Series spotlight: Dance Academy

It was a serendipitous moment at some pre-shoot drinks on the children’s television program H20: Just Add Water which led to Dance Academy, a live-action drama series about a group of young dancers training to become professional ballerinas. In the early hours of the morning, producer Joanna Werner got talking to casting assistant Samantha Strauss.

“She asked me what show I'd like to make if I could make any show in the world,” said Joanna. “I said, ‘I'd like to make a show about a girl from the country who gets into the top ballet school’. Sam thought I was joking, because she had been working on that exact show.

“She gave me a script the next day, which was a beautifully written script about a girl from the country called Tara Webster, who auditions for and gets into the top ballet school. From that point on, we decided to work on it together. It was both of our dream show and we felt like we were the right people to make it.” In Samantha’s words, they were “creative soulmates and instant partners”.

Made by Werner Film Productions for ABC TV and the German broadcaster ZDF, Dance Academy was one of the flagship series for the launch of the ABC3 Kids digital channel. Premiering in 2010, the series told the story of 15-year-old Tara and her fellow students, ambitious athletes battling through the minefield of elite dance training while facing the universal challenges of being a teenager. Personal dramas and relationship challenges are interspersed with magical performances put together by some of Australia’s leading choreographers as the students chase their dream of becoming professional dancers.

The series was an instant success, appealing to a broad audience with fans as young as seven through to older teenagers. By late 2012, rights had been sold to 180 territories, airing on every continent except Antarctica.

Dance Academy was much more than a series about adolescence and dance: over three series and a feature film, it pushed the boundaries of children’s television by exploring themes which other shows had steered clear of, like mental health, disordered eating, sexual identity, and death.

“We felt that we had an obligation to make the most of the opportunity of making a television show that millions of people would see, so we wanted it to really matter to the audience and to have impact and importance in their lives – we didn't want it just to be about pointe shoes and tutus,” said Joanna.

“So we did lots of really happy, positive storylines, but then we also did some that were tougher. And the response from the audience is still that those storylines mattered and made a difference, and that for some people at that time, it was the first time that they'd seen a young character dealing with being in love with people they didn't think they would necessarily be in love with and dealing with really complex feelings.”

One of the key storylines centred on the sexuality of one of its primary characters, Sammy, who develops feelings for his male friend Christian, having formerly been in a ‘straight’ relationship with fellow student Abigail. In contrast to how similar narratives tended to play out in other programs, Joanna and Samantha treated Sammy’s storyline not as a coming out, or an issue to be dealt with, but a natural exploration of feelings by a character who questioned everything and could conceivably fall in love with a person regardless of their gender. When Sammy begins feeling attracted to Christian, he confides in his friend Kat, who encourages him not to label himself.

In a 2017 edition of The Guardian, Journalist Cassie Tongue applauded Dance Academy for its “caring, refreshing take on young Australian queerness… Kat’s response to Sammy’s confession is not just a relief given how much we, as viewers, want good things for our favourite characters; it’s also gently instructive to the show’s target audience. I can’t imagine a warmer reaction to the fumblings of early comings-out. Having a Sammy to relate to, a Kat to emulate, is a great gift for young people just starting to have these conversations with their friends.”

Another pivotal storyline was the shock death of Sammy at the end of Dance Academy’s second season – a television moment which is still talked about by fans of the show who are now in their 20s.

“We did go down the really hard path of killing one of our most beloved characters,” said Joanna. “It was heartbreaking to do it and we cried every time we saw the episodes. But it also gave us a really lovely opportunity to explore grief. Everybody has people that die in their lives and a lot of young people have had to deal with loss and grief, and we felt like it was an important thing to deal with. Our cast really rallied together in their performances and I think delivered beautiful work and some really heartbreaking performances that do stay with you.”

Maggie Orr loved Dance Academy as a child and says there was a huge response to Sammy’s death among her peers.

“In grades five and six all my friends and I were watching Dance Academy and by the time the second series came out we were all so invested in all the characters – we loved them, so when Sammy died, it was devastating,” Maggie said.

“The next day at school we were all talking about it and some girls were crying. One asked the teacher if we could have a minute’s silence for Sammy. He looked at us all and thought a real person had actually died.”

Producer/Executive Producer Joanna Werner on the Dance Academy set

Dance Academy won multiple awards, including two TV Week Logie Awards for Most Outstanding Children’s Program and accolades at the Chicago International Film Festival Television Awards and the New York Festival’s Television and Film Awards. Writer Samantha Strauss won two AWGIE Awards for her writing on the series, Jeffrey Walker and Daniel Nettheim were recognised with Australian Directors Guild Awards, and Joanna Werner was named 2012 Australian Children’s Producer of the Year at the SPAA Independent Producer Awards.

That was only the beginning for Joanna and Samantha, whose careers have gone from strength to strength since Dance Academy. Samantha’s writing credits include The End, Nine Perfect Strangers, The Wrong Girl and feature film The Dry. Joanna has produced programs including Ready for This, Surviving Summer, Clickbait, the multi-award-winning ABC series The Newsreader and the upcoming Crazy Fun Park.

“Dance Academy was fundamental: it's a highlight of my career and probably always will be. It was a really beautiful experience,” said Joanna.

The Dance Academy series aired from 2010 to 2013, but continues to be watched and loved to this day. So strong was the love of its audience that a spin off film, Dance Academy: The Comeback was released in 2017.

Aside from the drama of the plot and the performance element, and of course the stunning harbour setting, Joanna credits the performances of the talented young cast with its continuing success.

“I think the aspirational setting in the ballet world and in Sydney on the harbour are all lovely things, but fundamentally it just comes down to the characters,” said Joanna. “People fell in love with those characters and their dreams and [became] very invested in them… the young actors, who are not so young anymore, they just did such a beautiful job and really connected to the audience.

“One of the amazing things with Dance Academy is that amongst all that drama is dance and music, which are so impactful,” said Joanna. “That was one of the unique things about the show – that whilst dealing with these heightened and big dramatic points and emotions, was dance and music amongst that. And I feel like that gave it a special point of uniqueness and really makes it stand up.”

Dance Academy can be streamed on ABC iview.