Teacher PD Day
Subiaco Arts Centre, Subiaco
About Teacher PD Day
LIVE WORKSHOPS HAVE NOW PASSED
Benefit from the wealth of knowledge by signing up for the digital PD resources from Term 2 – Term 4 2023.
2023 workshops have a strong focus on culturally intelligent First Nations arts education, but this is just the beginning.
As part of the Teacher PD offering, we have commissioned a First Nations Contact Directory, giving information and contact information for an array of Indigenous artists and arts instructions across WA that you can look to for further engagement at your school. This resource will also be available at the beginning of Term 2.
INDIGNEOUS AUSTRALIAN DRAMA – with Derek Nannup
About the workshop:
This workshop will be an introduction to Indigenous theatre and performance. Topics will range from covering a brief history of the artform from an Aboriginal perspective to examining cultural protocols around introducing Indigenous theatre into your classrooms. Teachers should attend this workshop if they’re keen to gain a greater understanding of approaching First Nations drama education with cultural intelligence.
About Derek:
Derek Nannup is a street and circus performer, actor, musician and comedian, having fostered his skills with the Reg Bolton Circus Troupe. Derek has acting and directing credits, with Yirra Yaakin including King Hit, No Excuse, Booyi Koora Koora and Djildjit, and Muttacar Sorry Business. Derek runs his own business, Creative Pathways, which runs cultural workshops throughout WA, and provides consultation on cultural issues, and is an accomplished didjeridoo player and Traditional dancer.
AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE RIGHT NOW – with Sisonke Msimang
About the workshop:
This session looks at contemporary Australian literature, providing an overview of the latest books and conversations regarding everything from speculative fiction to what some are calling the Indigenous Literature Renaissance. If you want help on how to think about Australian literature right now, this is the session for you.
About Sisonke:
Sisonke Msimang is Perth Festival’s Literature and Ideas Curator and the head of storytelling at the Centre for Stories. She is the author of two non-fiction books, has written essays and opinion pieces for The New York Times, Newsweek, Bloomberg, and Al Jazeera and has a regular column with the Guardian Australia. Sisonke has served on the judging panels of the Miles Franklin Prize, the Stella Prize and the Deborah Cass Prize as well as the Hungerford.
INDIGENOUS CONTEMPORARY DANCE – with Nadia Martich
About the workshop:
This workshop will form an introduction to Indigenous Contemporary dance, lead by Nadia Martich. Learn a brief history on Indigenous contemporary dance in Australia and the cultural protocols surrounding teaching in the classroom. This workshop will support you to understand movement basics and movement aesthetic, and give you an opportunity to work through example exercises of cultural engagement in the classroom.
About Nadia:
Nadia Martich is a proud Gamilaroi and Bigambul Yinaar hailing from north-western NSW living on beautiful Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar. Nadia is an artist working in visual art, theatre, dance, and storytelling and enjoys creating, devising, performing, and mentoring. Nadia trained at NAISDA Dance College, graduating with the prestigious Chairman’s award of excellence in 2015. And since has been lucky to share culture and perform in Scotland, Canada, and Hawaii as well as throughout regional WA and NSW, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, and Brisbane mainstages.
INTIMACY TRAINING: A CONSENT BASED APPROACH – with Dr Gabrielle Metcalf
About the workshop:
This workshop will cover the fundamentals of Intimacy when engaged with students in a teaching or directing context. Whether it is choreographing a kiss in the school musical, working with dancers or instructing students on breath technique, there is a process that you can use. Participants will be introduced to a 5-step process that they can use for staged intimacy and/or instructional touch to ensure that students boundaries are respected and where consent informs any interactions.
About Dr Metcalf:
Gabrielle Metcalf holds a PhD in Theatre Directing from WAAPA, where she currently lectures in Acting and Directing and is the resident Intimacy director. She is a trained Intimacy director/coordinator and runs workshops for performers on consent-based processes for stage and screen. Over the past 5 years she has worked on over 40 stage and film productions as an Intimacy director/coordinator. She coordinates WAAPA’s Junior Academy which provides performance training for high school students.
SITE-RESPONSIVE CONTEMPORARY ART – with Katherine Wilkinson
About the workshop:
This workshop session will explore site and place responsive contemporary art, across art forms. Beginning with an outline of this practice and its history, the session will then focus on how this kind of art-making can be used (by teachers!) to create new understandings, opportunities for learning and relationships to history, culture, communities, and place. This workshop is suited to teachers working across all art forms and any teachers interested in supporting the next generation of makers to respond to the important social, cultural, and environmental ideas of our time.
About Katherine Wilkinson:
Katherine is a creative producer and curator working across socially engaged, site-responsive, live and visual contemporary art practices. Alongside her role as the Program Director for the Fremantle Biennale, she was the former Curator at DADAA, a Creative Producer with Perth Festival (Witness Stand, 2021; Five Short Blasts, 2019) and the Special Projects and Revealed Coordinator at Fremantle Arts Centre. Previously Katherine has held positions with; Artsource, International Art Space, LWAG, the Perth Public Art Foundation, MoMA, and the Venice Biennale.
I WANT TO AND I DON’T WANT TO – with Dr Shona Erskine
About the workshop:
To pursue a career in the arts, a young person needs to develop such skills as persistence, emotional regulation, and experimentation alongside the practical skills of their chosen form. As the teachers of young artists, it is our responsibility to imbue them with the rigours of their chosen discipline and to provide an environment of self-exploration and development. These can be delicate balances especially when we are met with a young person immobilised in the tug of ‘I want to and I don’t want to’. I want to practice scales to master the music and I don’t want to practice scales because I find them dull. Explore ways to help our young artists understand the stuck moments and navigate their nervous systems so they can excel in their chosen artform.
About Dr Shona Erskine:
Dr Shona Erskine is a registered psychologist in private practice. She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and retrained as a psychologist following an extensive career as a contemporary dancer. Shona has an expertise in delivering psychology for performing artists through professional companies, universities, and in private practice. She has developed curriculum in areas of mental wellbeing and creativity with an interest in disseminating best practice models to performing artist, teachers, and directors.
