The FORM Dance Tasks Board is happy to announce the appointment of a brand new Artistic Director.
Paul Selwyn Norton will begin as Artistic Director on 1 Might 2023. Paul’s tenure will construct on the legacy of outgoing Director, Annette McLernon, who developed FORM right into a dynamic presenter and producer of Australian modern dance.
FORM will proceed to be proudly based mostly in based mostly in Parramatta, Western Sydney.
As an skilled senior arts chief, Norton will look to strengthen FORM’s position in supporting unbiased Australian dance artists and develop audiences for modern dance. The FORM Board is especially drawn to Paul’s functionality as a sector innovator, and his important file of delivering acclaimed applications with each rising and internationally acclaimed artists.
Norton has a specific tackle unbiased arts apply, the place he sees it extra as a automobile of inventive entrepreneurship. He explains, “It is a very thrilling time to be becoming a member of FORM Dance Tasks. With the present improvement in each the enterprise and cultural sectors in Parramatta, there’s a actual alternative to plug FORM into that entrepreneurial power and burgeoning local people.”
“Because the incoming Artistic Director, I’m thrilled to have the ability to add company, worth and connectivity to FORM’s sensible Board and devoted workforce, and collectively co-create an important future for modern dance in Western Sydney”, says Norton.
Whereas at STRUT Dance Paul delivered acclaimed large-scale performances and venue activations via the Perth Competition, the Forrest’s Minderoo Basis, WA Museum – Boola Bardip, and Fringeworld – essentially the most notable being SUNSET, a inventive reclamation of Claremont’s Previous Males’s Hospital from Punchdrunk’s Maxine Dolye. One other venture – One Flat Factor, Reproduced from William Forsythe – was located exterior within the courtyard of the State Theatre Centre of WA. Each included unbiased practitioners because the core inventive, manufacturing and technical groups.
Paul additionally developed studio alternatives for dance makers nationally, delivered by domestically and internationally recognised luminaries like Ohad Naharin, Stephanie Lake, Annette Carmichael, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Crystal Pite.
The Board is wanting ahead to working with Norton and draw on his in depth expertise in creating a holistic program with and for dance makers, that’s supported by audiences in addition to personal and public companions. FORM Dance Tasks Chair, Mark Lillis explains, “Paul is a good match for FORM as a result of we each worth innovation and risk-taking as a technique to construct sturdy partnerships. This method fosters group engagement and delivers precious outcomes for dance makers and audiences”.
Lillis continues, “FORM holds a well-established place…25 years sturdy in 2025…and is domestically and nationally recognised for its work. This subsequent section will be sure that FORM is future-fit to ship its mission and proceed its important assist of unbiased dance in Western Sydney and past.”