Arts educator, choreographer and administrator Amanda Phillips has been honoured with the 2023 Ausdance SA Association Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Arts and Education’. The award recognises her crucial contribution to culture and creativity as a choreographer, creative and educator. This industry honour was announced recently at the Educator’s SA Awards Ceremony held on World Teachers’ Day (Oct 27).
Phillips is the Creative Producer of the production house Felicity Arts and the Artistic Director of Dance Hub SA – Adelaide’s Home of Independent Dance.
“This award recognises the vast work that Amanda delivers across industry as a creator, collaborator, facilitator and as a mentor,” says Ausdance SA President, Rebecca Wilson.
SA Board Member Robyn Callan says: “Amanda’s watershed work within the industry and her perseverance and artistic vision, fundamentally enhances the Australian arts scene at the same time as creating development opportunities for others. Especially with the current Contemporary Dance Sector Consultation in South Australia, it’s important to celebrate those who have had the courage to create opportunities that have both sustained an industry and seen the Dance sector thriving.”
Phillips is “incredibly honoured” to accept the accolade. “ . . . It means so much to receive this award from Ausdance SA – an organisation that has been there throughout my career, and that I greatly admire for its vision and promotion of dance across Australi." she says. "Receiving this award provides timely introspection and the inspiration to continue sharing from a space that truly values the arts – the lifeforce and pulse of society.”
The statement announcing her award outlines her many achievements and contributions to the arts, including her groundbreaking transdisciplinary work and her embracing of 21st century digital technology: “Phillips is an artist, cultural leader and ambassador working at the interface of art-technology through the realisation of new models of performance that both invent and evolve artistic practice. . .
“She has positively impacted the landscape through a significant body of artistic work; dedication to educate and mentor the next generation; and developing vital industry infrastructure to sustain and grow a thriving community.”
Phillips holds a Masters of Dance (Laban Centre, London) and has worked prolifically in the UK, Europe and Asia. She is a Churchill Fellow and Centennial Medallist and has received numerous accolades including a Ruby Award for Innovation and an Adelaide Critic’s Circle Award.
Since 2013, Phillips’s artwork also chronicles living with de novo metastatic (Stage-4) breast cancer.