Australian Youth Dance Festival 2025
Artistic Director: Kyall Shanks. Emerging Directors: Amelia Minh Vu and Toby McKnight
AYDF 2025: Connect. Evolve. Innovate.
The 2025 Australian Youth Dance Festival (AYDF) showcased an extraordinary diversity of offerings across its Youth and Professional Development (PD) streams, providing participants with a rich array of dance styles, techniques, and creative experiences. Youth participants engaged in various workshops spanning contemporary and street dance forms, fostering both technical skill and collaborative artistry.
The PD stream offered in-depth sessions focused on leadership, safe dance practices, cultural sensitivity, mental health awareness, and community engagement, supporting educators and emerging leaders in the dance sector. Complementing these workshops, excursions to prominent Melbourne institutions allowed participants to connect directly with professional dance environments through tours, film screenings, and artist talks, further enriching the festival experience.
Youth Dance Program
Across the program, young dancers immersed themselves in a vibrant mix of technique, creativity, and connection. They explored styles including Le Bop, Contemporary, Afro Dance, LiteFeet, Hip Hop, and more, each offering new movement possibilities and cultural perspectives. Partnering Acrobatics, FLINTA+, and Improvisation workshops encouraged collaboration, identity-affirming exploration, and responsive decision-making. A choreography workshop culminated in an original performance, while additional classes such as Floorwork, Musical Theatre Jazz, W_acking, Counter Technique, and Contemporary Repertoire broadened technical range. The stream wrapped with recovery sessions, Krump basics, and a closing Cypher, fostering confidence, artistry, and a deeper understanding of dance.
Professional Development
The professional development stream offered a rich suite of learning opportunities focused on leadership, safe practice, cultural competency, and community connection. Participants began with an introduction and collective connection session, then explored leadership and community-building challenges within the dance sector. Teaching practice was strengthened through a youth dance workshop, while sessions on injury prevention, safe movement, and anatomy supported healthier approaches to training. Mental health awareness and child safety workshops provided practical strategies for supporting young people. Additional sessions introduced Melbourne’s street dance culture and respectful engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contemporary dance, alongside discussions fostering collaboration across the youth dance sector.
MIXTAPE Performance
The AYDF Mixtape was a bold and eclectic celebration of youth dance in Australia. Showcasing the depth, diversity, and imagination of the next generation of artists, the one-night-only event featured a dynamic line-up of live performances and film works from leading youth dance companies and independent artists.
Spark Lab and World Café
Spark Lab was an intimate space within the youth program where young dancers spoke openly about their experiences, hopes, and challenges. Participants reflected on rediscovering joy in dance, building confidence, navigating identity, and dealing with pressures such as financial stress and self-doubt. Conversations highlighted how dance acts as community, storytelling, and a source of wellbeing, while also raising questions about technology, inclusion, and what truly safe spaces look like.
These insights fed directly into the World Café, where youth, artists, and educators came together to imagine a stronger future for dance. Ideas centred on accessible funding, real mental health support, regional opportunities, and creating spaces where every young person feels seen and valued. The session became a collective call for connection, equity, and ongoing creativity.
Excursions
For the first time, both Youth and PD cohorts took part in excursions that deepened their connection to Melbourne’s dance community. At Dancehouse, participants joined a street dance workshop and viewed My Black Dog, a youth-focused film exploring mental health. Visits to Lucy Guerin Inc.’s WYXZ Studios and Chunky Move offered studio tours, film screenings, and conversations with leading artists, giving insight into professional practice, creative processes, and the diverse voices shaping Melbourne’s contemporary dance landscape.
AYDF 2025 was supported by
