The First Session of Asia-Pacific Dance Dialogues!

First Steps Towards Publication, for Emerging Dance Scholars

If you’re an emerging dance scholar, placing your first publication in a respected peer-reviewed journal can seem like an impossible hurdle. Which journals are appropriate for your topic? What are the processes for submitting a paper? What can you expect after your paper is accepted? And where do you go from there?

Join dance scholars Sumedha Bhattacharyya (India) and Shanny Rann Chuah (Malaysia) in an online discussion as they share their experience of publishing articles in the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship. Emerging scholar Al Bernard Garcia (Philippines) will contribute his perspective from within the Southeast Asian dance academe.

Register now to join the discussion, and bring us your questions about writing for publication, working with editors, the pressure to publish, or predatory journals – get the tools you need to dance confidently towards publication!

Register here: https://forms.gle/ezS9FdjYnjX2kxcB8
Participation is free. Only registered participants will receive the link to the Zoom discussion.

Moderated by Bilqis Hijjas (Malaysia) and organised with Joelle Jacinto (Philippines).

Date: Thursday 21 March
Time: 5pm NZDT, 3pm AEDT, 12 noon CST, 10am BST, 9:30am IST, 4am GMT.
Find your time zone here
Platform: Zoom
Length of session: 90 minutes max

About the Speakers

Shanny Rann is a dance anthropologist and PhD Candidate in Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University (Canada). Her current research focuses on Taijiquan in diaspora from the women’s perspective. She has been training under Master Li Rong of Sanxing Taiji in Vancouver, Canada since 2016. She is also the editor of Dance Central, the founder of Choreo Dance Film Festival and the curator of Cross-Cultural Dance Resources.

Sumedha Bhattacharyya is an interdisciplinary dance artist, choreographer, researcher, and dance filmmaker. She is pursuing her PhD in Ethnomusicology in University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (Austria), studying maternal memories and their relationship with sound and movement, in the context of mass migration and displacement. Currently a faculty member at Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, and guest faculty at Ashoka University, Barnard College for Women, Columbia University, she is teaching Screendance and Interdisciplinary seminar courses. She is also the founder of a dance film production, curation, research and educational collective initiative – Duet with Camera.

As an Erasmus Mundus Scholar, with a focus on screendance filmmaking, dance anthropology, and visual ethnography, she traveled, lived together, and collaborated with a range of forms, communities, and dance-theatre makers across local, national, and international locations. She is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) awardee under Goldsmiths University (UK), for her project Water Nodes integrating motion capture technology with performance and intergenerational maternal memories.

Al Garcia is a Taiwan-based Filipino dance artist, choreographer, and educator. He received his MFA in Dance (Choreography) from Nanhua University, Taiwan and was awarded the 2024 Outstanding Alumni for Arts and Culture. He was previously a dance artist of Tjimur Dance Theatre (Taiwan). Al is a graduate of the Philippine High School for the Arts specializing in Philippine Folk Dance and received his diploma in dance from the University of the Philippines-Diliman. As an independent dance artist in Manila, he created choreographies for dance companies, theater productions, and cultural initiatives. Al also performs and does collaborative works in Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, USA and France. He won first prize at the WiFi Body Contemporary Dance Festival 2012 New Choreographers Competition (Philippines) and featured the winning piece at the Yokohama Dance Collection EX Showcase 2013 (Japan). His choreographies are distinct in integrating Philippine folk dance and contemporary dance idioms.

Al is also involved in education and community development work. He was part of the faculty and established the dance programs for Guang Ming College (Philipines) and Philippine High School for the Arts Senior High. He founded Guang Ming Dance Project in 2015 and is a member of the Contemporary Dance Network Manila.


Asia-Pacific Dance Dialogues explore current issues and viewpoints in dance around the region and the world, with invited dancers, choreographers, scholars and other dance practitioners. This monthly online series is hosted by World Dance Alliance chapters from the Asia-Pacific region, and reflects on topics in education and training, research and documentation, creation and presentation, and support and development.

Join us with your questions, share your unique perspectives, and strengthen your professional networks, as together we gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for dance in our world.

In 2024, these sessions are free and open to all; registration is required.


2024 International Young Choreographer Project Announcement

Eight choreographers have been selected for the 2024 International Young Choreographer Project. Congratulations to the following artists:

1. Callum Mooney (Australia, WDA Asia Pacific)
2. Maybelle Lek Shue-Qi (Singapore, WDA Asia Pacific)
3. Ma Sze Nga Alice (Hong Kong, WDA Asia Pacific)
4. Anandita Khan (Bangladesh, WDA Asia Pacific)
5. Mohd Nuriqram Bin Azhar (Malaysia, WDA Asia Pacific)
6. Hsiang-Yu CHAN (Taiwan)
7. Tung-Chun HSU (Taiwan)
8. Yu-Chi CHEN (Taiwan)

The total activity will be from June 30 to July 21. Dancers audition is on June 30, and the rehearsal will start immediately after, ending with the performances are on July 20 and July 21. The venue of the rehearsal and the performance are in the studios and the Experimental Theater at the Tsoying High School, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

Official Announcement

For more information, please contact 2024 IYCP Project Office: dance30@tyhs.kh.edu.tw or dance@tyhs.kh.edu.tw

December 2023 Edition of Asia-Pacific Channels

Happy New Year! The December 2023 edition of Asia-Pacific Channels is here. This biannual magazine of World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific features reports from our executive committee, our organisational chapters and our partner organisation WDAAE.

If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, please do check out Stella Lau’s comprehensive summary of all the organisational chapter reports in her Vice President’s report on page 3, and flip through for the beautiful and inspiring images of dance from across the Asia-Pacific. 

Download the magazine in PDF format [2.6MB].

Cover image and above: ‘Treble Idea’, choreographed by Ethel Deidre Daniel and performed by students of the National Academy of Arts, Culture & Heritage (ASWARA), at Dancebox September 2023, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Malaysia. Photo: Benedict Yee

Back issues of Channels can be downloaded from here. The archive of Channels dating back to 1996 is available from the Ausdance website.

2024 International Young Choreographer Project

CHOROEGRAPHIC OPPORTUNITY IN TAIWAN Working with eight choreographers in July 2024 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Registration Form to be sent to your chapter head
Three to four choreographers recommended by WDA Asia-Pacific , and one choreographer recommended by WDA-America or Europe will be selected to attend the Young Choreographer Project (IYCP) in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. An additional three Taiwanese choreographers will also be selected to join the event. The funding is supported by National Culture and Arts Foundation, Bureau Culture Affairs of Kaohsiung City Government, and the Chin-Lin Foundation for Culture and Arts in Taiwan. The project will be held in the city of Kaohsiung, south of Taiwan. The tentative dates for the 2024 event are from July 1st to July 19th, with two performances taking place in the main stage of the theatre in the campus of Tsoying High School from July 20th to 21st. Choreographers will be recommended by WDA (Asian Pacific, America or Europe) chapter heads. The deadline for the recommendation from each chapter head is January 21st with all documents required sent to Taiwan. The final eight choreographers will be provided with housing, local transportation, dancers, studios, publicity, production and office assistance. In addition, an honorarium will be provided: US$ 800 for four choreographers from Asian Pacific area and US$ 1200 for the choreographer from America or Europe. Participants are responsible for international airfare and local transportation between the airport and the site. The selected choreographers will set the dance on dancers auditioned in Taiwan. It is recommended that only young choreographers who feel they can meet the challenges of producing a work under unfamiliar circumstances and with unfamiliar dancers should apply.  
Each WDA region office in Asian Pacific, America or Europe will facilitate the selection process in its own chapter and sent only one candidate from each chapter or country to the IYCP office in Taiwan. You need to be a member in order to apply to your chapter. Expressions of interest should address the following points and approach to your area chapter (http://www.wda-ap.org/chapters/):

A. What would you gain from a professional experience such as this?
B. Why would you like to work in Asia?
C. A brief concept of your work
D. A 200-word autobiography and a resume/CV

If you are short listed in the final list in your chapter, you will be required to submit WDA (Asia-Pacific, America or Europe) a link to an online video (YouTube or Vimeo) of a work sample of your recent choreography, either with a single dance piece or several excerpts (less than 20 minutes). You may also be invited to send up to three photos of your work, which is not compulsory, but will give WDA (Asian Pacific, America or Europe) selection board more ideas about your choreography. Expressions of interest should EMAIL to the WDA (Asia-Pacific, America or Europe) office of each chapter by January 10th. Download Registration Form *Please send this registration form to your chapter head for their evaluation. The name and document of each choreographer recommended by the WDA chapters should be sent to Taiwan office by January 30th. Taiwan office will announce the result of the final eight selections for the 2024 IYCP by February 25th, 2024, on the WDA-AP website at http://www.wda-ap.org. Also, a letter of confirmation to each choreographer will be emailed from the office in Taiwan. 

For information or any enquiry about the International Young Choreography Project, please visit http://www.wda-ap.org/projects or contact the Project Office at Tsoying High School (email: dance30@tyhs.kh.edu.tw).
Mailing address:
Chapter Head /Ms. Su-ling Chou, Tso’s Dance Association
55, Hai-gong Rd., Tsoying, Kaohsiung 81326, Taiwan

June 2023 Edition of Asia-Pacific Channels

The biannual magazine of World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific contains reports from our executive committee, our network chairs and our organisational chapters.

Some highlights in this edition:

  • The upcoming Ocean Dance Festival in Bangladesh, which will also host this year’s WDAAP Annual General Meeting
  • Reports from WDAAP’s first participation at the famed Khajuraho Dance Festival in 2023
  • The proposed calendar for the next 8 months from the Support & Development Network

…as well as beautiful and inspiring images of dance from across the Asia-Pacific. 

Download the magazine in PDF format [5.31MB].

Cover image of this edition and above: The WDA contingent at daybreak at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Khajuraho temples, during the Khajuraho Dance Festival 2023, India. Photo: Dance Alliance India

Back issues of Channels can be downloaded from here. The archive of Channels dating back to 1996 is available from the Ausdance website.

Ocean Dance Festival (postponed)

(Ocean Dance Festival has been postponed to Janurary, 2024. Please watch for the update news on WDAAP website).

The Second Ocean Dance Festival (ODF) being organized at Cox’s Bazaar, a breath-takingly beautiful beach city, in Southern Bangladesh, by Nrityajog, a conglomeration of forty dance organizations of Bangladesh under the umbrella of the World Dance Alliance – Asia Pacific (WDA-AP), from November 22 to 24, 2023, is envisioned as a showcasing of mainly Bangladeshi dance interspersed by performances from South Asia and the Asia Pacific. The organizers hope to make this a yearly event combining exciting tourism with dance. The Ministries of Cultural Affairs and Civil Aviation & Tourism, of Bangladesh, are the co-hosts.
The Second ODF will be combined with the yearly event of WDA – AP, which includes Key-note speeches, Academic seminars, Workshops, Performances and Lecture demonstrations, on a ‘theme topic’ by participants from all over the Asia Pacific, concluding with the Annual General Meeting of WDA-AP.

check the festival website at http://www.oceandancefestival.com/
Download the introduction in PDF version.

December 2022 Edition of Asia-Pacific Channels

The biannual magazine of World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific contains reports from our executive committee, our network chairs and our country chapters.

Some highlights in this edition:

  • A call for submissions to the next edition of JEDS, the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship, submission deadline 1 March 2023
  • The first report from our newest chapter organisation, WDAAP Beijing
  • A report from the World Alliance for Arts Education highlighting the upcoming summit in Madeira in March 2023

…as well as beautiful and inspiring images of dance from across the Asia-Pacific region.

Download the magazine in PDF format [3.3MB]:

Cover image of this edition, and above: Students of Peniel High School of Arts in ‘Rain on the Fresh Green’, a performance at the Young Dance Festival at the 2022 World Dance, Expo in Seoul, at Seong Center for the Performing Arts, 30-31 August 2022, produced by World Dance Alliance – Korea. Photo: Hanfilm.

Back issues of Channels can be downloaded from here. The archive of Channels dating back to 1996 is available from the Ausdance website.

June 2022 Edition of Asia-Pacific Channels

The biannual magazine of World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific contains reports from our executive committee, our network chairs and our country chapters, as well as reports from the recent World Dance Alliance Executive Meeting and WDA Asia-Pacific Annual General Meeting.

Some highlights in this edition:

  • A feature from the Korea chapter, including this year’s International Dance Day message by Korean dancer Kang Sue-Jin;
  • An announcement of the new website for JEDS, the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship;
  • A report from the World Alliance for Arts Education on recent activities celebrating International Arts Education Week;

…as well as beautiful and inspiring images of dance from across the Asia-Pacific region.

Cover image for this edition, and image above: Dancers from Pichet Klunchun Dance Company outdoors in Paris in December 2021, after the performance of classical Khon masked dance piece “The Combat of Rama and Todsakan,” at Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Photo: Korn Takang

Back issues of Channels can be downloaded from here. The archive of Channels dating back to 1996 is available from the Ausdance website.

New Website for JEDS

The Research & Documentation network of World Dance Alliance has launched new website for the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship (JEDS).

JEDS is designed to serve the needs of international dance scholars who are currently enrolled in a graduate program or within 5 years of having graduated from a graduate program in dance or a related field. Articles featured in JEDS are selected through a double-blind review process by international reviewers with strong publishing records and established expertise in diverse fields of dance.

Check out the new website at http://jedsonline.in

SWEAT Hong Kong International Dance Festival | Virtual

Organized by the School of Dance at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, held between 17 and 25 June 2022, SWEAT is specially curated for the international dance community to meet, innovate, research, share and dance. This year, leading dance academies, artists, scholars and other practitioners will “arrive” in Hong Kong to reconnect and explore new frontiers of dance and beyond.

Come meet creative residents at ArtsCross Hong Kong 2022 to explore dance & technology “in the clouds”; celebrate the re-connection of dance academies and talented students at the first Digital International Festival for Dance Academies (IFDA) with screenings and interactive student forums and selected commissioned dance films. Presented by the World Dance Alliance and co-presented with the Hong Kong Dance Alliance (HKDA), the World Dance Alliance (WDA) Global Summit aims to promote dance and wellness in response to the Covid-19 pandemic affecting the wellbeing of dance practitioners worldwide, with the theme Dance Offer/On New Energy. The sensational four-day virtual conference features a series of riveting and inspiring paper presentations, Pecha Kucha presentations, dance film screenings and more.

Watch the Festival Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCoJfm7nE2Y

Learn more: https://sweat-festival.hkapa.edu

Members of WDA can enjoy exclusive discounts, get your pass now at https://sweat-festival.hkapa.edu/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=100194209&

For more information, contact info@sweat-festival.com