The January Forecast by Kyall Shanks

I want to teach Contemporary Dance to Scotty from Marketing…

I find myself exhausted and empty, constantly having to fight to explain the value of dance, and more often than not, youth dance practice. I’m sure any artists who read this understand the toil of having to constantly defend and argue why we are more than just glorified hobbyists. Why we’re not just foolish people who chose our passions over something, as my high school careers advisor suggested, “safer or more practical”. Even though I love my performance work, it is sometimes hard to articulate why so much of my career has focused on education and youth practice, especially within the context of a short column with a word limit. In saying that though…

People often see youth dance practice through a very narrow lens. Young people stepping into a room to hit the steps, put on a cute show and hopefully inspire the slowly bitter and jaded adults that watch, exhausted from the capitalist hell-scape we live in. What people don’t consider however is that when a young person goes into a studio and starts trying to understand the incredibly complex machine that is them, they begin to look internally.

By trying to understand the direct physical and mental relationship they have with their body (and wherever their consciousness sits within that), they begin to understand the cause-and-effect relationship they have with the world. In an incredibly important developmental time of their lives, they begin to analyse and understand the direct consequences of what their actions bring. What this also brings is a sense of empathy.

When the young dancers I work with are within a group improvisation, pushing and pulling each other through the space, they have a responsibility. They must have an awareness that every impromptu choice they make will influence the other people in the room, the atmosphere, the future of that improvisation. Even if they don’t fully understand why they made those choices in the moment, they begin to learn the skill of unpacking the situation. Understanding how it happened, why it happened, where it led. They begin to have a sense of understanding and empathy for each other and for themselves. They create space and listen with both their bodies and minds, and analyse with senses of objectivity and subjectivity. Once again, empathy and understanding.

Here’s the kicker (excuse the pun)… Imagine if every politician, during their youth or at some point in their lives, had of learnt these skills. Imagine if Scott Morrison got the opportunity to understand more about the cause-and-effect relationship his body and actions had in the studio, for the other dancers, the improvisation, the dance piece. The true weight of his choices. I argue and wholeheartedly believe that maybe we would have someone leading us, who instead of blindly believing their own choice of subjective reality, would have a lot more understanding and empathy around their actions when it comes to matters involving human rights issues, First Nations people, refugees, bushfire victims and the climate crisis.

Last year Scotty from Marketing took the opportunity to use a Barre studio as yet another one his PR stunts to save face during a year of so much tragedy. I would like to put forward a proposition to him, and all politicians. Instead of just using creative studios to promote your image, come join some of my adult beginner classes. No fanfare, no cameras, no publicity. I invite you to come into the studio with me and take a moment to learn some self-analytical skills, and understand the cause-and-effect relationship you and your actions have for yourself and for other people. I think it would do yourselves, and this country a whole lot of good.

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MEET THE ARTIST: KYALL SHANKS

Kyall is a Naarm/Melbourne based contemporary dance artist. His career so far has focused on finding a well rounded balance of performance, choreography and teaching work. By finding how these three areas can compliment and feed into each other, Kyall is passionate about increasing the accessibility of dance through youth and community work.

He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts 2015 and since then has danced for Tasdance, Antony Hamilton Projects, Chunky Move, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, Opera Australia, The Delta Project and Liquidskin Dance Company. In 2017-2018 Kyall undertook an 8 month international residency program with DanceBox in Kobe, Japan, and then spent 3 months in Sweden as a member of ilYoung 2018. Kyall has engaged with community youth groups and schools as a teacher and choreographer, examples of this being the Arts Centre Melbourne/Matthew Bourne 'Lord Of The Flies' project, the 2019 Dance Massive work 'Simulcast', and Stephanie Lake Company's 2020 Melbourne Fringe work 'Multiply'. Through his work he has represented/taught for The Victorian College of the Arts, Chunky Move, Ausdance Victoria, Arts Centre Melbourne, DRILL, Transit Dance and The Space Dance and Arts Centre. In 2020 he designed Chunky Move's new set of education offerings "Experiences for Young People", based off of current Chunky Move repertoire.

He currently works as one of the Tasdance Ensemble members, as well as Artistic Director to the preprofessional youth dance company Yellow Wheel.