Youth dance pioneer honoured

Ruth Osborne, pioneer of youth dance in Australia, has received an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the Australia Day Honours for "services to the performing arts, especially dance".

Osborne was the founding board member and artistic director of STEPS Youth Dance Company in Perth for 10 years, after which she founded the Canberra-based Quantum Leap Youth Program (QL2) in 1999. She stepped down from the role just last year. In that time she has mentored hundreds of young people, a number of whom have gone on to make dance their professional career, such as James Batchelor and Daniel Riley (presently the Artistic Director of Australian Dance Theatre).

Previously she has received two Canberra Critics' Circle Awards and, in 2012, an Australian Dance Award or Services to Dance.

Congratulations to Ruth!