Emerging Indigenous dancers to join Wilin Spring Intensive

Seven talented young Aboriginal dancers from around the country will take part in the Wilin Spring Intensive for Indigenous contemporary dance at the Victorian College of Arts this week (17-21 September). The successful applicants include dancers from Reservoir, Northcote and Thornbury, as well as dancers from Mooroopna, Weipa and Lockhart River. They will spend five days working with some of Australia's most dynamic dance professionals led by Kaurna-Narangga choreographer, theatre-maker and puppeteer Jacob Boehme, who is also the Artistic Director of Idja Dance Theatre. The Wilin Spring Intensive is delivered by The Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. It will contribute to the creation of a major Indigenous contemporary dance work, to premiere in 2014. Head of the Wilin Centre, Deborah Cheetham, said the Wilin Spring Intensive plays help identify and support young Indigenous artists to develop their full potential. "The Spring Intensive will help develop the profile of indigenous dance in Victoria as we support the creation of a new work by Idja Artistic Director Jacob Boehme," Ms Cheetham said.