We provide space and opportunities for professional choreographers, mid-career & emerging practitioners, young people, & the community. Based in Newcastle NSW, Catapult dance is a ‘not-for-profit’ contemporary dance organisation for established and emerging professional artists, young people, and the community. Our mission is to strengthen the presence of contemporary dance in Newcastle, the Central Coast and Greater Hunter, by creating a hub for dance artists to develop their practice, gain skills and collaborate across disciplines. We hope to extend artist networks and profiles, both in the professional arts industry and broader community,to propel dancers forward. With our newly opened, purpose designed venue, holding two large studios with Harlequin sprung floors (Harlequin Floors sponsorship), the venue has the capacity to hold professional residencies and youth projects simultaneously. Catapult has recently received support from the City of Newcastle: Economic Development Sponsorship to build our capacity locally in 2015/2016, the Australia Council for the Arts funding for our professional interdisciplinary creative residency programs in the latter half of 2015, artsNSW for the Flipside Project. Catapult is supported by the NSW Department of Education & Training, the University of Newcastle, Creative Arts Network _ U, Harlequin Floors and Ausdance NSW. Catapult has been invited to be one of Ausdance NSW’s first Associate Companies (2016-2018). This program aims to build the capacity in the dance sector by supporting three companies to assist them to become more sustainable. Our core aims and objectives are:
- To Build a contemporary dance sector in Newcastle, and create a hub for emerging artists, young people and professional practitioners to create and develop as artists in Newcastle.
- To Provide Professional and Emerging choreographers with long-term choreographic residencies in regional NSW.
- To Generate opportunities for established regional NSW based multi – disciplinary artists to collaborate with professional dance artists from across Australia to build networks and skills that propel them in new artistic directions
- To Create opportunities for regional emerging artists and young people (8 – 18) to collaborate with some of Australia’s nationally regarded professional contemporary and independent dance choreographers; inspiring and mentoring them through a long term collaborative, creative processes culminating in performance outcomes.
- To Foster an appreciative audience for contemporary dance work and build audience capacity in the Hunter region through performances, community development, youth engagement and creative opportunities for the general public.
- To Engage Australian dance and arts professionals to inspire, mentor and work with young dancers (14-25) to develop performance skills, increase confidence and engage the creativity of young people and audiences alike through contemporary dance theatre.
