue terms. … Key collections … Lucy Guerin Inc. and the Australian Dance Theatre. It also includes research resources that have been developed by scholars at the University of Melbourne.” More here & also see Margot Anderson, 2020. Dance Overview of the Australian Performing Arts Collection, Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research , Winter,Vol. 38, No. 2
Margaret Lasica Collection “books, journals and ephemera relating to the pioneering Melbourne dance choreographer and teacher, Margaret Lasica (1926-1993)” and the Modern Dance Ensemble (1967-1981).
Writings on Dance 1985+ ‘a journal of analysis, commentary, theory of the moving body … It is primarily a journal by and for artists. However, it also invites the participation of and contributions from philosophy, Cultural theory, anthropology and other disciplines with a view to exploring intersections between performance practices and contemporary cultural debates. Each volume of Writings on Dance is conceived as a small edited collection.’