Opportunities and Responding

Since Cyclone Tracy (1974), dance in Darwin has always had a two-way focus: professional dance opportunities and responding to community needs.

Maggi Phillips

In 1974 a professional dance practitioner, Maggi Phillips moved to Darwin, because her parents had moved there. She gave birth to Anna and was fortunate to be absent for Cyclone Tracey. In 1975 post cyclone Darwin, despite all former intentions to devote herself to motherhood, became involved in teaching jazz as after-school activities for the youngsters around. Maggi involved herself in dance teaching at the YWCA and Brown’s Mart Community Arts. This became the basis of Maggi’s Mob and eventuated into Darwin Dance Mob. From here she created a professional and amateur dance culture that brought many prime Australian dance artists to Darwin to choreograph and perform, such as: Margaret Walker, Andris Topp, Cherryl Stock, Bob Thorneycroft, and Peter Matthews. Works were created and toured through the Arts Council of the Northern Territory.

FEATS Unlimited

In 1984 Maggi formed FEATS Unlimited. Established as a Dance-in-education company, FEATS joined Tasdance (Tasmania) as a company that employed professional dancers, to explore the multiple realms of education, performance, and choreographic development. FEATS toured schools and communities throughout the Northern Territory. Maggi was a trailblazer in her work that responded to the needs of her community. This legacy continued through the Dance Programme at Brown’s Mart and into Tracks.

Sarah Calver

Sarah was a 1984 graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. She came to Darwin to dance under the direction of Maggi Phillips and joined FEATS Unlimited. She remained with that company until its closure. Sarah was then employed to continue the community dance activities through Brown’s Mart Community Arts, where she established the Community Dance Program.

As a performer, teacher, choreographer, and program director, Sarah developed the program to continue to provide both community dance outputs as well as opportunities for professional and trained dancers, both locally and interstate. She also provided opportunities for dance artists from non-Western backgrounds to input into the Darwin dance scene. In the early days, under the Brown's Mart Community Arts umbrella, Sarah and Tim Newth were employed as artists to work on projects like the Lajamanu Community Residencies, dance theatre projects with Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre, and Darwin Theatre Company. Sarah continued to seek opportunities for professional dance artists.

Iconic Works

David McMicken and Tim Newth have a working partnership founded on collaboration and long-term relationships. Working together for over 3\three decades, they have established a dance practice that has led to what is now recognised as Iconic Tracks Works. These dance performances have a few things in common: They come from a melding of the professional dance artist who wants a dance career with our volunteer dancers who want to develop skills and be actively involved in their community. Tracks is committed to the high-quality artistic output matched with high-quality engagement with their community.

A New Millennium

After a decade of development, Tracks entered the new millennium recognised not only for our community work but also for providing rich and robust dance experiences within the professional dance sector. Our core artists come from the diverse independent dance community of Darwin and beyond. These artists are expected to perform, choreograph, teach, collaborate with cultural groups, work in schools, and engage with remote Indigenous communities. In essence, they needed to be like the 4-Wheel Drives of the dance world. We have always believed that dance in our community should encompass a wide range of activities, catering to a variety of practitioners and offering the broadest possible choices for participants.