d’faces of youth arts is a CCD based art organisation outreaching to youth in the regional town of Whyalla South Australia. It is an inclusive environment of all abilities, where novices and experienced performing artists work together to develop their skills and develop and make new dance, theatre and performing arts works.

“Nothing’s Gonna Hold us Down” was a small dance showcase of local talent ranging from 8 – 18 yrs old. The Senior dance group worked with Dominique on the question – “what holds people down?” to produce a multimedia introduction to the work that highlighted their own point of view on this question. This kind of work is illuminating, sharing what young people recognise as limitations to thier own and others stRuggle to dream and achieve in life.

The theatre based production of the Juniors drama group delved into a local environmental planning issue – reclaiming part of the prized local park for widening a main road. This work utilised media projection to narrate the story in the eyes of the alien from another planet who was looking at how humans treated the earth. Live performance was intersected by the ‘alien’ narration.

d’faces of youth arts also is a supporter of access being gained specifically by local aboriginal young people. The Nunga dance program operated on a weekly basis, teaching hiphop with Dominique. This group of girls worked toward a showing for the local Crocfest – national indigenous youth touring festival.

During my time with d’faces Stephen House produced his latest script on the dfaces seniors. I worked with Stephen on a small dance scene for the season which was played at the Whyalla Performance Space in 2005.