Detour
Interconnected Dance Fellowship
Detour is a biennial fellowship program that launched in 2023. To find out more head here.
This opportunity is about supporting an independent dance artist, to mobilise and engage in a sustained program for their personal creative development, in a spirit of reciprocity, with six Australian dance companies: Dance Makers Collective (Darug Country, Western Sydney, NSW), Dancenorth (Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun Country, Townsville, QLD), GUTS (Arrernte Country, Alice Springs, NT), Tasdance (Palawa Country, Launceston, TAS), Tracks (Larrakia Country, Darwin, NT) and STRUT Dance (Nyoongar Country, Perth, WA)
Detour is a major opportunity, investing in two independent dance artists in 2025, to mobilise and engage in a sustained program for their personal creative development, in a spirit of reciprocity. In a self-directed residency, the resident will explore their practice, connect with new landscapes and share with the communities we serve. the companies provide space and relationships (through a Community Connector, an active artist/arts-worker trusted locally) to facilitate their visit.
After an application process, two dance practitioners were invited to spend ten weeks across Australia, in self-directed residencies, to explore their practice, connect with new landscapes and share with the communities we serve.
We are excited to announce that the 2025 Detour fellows are Bella Waru and Feras Shaheen.
Both fellows will undertake two-week residencies with Tasdance and Dance Makers Collective;
The two fellows will undertake two three-week residencies with two of the remaining partner organisations: STRUT Dance, Dancenorth, Tracks and GUTS.
Tracks is very excited that Feras Shaheen will partake of a three week residency with Tracks and the Darwin Community.
Feras is an artist curious in letting his conceptual interests lead him across a variety of mediums. Working with choreography, installation work, film, performance, design, and street dance to communicate his ideas, the core of Feras’ practice is to connect and engage audiences. He seeks to bring activism into his art practice, with outcomes that are accessible and community centred. Holding a Bachelor of Design from Western Sydney University (2014), Feras often subverts traditional relationships between mediums to challenge audiences’ perspectives, specifically to disrupt colonial discourses and reduce western reliance on neutrality and apathy.
Born in Dubai to Palestinian parents (Gaza/Al Lid), and moving to Western Sydney at age 11, Feras engages with his practice as a way to reflect and examine how he views the world, addressing local and global issues. Winner of The Australian Ballet’s Telstra Emerging Choreographer (TEC) in 2021, Feras has performed and exhibited at Carriageworks, Venice Biennale, Pari, Kampnagel, AGNSW, Campbelltown Arts Centre, and Théâtre de la Ville. Recent works include ‘Art Festival’, ‘The Bop’, ongoing collaboration ‘Klapping’, and ‘Forum Q’.
The Rationale: In a spirit of mutuality and reciprocity, five leading Australian dance companies will host an Australian dance artist through an interconnected residency program. By working together, we will provide 15 weeks of paid work for an artist to spend time with us and engage with our communities, with no explicit 'outcome' in mind; to free an artist to develop in the context of our unique environs.
Read about Jen Ma, the inaugural Detour Resident host by Tracks in 2023 here.