Spark’ling
Since 2016
THE VISION: AN ARTS ORGANISATION
FOR, AND DRIVEN BY, YOUNG PEOPLE
Our Story
Spark Youth Dance Company was founded in 2016 by dancer and choreographer Alex Dellaportas - who was aged just 18 at the time.
Inspired by her own experiences choreographing and creating dance works for her peers, she was determined to create a youth dance company that would allow young people to not only find a passion for dance and the arts but also to find a passion for creating and for being part of collaborative dance projects with other like-minded young people
Our Goals
Our overarching goal as an organisation is to explore concepts, history, ideas, themes, issues and personal stories through movement.
Our young people are learning about the world and themselves through dance and then are sharing it with audiences across Australia. At Spark, young people come as they are and are empowered to create and explore and challenged to see and use their unique differences and strengths in their art.
Whilst telling stories on stages across Australia, we focus on:
Mental health and wellbeing
SYDC aims to have a positive impact on the mental health of the young people in our company. We aim to encourage the building of strong friendships and support networks, promote dance and the creative arts as healthy outlets for expression, and most importantly we aim to provide a safe, welcoming space for young people on the Mornington Peninsula to be heard, be recognised as artists and to have the chance to connect with like-minded youth.
Empowering young leaders
Young people are behind the direction of the company. We want to allow young people aged 7-25 to be the driving force behind the company, giving young aspiring artists the chance to be leaders in their chosen fields on our various projects. Young people are put in charge of choreography, costuming, lighting design, orchestra management, marketing, photography, videography and fundraising.
Delivering arts education
We want to connect these young people to resources, funding and mentors to help them gain experience and valuable dance and stagecraft industry skills that will not only encourage them to pursue the arts as a career, but to become inquisitive, thoughtful and creative members of society.
Promoting physical health through dance
Encouraging young people to keep physically active through dance is one of the core reasons we do what we do. We give our young people many opportunities throughout the year to improve their fitness, flexibility, strength and overall stamina as artists presenting work on stage. We promote healthy living through all that we do.
A year with Spark
Each year, we produce a season of brand new dance works involving young people aged 8-25 from all walks of life. These are:
TERM 1
Season of short contemporary dance works choreographed and directed by up and coming choreographers - performed in April during the school holidays with rehearsals every Sunday of Term 1.
TERM 2
Touring a story dance work - this involves taking our entire cast and crew on tour to theatres across Victoria to present a work from our repertoire. Usually, this tour lasts roughly 10 days and all accommodation and catering is covered for cast and crew.
TERM 3
Brand new full-length dance work - in Term 3 we rehearse every Sunday to produce a new story-driven dance work and work with a live orchestra to bring the work to life in the September school holidays at Frankston Arts Centre.