Young dancers exchange ideas

A group of talented young dancers from Scotland are off on a two-week trip to Australia, where they will take part in workshops and perform their own piece. YDance – an organisation set up to encourage youth dance in Scotland – has developed the programme with Australia’s QL2 Dance, to the benefit of 13 dancers from National Youth Dance Company of Scotland (NYDCS).

‘Participating in exchange programmes like this provides the NYDCS dancers a key opportunity to expand their developing skill set in dance and performance, and displays Scotland as a strong leader in youth dance on an international stage,’ said YDance artistic director Anna Kenrick.

For the first five days young dancers from both NYDCS and Australia’s Quantum Leap will work to develop a new contemporary piece, under the guidance of Kenrick and QL2’s artistic director Ruth Osborne. At the end of the trip the piece will be performed as part of a triple bill titled Ten Thousand Miles at Q Theatre in Queanbeyan. The trip’s origins go back to 2014 when Quantum Leap took part in the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival in Glasgow.

‘We are very excited about working with this national company, and seeing how the next cohort of Australian and Scottish dancers work together,’ commented Osborne, who added that she is excited to see the piece performed in a special space such as Q Theatre.

Once back in the UK NYDCS take Kenrick’s piece Maelstrom on a UK tour. NYDCS’s trip to Australia began on 5 April.

ydance.org