Ian RT Colless
Dancer and choreographer, Ian RT Colless, graduated from New York University in late 2013 from the Master of Arts Program - Dance Education: Teaching Dance in the Professions, in the Steinhardt School for Culture, Education and Human Development. Ian was awarded a Roberta Sykes Scholarship in 2012.
Born in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney, Ian is a descendant of the Dharabuladh (Therabulat) clan of the Gundungurra Aboriginal Nation and has both Irish and Aboriginal ancestry.
Ian describes his early years,
As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated and profoundly inspired by the culture and community of my ancestry. As a child, my grandmother told me stories of her life and the value and weight of our Aboriginal culture. Her stories frequently moved me spiritually and only emphasized the great role that movement and physical expression played in our history and our pedagogy.
After graduating from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts in Sydney, Ian earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and a Bachelor of Arts, Honours, from the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts in Perth.
Recently, Ian was invited by the Head of Dance at the Steinhardt School, Dr Susan Koff, to deliver a lecture about Intercultural Dance,
I began with the basic principles of First Australian culture, community, identity and The Dreaming and compared and contrasted this with what I have learnt of Native American and East African histories and cultures. I continued with an overview of the basic principles of my Lifescape Practice as they have been defined so far. It was deeply humbling, yet exciting, inspirational, and motivating to receive this invitation from the head of dance of such a highly regarded institution to share my modern choreographic repertory.
Ian has been an artist in residence at the prestigious Banff Centre (Canada) and the Performing Arts Forum (France). Ian was the first modern choreographer to create a work for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Internationally, he has performed, choreographed and produced throughout Australia and also in China, Netherlands, Uganda, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Portugal.
Born in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney, Ian is a descendant of the Dharabuladh (Therabulat) clan of the Gundungurra Aboriginal Nation and has both Irish and Aboriginal ancestry.
Ian describes his early years,
As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated and profoundly inspired by the culture and community of my ancestry. As a child, my grandmother told me stories of her life and the value and weight of our Aboriginal culture. Her stories frequently moved me spiritually and only emphasized the great role that movement and physical expression played in our history and our pedagogy.
After graduating from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts in Sydney, Ian earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and a Bachelor of Arts, Honours, from the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts in Perth.
Recently, Ian was invited by the Head of Dance at the Steinhardt School, Dr Susan Koff, to deliver a lecture about Intercultural Dance,
I began with the basic principles of First Australian culture, community, identity and The Dreaming and compared and contrasted this with what I have learnt of Native American and East African histories and cultures. I continued with an overview of the basic principles of my Lifescape Practice as they have been defined so far. It was deeply humbling, yet exciting, inspirational, and motivating to receive this invitation from the head of dance of such a highly regarded institution to share my modern choreographic repertory.
Ian has been an artist in residence at the prestigious Banff Centre (Canada) and the Performing Arts Forum (France). Ian was the first modern choreographer to create a work for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Internationally, he has performed, choreographed and produced throughout Australia and also in China, Netherlands, Uganda, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Portugal.
