IT’S GOOD news week at QL2 Dance which, while warming  up for the year’s big show, “Connected”, has been shortlisted for an Australian Dance Award

The 2015 production “Reckless Valour”, first created in 2005 for the Quantum Leap ensemble but later revamped by independent choreographer James Batchelor, has been shortlisted in the “Outstanding Achievement in Youth Dance” category.

Naturally QL2 artistic director Ruth Osborne says of this tribute to young Australians in war, “It is a testament to the creativity and hard work of the young dancers and the team of choreographers, composers and video artists that brought it to the stage.”

Back in 2011, QL2 Dance also won the ADA for Outstanding Achievement in Youth or Community Dance.  Osborne was also awarded the Award for Services to Dance. Quantum Leap ensemble also boasts some extraordinary alumni including two of the dancers touring here with Bangarra Dance theatre.

But 2016 has hither   provided little  reason for rejoicing, with news of substantial defunding by the Australia Council, part of a nationwide sweep of well-respected arts organisations.

Nothing daunted, the plucky company has embarked on its annual mainstage show, “Connected,”  to be seen next week at The Playhouse.

The 32 young dancers in the show have worked with top   dance artists Sara Black, Kristina Chan and Lingua Franca to create three works about ‘connection’. It not about tablets or phones — “just bodies, movement and some very loud voices”. As Osborne put it, “in exploring different forms of connection, we’re breaking away from those little screens. And getting in touch with ourselves, with others, and the environment we inhabit.”

In her view, each work in the triple bill shows a lot of maturity in Quantum Leap ensemble, which is augmented by visitors from Thailand, Perth and regional NSW. “These choreographers have collaborated with the dancers to draw out a subtlety of expression you might not expect from young dancers,” she says.

The dancers, she explains, worked with Kristina Chan and her composer James Brown together in the studio — creating dance and music side by side for her piece, “Infinite”. Chan says, “These young dancers are physically and intellectually invested in the process of making and performing dance and it was an absolute pleasure to make this work with them.”

As well, the group that performed the premiere of Sara Black’s “Act of Contact” as a one-off in April have now refined and honed it.

The longest of the three pieces is “All our might”, created by Lingua Franca (dancer/choreographer Alison Plevey and actor/director Adam Deusien) with the dancers, which asks the question, “In an age of empowerment, action and aggression, what is strength?”

“Connected,” at the Playhouse, 7pm, Wednesday July 27 – Saturday July 30 at + July 30 at 2pm, bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.