Street Dance in Focus: Practices, communities and futures in Australia is the first national survey of Australia’s street dance community.  

The report provides insights into the demographic make-up of Australia’s street dance community, the places and hours in which people practice, employment and career pathways, along with Australian street dancers’ professional and creative ambitions.  

Street Dance in Focus was produced through a partnership between Creative Australia and Melbourne-based street dance advocacy organisation, Cypher Culture. It draws on survey data from 471 participants in Australia’s street dance community and several in-depth interviews with street dance practitioners.   

^{Image: Mario The Unguided at Uni Sessions student battles, presented by Cypher Culture at State Library Victoria. Photo: Namchops Photography.}

Key findings 

• The Australian street dance community surveyed is typically young, female identifying and living in metropolitan locations. Half of the street dance community surveyed are 25–34 years old (49%) and one third are aged 18–24 (33%). The street dance community has high rates of participation from women (54%) and overwhelmingly lives in big cities, where community infrastructure largely exists.
• The street dance community in Australia is culturally and linguistically diverse. The majority of participants self-identified as belonging to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds (64%). Almost half of the street dancers surveyed were born outside of Australia (42%), with a large number coming from the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and New Zealand.
• Street dancers are highly engaged in their local and global communities, frequently attending street dance events both interstate and internationally. Over half of surveyed street dance participants are frequent attendees at street dance events, reporting they attend free community or paid events at least once a week (52%).
• Street dancers are avid consumers of the arts. In addition to their strong engagement with the street dance community, most respondents say they also attend arts and creative activities outside of street dance (89%). In comparison, respondents show low interest in sports, with 66% reporting that they had not attended any sporting events in the past 12 months.
• The street dance community is currently learning the ropes of how to secure financial assistance for its practice. While some are facing challenges and barriers, the street dance community is adapting quickly and experiencing promising success rates.
• The street dance community want to increase their participation in street dance, either to realise personal aspirations or to foster connections with the community. The majority of respondents highlighted they would like to participate in higher profile street dance events and competitions (56%) and increase their social media presence (50%).