Youth Dance Company Stompin' announces return with a new approach

The project, which will run for seven months and end with a completed performance work, has opened auditions for 20 dancers.

The company is looking to work with a small, cohesive troupe of young people aged 13 to 26, with the successful candidates to play a major role in the dance work's creation.

Stompin' Youth Dance Company artistic director Caitlin Comerford said this was a "particularly special" project for the more than 30-year-running group.

"We're doing something brand new for Stompin' with this work," Ms Comerford said.

"This is going to be a contemporary, site-specific performance project that will focus on our island home.

"We'll be using some previously unseen footage of our dancers across Tasmania and at places in the north of the island but giving the freedom to our youth dancers to create.

"We really want to make make sure each individual dancer feels seen and heard and has their place."

Stompin' has a long history of working with young people to create professional scale performances.

"What we do is to elevate youth voice and present it in a capacity that's appreciated by everyone," Ms Comerford said.

Their new project will run for additional months compared with other Stompin' programs and include contemporary dance technique training.

The additional time would also allow for the project's members to spend time building trust and rapport with each other, Stompin's leaders and guest artists according to Ms Comerford.

These guest professional artists are expressly brought to the island to collaborate on a project.

This year's artists include Liesel Zink - an award-winning choreographer who has worked with Sydney Dance Company - Troy Merrit, Stompin' alumni Ebony Nichols and Keia Mcgrady.

Merrit has credits with Blink and Soma Lumia, specialising in technology and audio experience - something Ms Comerford said would be integral to the new show.

"We're really really excited and lucky to be working with him," she said.

"He will help us to work with that projection to hopefully turn the space in from sort of like a very stark neutral space into a lush Tasmanian wilderness."

But the project isn't all about the artists involved - it's also about turning the new Stompin' troupe into artists themselves.

"The unique thing about stompin is that we we treat our dancers like, like they are the guest artists themselves," Ms Comerford said.

"We try our best to dissolve a sense of hierarchy around teacher and student, artist and youth dancer.

"The young people's voice is equal to their professional collaborator.

"That's why we need creative, open minded dancers who love to move to join us in creating an unforgettable performance experience."

Stompin' auditions will begin on February 27, at 6:30pm at 197 Wellington Street.