Expressions Dance Company is an Australian contemporary dance

Contemporary dance

Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...

 company

Dance company

A dance troupe or dance company is a group of dancers and associated personnel who work together to perform dances as a spectacle or entertainment.-Members:*Artistic Director*Choreographers*Dancers*Board of Directors*Education administrator...

 based in the The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts

Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts

The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, Queensland provides a 300-seat performance space, art gallery, artist studios, screening room and workshops with theatre rehearsal spaces for music, dance and circus. Opened in 2001 it is named after Judith Wright, who...

, in Fortitude Valley. It was founded in 1984 by Maggi Sietsma

Maggi Sietsma

Maggi Sietsma AM is the founding artistic director of the multiple-award winning Brisbane contemporary dance company, Expressions Dance Company, and regarded as one of Australia's leading choreographers...

, Artistic Director

Artistic director

An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...

 and Abel Valls, General Manager

General manager

General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...

 (and composer for many works). Expressions has experienced 30% reductions in funding by the Arts Queensland, subsequently Sietsma and Valls announced their intention to finish and Natalie Weir

Natalie Weir

Natalie Weir is an Australian choreographer, currently Artistic Director for the Expressions Dance Company in Australia.-Education and career:...

 took over as Artistic Director in January 2009.

The company has danced the work of a number of choreographers, including, in 1985, Natalie Weir, Rosetta Cook and Graeme Watson; and in later years Jonathan Taylor

Jonathan Taylor

Jonathan F Taylor CBE is the former Chair of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Board of Governors, Chairman of the Booker Prize Foundation, the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission and Chair of the Trustees of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.-References:...

, Margaret Wilson

Margaret Wilson

Dame Margaret Wilson DCNZM is a New Zealand academic and former politician. She was Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives during the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand. She is a member of the Labour Party.-Early life:...

, Guy Detot, John Nobbs, Jacqui Carroll, Garry Stewart

Garry Stewart

Garry Stewart has been the artistic director of the Australian Dance Theatre since 1999, following Meryl Tankard.Stewart studied at the Sydney City Ballet Academy and the Australian Ballet School...

, Brian Lucas, Sue Peacock and Don Asker.

The company has toured extensively, including: America, China, Germany, Switzerland, Macau, Korea, Singapore, Israel, New Caledonia, Austria, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and Great Britain; and undertakes significant school and community dance education

Dance education

Dance Education is a theory of education which heavily incorporates dance, and other forms of artful movement, into the curriculum.Dance education may include the study of formalised dance disciplines:*Classical Ballet*Jazz Dance*Tap Dance*Ballroom Dancing...

 activities. Expressions Dance company has performed internationally

Broader impact

Expressions Dance Company has employed many people within Australia's cultural industry. These include critically acclaimed dancers, choreographers, designers and dramaturgs:

• Drama Consultant Jennifer Flowers — directing credits include Sydney Theatre Company
  Sydney Theatre Company
  The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
  
   including as Associate Director to Cate Blanchett
  Cate Blanchett
  Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...
  
  , Queensland Theatre Company
  Queensland Theatre Company
  The Queensland Theatre Company was established in 1970 as the Royal Queensland Theatre Company. The Company is the state's flagship professional theatre company, headed up by multi-award winning playwright and director Wesley Enoch...
  
  , Grin and Tonic Theatre Company, Harvest Rain
• Costume Designer Deslye Kruck - a director, actor and costume designer, also lectured Drama and Speech at the Queensland University of Technology
  Queensland University of Technology
  Queensland University of Technology is an Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, it has 40,000 students, including 6,000 international students, over 4,000 staff members, and an annual budget of more than A$750 million.QUT is marketed as "A...
  
  
• Choreographer Natalie Weir — choreographed for the Hong Kong Ballet
  Hong Kong Ballet
  The Hong Kong Ballet is Hong Kong's leading professional ballet company, and also the famous group for Classical Ballet, since it founded in 1979....
  
  , Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet
  West Australian Ballet
  The West Australian Ballet is the premier ballet dance company of Western Australia and is based in Perth at His Majesty's Theatre, Western Australia. The company was founded in 1952 by Madame Kira Bousloff and is one of the oldest ballet companies in Australia. Artistic directors have included...
  
  , Queensland Ballet
  Queensland Ballet
  The Queensland Ballet, founded in 1960 by Charles Lisner OBE, is the premier ballet company of Queensland, Australia, and is based in Brisbane.- About Queensland Ballet :...
  
  , Australian Dance Theatre, Dancenorth and Tasdance and to return to Expressions from January 2009.

Awards

• 1996 – Awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award
  Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards
  The Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards honour Sidney Myer a Jewish Australian businessman and philanthropist who established what is now the Myer Foundation. These awards seek to enhance the status of the performing arts in Australia and recognise outstanding achievement in drama, comedy, dance,...
  
   for outstanding achievement in the performing arts
• 2007 – Awarded two Drover Awards: Tour Management Excellence and Special Panel Award for Innovation

Works

Works performed by Expressions Dance Company include:

• Snow Drops, (1985), choreographer: Maggi Sietsma at the national conference of the Australian Society for Education in the Arts
• Alone Together, (1995), choreographer: Maggi Sietsma
• Decadances (1999)
  • Jigsaw, choreographer: Natalie Weir
  • Alone Together
• Vanities Crossing, (1999), choreographer: Maggi Sietsma
• Virtually Richard3, (2000), choreographer: Maggi Sietsma
• Rites of Spring, (2002), choreographer: Maggi Sietsma
• Flight!, (2003), choreographer: Maggi Sietsma
• The 5th Door, (2004), choreographer: Maggi Sietsma
• On Thin Ice, (2008), choreographer: Maggi Sietsma
• Memory
  • Jigsaw (previously performed in 1999)
  • Fragments of Memory, (2007), choreographer: Cheng Tsung-Lung formerly a dancer with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre