Shane Carroll

Throughout her working life, Shane has been privileged to work with many inspiring people, and across many contexts within the performing arts, primarily dance. 

As a professional dancer with Nederlands Dans Theater and Sydney Dance Company, a teacher for various dance companies, lecturer for training programs, advisor for arts agencies, Shane has more recently focused on programs to build capacity and inclusion in the art form that has been part of her life since a very early age.

Shane is a former Chair of the Dance Board of the Australia Council for the Arts (now Creative Australia), and prior member of the Advisory panel for the NSW Ministry for the Arts (now Create NSW). In 2013, Shane received an Australian Dance Award for Services to Dance. She was part of a 2014 research team involving the Dementia Collaboration Research Centre, looking at the benefits of dance for people living with dementia. She is a graduate of the Australian Ballet School and holds a BA in Politics and History.

Shane currently looks after Education and Accessibility at Bangarra Dance Theatre, where in recent years she has guided the company’s development of Audio Described (AD) performances for people who are blind or have low vision.

With increased attention being paid to disability inclusion through policy and legislation, the arts sector is working to address ways to provide more access and enriched experiences for people who live with disability. In dance, there is much scope for innovation in how AD provides not only description of what is seen, but also what is felt emotionally, culturally, and physically.

Shane plans to conduct focused research into established practices for audio description in various cities in Europe, and explore examples of integrated AD, where the AD is part of the creative process for new works.