Winter dance writing
a catch up on ReadyMade & Catapult at PACT
As we offer 2 new reviews of dance events that happened at PACT Centre for Emerging Artists across Sydney’s winter—ReadyMade Works’ Happy Hour PLUS by Phaedra Brown and Catapult’s Outbound by Lexy Panetta—the funding plight of PACT and ReadyMade comes inevitably to mind.
In conversations amongst friends and acquaintances across the last few weeks (both first and second hand) the general consensus seems to be that some inner city performance organisations might have been ‘funded to fail’. We could enjoy the alliteration of this phrase were its consequences not so bad and sad. PACT and ReadyMade were both funded in the recent Create NSW rounds at approximately half of what they have been running on across the last year(s).
Of course no organisation in NSW got what they asked for, but a few key organisations (one might be so bold to claim) were shafted.
As their website proclaims: “1 in 5 artists programmed in Australia’s contemporary performance festivals had their start at PACT” and a quick read through the list of alumni is impressive. This is a place that believes “the best art is made by valuing the people that make it happen”, and that is not only art makers but also arts workers, as PACT fosters many of the next generation who not only will make the work but make that work possible on stage.
The same utility and integrity is apparent at ReadyMade. It has been here, across changing venues, that some of the best dance artists in the city have been nurtured and supported for 11 years. Many of today’s dancers love ReadyMade’s Ultimo studio space and Create NSW and the City of Sydney have acknowledged that love through growing financial and in-kind support. In the financial year 2023-2024 ReadyMade receive $96,650 (plus money for projects) from Create to offer a suite of activities across that financial year. Then, as a means of bringing ReadyMade into line with calendar year funding, Create NSW funded ReadyMade for the last 6 months of 2025 with $65,000. But, following their most recent funding application to Create NSW (for the next 2 years) ReadyMade has been offered $65,000 to run for an entire year! Does this look like a typo to you? Does this look like someone looked up the most recent funding lists, saw ReadyMade at $65,000 and (without further enquiry) thought: “great, let’s give them the same for 2026 and 2027”. Surely not! But with PACT also getting half of their usual annual funding this may not be a mistake.
Everyone is unsure as to why this has happened and are asking: what now? what next? If you have a moment it’s also worth reading PACT’s last few posts on Sector Dispatch —authored by their CEO Justine Shih Pearson. There’s an informative, feisty critique of the recent funding outcomes from Create NSW.
But now … back to what we’re really here for: promoting the writing of young and emerging dancer/writers.
Our most recent posts on our reviews page are post-winter catch ups before more writing comes in across the spring with reviews of SDC’s INDance, dancing at the Sydney Fringe Festival, Dirty Feet’s In the Studio, and Performance Space’s Live Works.
Phaedra Brown and Lexy Panetta are exploring what they saw and thought about while watching 5 new works in June by established and emerging artists presented by ReadyMade Works and Catapult at PACT: Ivey Wawn’s Feeling in a Triangle, Mitchell Christie’s Off the Map, Valdi Yudibrata & Will Mak’s Within, Remy Rochester and Angus Onley’s Please… continue?, and Maddison Fraser’s Palyku Ngurra Dance.
Phaedra Brown on ReadyMade Work’s Happy Hour PLUS with Ivey Wawn’s Feeling in a Triangle, Mitchell Christie’s Off the Map, and Valdi Yudibrata & Will Mak’s Within.
Lexy Panetta on Catapult’s Outbound with Remy Rochester and Angus Onley’s Please… continue? and Maddison Fraser’s Palyku Ngurra Dance.