The Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company existed in Brisbane from 1971 until approximately 1980. About two years ago, I decided to start casually researching the company in my spare time. There is still much to learn, but I thought I’d share some of my findings.
As an artist, I believe it is important to know about work created before your time – especially in your hometown – not just so you don’t look like an idiot when, say for example, you name a new work ‘Three Women’ (as made in the past), but also to identify any lineage (in the form of ideas, movement, motivation) passed down, as well as to have an understanding about where your own work sits in context to the work made in the past.
Unfortunately, there is little documented about the Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company. If you ask any tertiary dance student in Brisbane, (if they have listened to dance history 101), they should be able to recount the history of the Queensland Ballet, DanceNorth, and Expressions. However, sadly many know of The Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company. However, that might be a fair call because if you try Googling it, there’s not much that there – maybe just this post!
In a similar way to how it frustrates me that we’ve lost so many old buildings in Brisbane, it also frustrates me that there’s limited research/ information documented about this company. This has led me to want to know more about its work; its members, and their experiences.
For me, what makes the company particularly interesting is the cultural and political landscape in which the company existed. A particularly conservative time in Queensland, I wondered how the company’s works were received by audiences, and I was particularly interested to know how they were supported financially.
One thing I was able to find was an article in Woman’s Day. Yes, that’s right, Woman’s Day! And with a double-page spread on a contemporary dance company!
I found this documentary:
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2011/08/08/3288475.htm
At 26:45 minutes into the story, the report speaks of Utah’s philanthropic endeavours, and says that: “Utah financed grants totaling $ 1.5 million that year” and that they “Financed grants totaling $50,000 to the Australia Opera Company, to which the Utah mining company itself added another $200,000.” Furthermore, in the ABC Four Corners documentary, Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, faces pointed questions from reporter Paul Lyneham about his ownership of coal shares. Lyneham also provokes a fierce response from the mining company, Utah Development Corporation, by questioning its relationship with the Queensland government.
This article from 1976 (attached) features a photo of the Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company and mentions that their support through the Utah mining company’s Utah Foundation was set up in 1975 – just like in the documentary!
(from http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/55477253)
The connection between the ABC Four Corners story and the article (below) not only gives insight into how the company was funded but also to the political landscape of the time.
Seeing a contemporary dance story in Woman’s Day (probably between recipe pages for chicken Kiev and adverts for sun tanning oils), I quickly realised this ‘story’ was clearly also an advertisement for Utah – in their ‘feel-good” advertising propaganda attempts (mentioned earlier in the Four Corners program).
Finally, in context to current dance in Queensland, as I’ve started to contact members and begin to research the company. In doing so, I have learned that the company had an excellent reputation for making innovative dance work and had some very high-profile guest choreographers create work on the company. It seemed there was a different resident choreographer per year.
Graeme Watson was the company choreographer in 1974. When I asked him about how the work of the company was received given conservative Brisbane in 1974 (think even pre-punk times), I was surprised to learn that it was very well received. He attributed this to the possibility that audiences were hungry to see dance, partially because they had little to compare it to, but mostly because the company was making some edgy work on par with other leading dance companies interstate.
For as long as I can remember, Queensland has had difficulty proving itself on par with dance in other states. Yes, maybe there was some average dance work made in the 1980s and 1990s. But I don’t think this is the case anymore and in fact that the likes of Expressions Dance Co and Dance North are being so well received and making such successful work. It frustrates me that it is still such a battle for Queensland dance makers in many ways.
I can confidently say that Qld Modern & Contemporary Dance Company was a leader in dance in Brisbane and Queensland in the 1970s, making innovative work with a strong audience base that toured internationally and regionally. What I have discovered so far about the Queensland Modern and Contemporary Dance Company has been very affirming – learning that Queensland dance had a very solid and reputable history and that Queensland was in fact a leader in innovative dance in previous years.