About
About Tracks
Tracks Dance Company is located in Garamilla (Darwin) on Gulumerrdjin (Larrakia) Country in the NT and produces original and contemporary dance works that celebrate the place and the people who call the Northern Territory home. A multi-awarded centre of excellence, Tracks is a hub of expertise in community dance built on an extended history of trusted community collaboration. Tracks is an innovator, making radically local dance and developing Australian dance that values and utilises a diversity of dance practice.
Tracks Dance Company celebrates the Northern Territory of Australia through: People - their stories, truths and diverse heritage; Place - Darwin with the deserts of Central Australia to the south, and the tropics of South East Asia to the north; Spirit - the vitality of a living culture enriched by traditional and contemporary life.
Bringing people together and adding value to their lives, Tracks offers audiences an opportunity to gain a personal insight into their local world, challenging and exposing them to new experiences – much like the Territory itself.
Enter one of our spectacular outdoor theatres; fashioned from WWII ruins, the canopies of giant rain-trees, rooftop car parks, or a basketball court in a remote desert community. See dancers drawn from the unique cultural mix of people who call the Territory home; from head-spinning breakers and funky contemporary movers to showgirl grannies and ochre painted elders. Sometimes a performance may reflect one central focus such as youth, Indigenous, seniors, or diverse cultures, while at other times Tracks explores the way that diversity sits side by side, and walks hand in hand in our world.
Tracks prides itself on working with local artists and investing in the development and employment of the local arts industry through a broad range of opportunities including choreographic development programs, studio residencies and showings, training, mentoring, volunteerism, community performances and signature dance productions.
Collaborative Artistic Leadership
David McMicken AM and Tim Newth AM have been Artistic Co Dirertors of Tracks for over three decades, they have driven an artistic collaborative aproach through all aspects of the company. Upon Tim's retirement in 2023, the company moved into a new collaborative artistic leadership model with David McMicken as Artistic Director and Jess Devereux as Associate Artistic Director. Jess is a long-term Tracks choreographer, dancer, and collaborator.
1988-2023
In 1988 two community dance projects - Dance On Darwin, and a tour to the remote community of Lajamanu, brought together the creative skills of Tim Newth - a freelance visual artist and Sarah Calver - the Community Dance Development Officer at Brown's Mart Community Arts, and previous dancer with Feats Unlimited dance company. When David McMicken stepped off the plane from Melbourne at Darwin airport in 1991 he was overwhelmed by the sense of having arrived ‘home’ and he was soon working in collaboration with Tim and Sarah. Now with the addition of a new voice, the journey toward a uniquely Northern Territorian performing arts company continued.
In 1992 David took on the role of Community Dance Officer at Brown’s Mart Community Arts, a role he shared with Sarah, and naturally, with Darwin’s cultural makeup, many dance projects and collaborations with local cultural groups followed. In 1993 the community dance program was renamed to Tracks Dance Collective, with five founding members: Sarah Calver, David McMicken, Tim Newth, Berenice Franklin, and Lisa Campbell, (later becoming Tracks Dance Company).
Tracks produced its first Iconic Work 4WD Sweat Dust and Romance in 1997; an extraordinary full-length dance performance drawing together professional and community dancers in a show of skill, wit and diversity that celebrated what it was to be local. In 1998, the company was moved from Brown’s Mart Community Arts and in 1999, we incorporated as Tracks Inc., starting our journey as an independent legal organisation.
A great strength of Tracks has been the artistic talent and collective skills of the Artistic Co-Directors, Tim Newth AM and David McMicken AM, who consistently produced excellent work for almost three decades. They approached the making of their work through a multi-arts lens, backing up their skills in dance, visual arts and design, drama, music, and literature. They use performance to inspire a wide range of Territorians of diverse cultural backgrounds: from youth through to the elderly, city to remote community.
David and Tim's extraordinary ability to work collaboratively was honed since the early 1990's. This is a core value of their creative process. Tim retired from Tracks in mid-2023 but has continued to work on special projects.
Awards
Tracks produce exceptional performances of a high artistic standard and is nationally recognised as an innovative developer of a unique Australian dance idiom.
- Nominated 2000 Northern Territory Human Rights Awards for work with refugees and migrants, Sticks ‘n’ Stones project.
- Awarded 2004 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award
- Shortlisted 2007 Australian Dance Awards Services to Dance - David McMicken and Tim Newth
- Winner 2009 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth or Community Dance. Struck
- Winner 2009 Australian Business Arts Foundation Giving Award: South Australia Northern Territory - Milpirri
- Shortlisted 2011 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth or Community Dance. The Cook, The Queen and the Kelly
- Winner 2013 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth or Community Dance. Eight to Eighty - the Architecture of Age
- 2014 David McMicken and Tim Newth made Members (AM) in the general division of the Order of Australia.
- Shortlisted 2014 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth or Community Dance. Zombies in the Banyan Tree.
- Winner 2015 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Community Dance. Milpirri - Jardawanpa
- Shortlisted 2017 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Community Dance. Landed
- Shortlisted 2017 Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance. Milpirri - Kirdiji
- 2017 Finalist, Australian of the Year - Northern Territory. David McMicken and Tim Newth
- Winner 2018 Australian Dance Award, Outstanding Achievement in Community Dance. Man Made
- Winner 2019 Australian Dance Award, Outstanding Achievement in Community Dance. In Your Blood
- Winner 2021 Best Experimental Film, Fist full of Films for Homebodies
Our Partners
Tracks Dance Company wishes to acknowledge and thank the following Sponsors for their commitment and generosity. Their support enables us to produce exceptional performances built on an extended history of trusted community collaborations. Our performances celebrate an important part of Australian culture – the frontier of the Northern Territory.
