Can outdoor events develop dance literacy in new audiences?

Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance has moved its performance program outdoors and abolished ticket charges in order to reach audiences who don’t usually attend contemporary dance.

21 Feb 2020 12:00

Richard Watts

Performing Arts

Hero image for The Farm’s Bare Bones, presented as part of Supercell. Photo credit: Art-Work Agency.

Attracting new audiences and creating accessible and affordable entry points for the general public remains an ongoing challenge for arts festivals and organisations nationwide.

In Brisbane, the contemporary dance festival Supercell is meeting this challenge by abolishing ticket charges for performances – events at this year’s festival are free.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts