The Dream
Full Article by Izabela Barakovska
When Urban Eye poised the question, “What is your dream for
dance in Australia?” to Marko Panzic, the director of the Dream
Dance Company, and some of the dancers, the responses
resonated around a similar idea; to increase the amount of
respect the industry is shown, and to see a persistent growth in
careers within it.
Perth born and raised, Marko Panzic, moved to Sydney in 2006 to pursue a career in the dance industry. He explained, that slowly but surely after the industry boom that was ‘So You Think You Can Dance”, there was a shift towards the future the commercial dance industry in Australia.
He saw a gap in what used to be a lot of work for commercial dancers in Sydney, “I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to have a company that’s like a ballet company or a contemporary company, that honours commercial dancers?’,” He said.
This idea gave life to The Dream Dance Company, which is now Australia’s leading commercial dance company; for dancers, by dancers.
The future of the Australian dance industry is progressing to a direction where dancers can seek work, and find it. Marko believes that there is still a lot that needs to happen to secure this progress; however, this change cannot be dependent on one person alone.
“The dream for the future of dance in Australia is to make dance even more respected, because at the end of the day we should be nurturing people, and educating them to want to have a career”, He said.
Marko believes that people are being wrongly educated about the possibility of having a career in dance, which is disappointing. “They get to eighteen and they start working for free, rather than believing that your art, your craft is worth something,” He explained.
His dream is for students to finish high school and see that they can choose a real career in dance, that holds real value, with their parents’ confidence and support.
Dayton Tavares, 20-year-old dancer in the Dream Dance Company, loves how it showcases what we love to do. “It’s a combination of everyone’s own unique abilities and styles in one showcase performance; a piece of art,” he added.
His admiration was evident as he explained the importance of putting dancers in the forefront, and exploring talents beyond ‘space fillers’ on a stage behind an artist. “It’s literally just dancing and it’s the way we want to dance… it’s the most elite dancing you get to do,” He said.
Dayton also commented on Marko’s contribution to the growth of commercial dance in Australia, saying that the amount of support he has for anyone trying to help the industry grow, was outstanding.
Cat Santos, another dancer from There Dream Dance Company, shared the same opinion, saying that it is 100% different to anything she’s ever done. She explained that commercial work in this industry was like being a pawn in the game - “you have to look like everybody else, dance like everybody else, and you’re always behind someone”. Whereas with Dream Dance, “People come and know your name and they come to see YOU dance,” Cat said.
Her dream for the dance industry is for dancers to have more work, and for dance to be respected more, especially by parents. In spite of Cat’s respected level in the dancing industry, she continues to find parents of students saying, “You’ll dance but then you’ll do something after, because dance isn’t a real job”.
Cat said that these comments contradict the type of work she does, when in fact it is a very real job, with real life application and importance both in and out of the studio.
Most people in the industry feel that dance needs to become something that is truly valued and recognised as important.
Such ideals are incredibly important foundations to further the growth of any industry, particularly commercial dance, as it requires the efforts of the community as well as the dancers.
With people like Marko Panzic developing such movements, the dream for the future of the Australian dance industry will become a reality in no time.
URBAN EYE
