Dancing for innovation: Queensland Ballet’s university partnerships in action

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating intersection of academia and the arts. Joining us is Dilshani Weerasinghe, Executive Director of Queensland Ballet, who shares how the organisation collaborates with universities to drive innovation, research, and talent development in the creative industries.

From using dance to support health and well-being to interdisciplinary partnerships in science, business, and technology, Dilshani reveals how these collaborations are shaping the future of the arts.

You can listen to the full interview in our podcast:

Also available on:

Transcript

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

It is my pleasure to welcome Dilshani Weerasinghe, Executive Director of Queensland Ballet, as we explore the role of university-industry collaboration in the arts. Queensland ballet partners with universities to drive research, innovation and talent development, fostering meaningful connections between academia and the creative industries.

It is quite a unique and very important topic. Dilshani, thank you so much for joining me today, as we will be exploring this together.

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

Thank you for having me.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

Dilshani, I would just like to say a few words about you before we start our conversation, because it is indeed a quite unique career trajectory. Dilshani, Executive Director of Queensland Ballet, oversees the strategic and operational aspects of one of Australia’s most successful and vibrant ballet companies.

Passionate about the arts and championing non-profit organizations, prior to joining Queensland Ballet, Dilshani helped senior positions in various arts and charity organisations, including the Royal Opera House in the UK, the Sydney Opera House and Brisbane Powerhouse. Thank you so much again for joining. I am quite excited to learn as much as I can from you today.

Let’s just start. So, with your unique career trajectory that spans from arts, business and leadership, I am wondering what actually drew you to the intersection of cultural organisations and external engagement.

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

Firstly, I would like to thank you very much for having me. I feel very lucky to be doing what I do every day. I have never really had a plan or a known career path. I have always just put one foot in front of the other and put my hand out for every opportunity and every challenge, without looking too far ahead. I believe that if you have a plan, you sometimes just stick to that blindly and you might not be able to see the new ideas and thoughts that are coming at you from all angles.

Around cultural organisations and external partnerships, I can say my favourite ballet term is pas de deux, which means “a dance for two”. In ballet, there is nothing that really happens with just one person. There is a pas de deux between two dancers, between onstage and backstage, between artist and teacher, between organisation and partners, between organisation and universities between our organisation and donors. There is very little we can achieve by ourselves.

I think one of the reasons why I have stayed in the arts for so long is because that unique chemistry you find when you work with others is particularly vibrant in the arts. It sounds very cliche to say it, but the arts are very creative. And if you are an out-of-the-box thinker there are many opportunities for you in this space.

It is all about collaboration. And when the chemistry is right between two parties, just like on stage between two dancers, it is absolutely magical. When the chemistry is right, it is not a forced marriage, but a true one. There is a magical energy and momentum. In business and in life, having momentum is quite rare.

If you can pair momentum with a shared purpose, which is what comes out of the right kind of collaboration, then you can make a lot of magic. In the creative industries what excites me most is that we seek the energy of others. Even if we are introverts, and I am an introvert, we are seeking to enhance our impact through working with others.

I think that is what attracted me to the arts and what has kept my eyes shiny for what I do every day, so I really don’t feel like I have ever worked a day in my life. If you ask me about my career trajectory, what I can say is that I have chased “my shiny eyes”, I have chased what makes me happy.

And I have put my hand up for every opportunity and I find myself here. I don’t really know who I or what I want to be when I grow up, but I know that my peripheral vision is open to all the things that are around me. And in the arts, there is a lot of vibrancy, a lot of opportunity.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

That is beautifully said, thank you so much. I really liked what you said about collaboration and the magic that happens on the stage and backstage. I think this is exactly perhaps how we would look at partnering as well. We often use the metaphor of marriage so, again, very nice to hear that you have been using the same metaphor too.

I would like to explore a little bit deeper and go into that space. Maybe you can tell us a little bit more about how Queensland Ballet is deeply engaged with universities.

Perhaps it would be even good to share some examples of collaborations that have led to a meaningful impact in both, arts in ballet, particularly, but also for academia itself.

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

Yes, surely. We have so many collaborations with universities, and we have done for many years. We partner with universities across areas as diverse as our Dance for Health community programs, our marketing and communications departments, production, technical… We also have traineeships for students of production and stage arts.

Not only because that is a space where we want to develop skills, but also because we are learning from future generations around the technical and other understandings that we need to have to produce relevant research into our Dance for Health. Community classes make sure that we are presenting the community with very strong evidence, backing the benefits of dance for people’s health and well-being.

We are not just saying that ballet can have health benefits. We are stating the hypothesis that ballet has health benefits and now we need to back that with research and expertise. We are developing our knowledge and understanding across the arts, across public media and communications. We are developing how we write for the arts, because there is a lack of arts journalism at the moment and we ask ourselves, “How do we help that expertise?”.

There are countless and unexpected ways to partner. We are currently practicing out in healthcare, in hospitals and frontline services, and in aged care.

We are not just saying, “Hey, we want to be in aged care”. There is always an invitation to say, “We think there is value in you coming into aged care, let’s work together to see what the benefits might be for those living here”.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

This is a wonderful example. I am wondering, how do you manage to engage your own artists, your own employees within the powerhouse, to make sure that those collaborations happen?

I can imagine, I hope at least, that the partners welcome you with open arms, but how does that work sort of in practice? I am very curious to hear.  

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

We do a lot of talking, and we do a lot of active listening. If we are out somewhere or even someone new within an existing university relationship, it doesn’t take long for us to find an area of alignment that has potential. Then, we explore that a little bit, but it is not just me and one other.

We think about who the subject expert is and where the chemistry will be right, so that we can put, for example, somebody who works with Downsville Parkinson’s together with somebody who is working at a university in that same topic. We engage our team at the very star, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

It is important to know that you can have a conversation, but you shouldn’t force the marriage.

There should be a natural chemistry. We shouldn’t be trying to make something work. And I think engaging our team, always with open and transparent communication, and a shared outcome are some of the keys to making anything work in a marriage.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

On the work that you do around research on the health benefits of dance, it would be also good to hear what kind of insights have emerged and how do these findings have influenced the work that you do.  

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

I will give you an example. We are currently working on a very exciting project with our Ballet for Brain Injury classes. They are held in person at Queensland Ballet. However, we know that people living with brain injuries such as stroke or brain cancer, traumatic brain injuries… can be very geographically dispersed.

So, in an enormous country like Australia, where there is a lot of regional communities, we need to find innovative ways to try to reach people in regional and remote areas, where they can’t travel hundreds of kilometres to do a class here.

We are about to start a research project with a major Queensland university to investigate whether Ballet for Brain Injury could be effectively and safely run as an online offering, so that we can reach people and their carers and families all over Queensland and potentially further.

This type of concept could not happen without a major university partner and a research partner for us to collaborate with, so that we are making sure that we are measuring the longitudinal impacts and not just saying that ballet can change lives. We are actually proving through research that it can, and most importantly, research also keeps us true to our purpose and constantly helps us improve our endeavour. That is an example of a new project that we are working on.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

We will keep our eyes out for the results of this endeavour. I hear a lot of presence of different kinds of disciplines in that marriage that you are talking about, that there is a lot of interdisciplinarity. I am also wondering that, beyond traditional performing arts, perhaps in education, how do you see the role of that interdisciplinary collaboration?

For example, in your case, that would be dance, but then we also talk about science, technology, perhaps even business. What role does interdisciplinarity play in this bigger interplay of different disciplines? 

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

I am a mother of three and someone who is very passionate about young people. I do a lot of mentoring with young people from various backgrounds, including disadvantaged. I believe that if the future is not bright for our young people, then it is not bright for any of us. As a mother of three, I have taken the view, not always supported by my husband, that I need to lean into what our kids and our young people are interested in, so that I am learning how to relate to their reality and their stimuli.

And I am coming to the question that when you do lean into the future, which is what the young person is facing, you can see that there are a lot of opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. Yes, between dance and science, between dance and technology, but you can also see that for us to be relevant, we absolutely need to explore the grey area between the traditional and the future.

So, for example, with dance there is a piece around how does the human brain process it. Why that is interesting is because when you use technology to consider dance, you are entering the world of the future, where the young person is naturally through social media, through AI, through all of those.

I am not necessarily meaning young person, I am meaning the forward thinkers, who are thinking about the future collaborative opportunities. When you do that and you devour the reels on social media, you enter a space where you are exploring topics like, “What could a set look like if you were to work with AI?” or “What could music look or sound like if you were working with a set algorithm?”. That perhaps is enhanced through technology. There are many opportunities when you look at it that way.

In business, as the dance sector improves, and the business of ballet becomes more complex, there are many opportunities for us to consider what are the innovations not only in how we look after our people, but also how we look after our sales in marketing and in recruitment. So, we partner not just with universities, but also with experts in design thinking, in accounting, in legal, in how we recruit elegantly, in facilities management, in software… Because if we are not innovating all the time, then we risk not being relevant. And if we risk not being relevant, then an art form like ballet could diminish its impact just because we got too comfortable in who we are.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

I really like how you embraced the spirit of innovation and collaboration pretty much across all the activities that you do. It is not just the performing arts; it is also some of the operations that help you run what you run. It is very humbling to hear.

You also spoke about developing future talent and the future thinkers, and I think it would be a nice way to dig a little bit deeper into this topic.

So, as you spoke about the recruitment, I am also wondering, what skills and attributes would you look for in graduates who want to work in the art sector? Because I think it is also quite an interesting topic today, with all the trends happening pretty much at the same time.

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

Look, this is a personal passion topic for me. I am a little unusual in how I recruit, I am always looking for the right mindset. Yes, of course, it depends on the role. If you are looking for a somebody in human resources, you want to make sure that you are recruiting somebody who is qualified and experienced for what you know is coming.

The arts are not for the faint-hearted. We ask a lot of ourselves and our teams. We are often underfunded and sometimes not able to pay market rate for certain talents. So, I am always looking for someone who is not afraid of what I call the hustle of thinking outside of the box and somebody who is ready to buckle up and sit outside of their job description, just because that is where the magic happens.

Some questions I might ask during the interviews are things like, “If you can tell me safely, what are the last three things you googled?” or “What book are you reading at the moment?” or “What do you do on your downtime?”. Because I am looking for someone who can answer those things with a fluency that tells me a little bit about their mindset.

I am obviously biased, but there is something very liberating about working in the arts. There are many young people I meet who I think to myself, “Oh, you need to work in the arts so that you can be yourself. You won’t have to mold to something or someone else. Yes, you will have rules, but you are also going to be surrounded by free thinkers”. Of course, there will be some that aren’t, that are sitting in more structured roles, but essentially, sometimes I meet young people, and I think they need to work in the arts because that is where they are going to fly.

I am going to tell you a bit of a thing now around what I believe in terms of “shiny eyes”. I believe that each one of us owes it to ourselves to be looking for a job or a vocation or a calling that gives us shiny eyes. So, a lot of my work is about persuading or inspiring funding or partnerships or donations.

I always say that if I am sitting opposite someone and I believe in my cause and my purpose, then my eyes are literally shining with it, and I don’t have to do a hard sell.

The person sitting opposite me will be like, “I want to be a part of that because that is compelling. That is engaging. That is not a transactional sales piece. That is somebody doing something exciting that they believe in, and I want to be a part of that.”

That is how we inspire donations, partnerships, collaborations… If your eyes are not shiny for what you are doing, then I believe you are working, but you are not being driven by your own passion, and it can feel like a sacrifice. If you are in a job where you are loving what you are doing, it is literally shining from you.

There can be hard days, and you might have a bit of dullness, but if your eyes are dull day in and day out, then you owe it to yourself to go and find something that makes your eyes shiny. I think I obviously have found that in the arts. I believe that if it is not in the arts or is not in that organisation, you owe it to yourself to go and find it.

And sometimes, when you are sitting opposite someone and you are interviewing them, you can tell whether the chemistry is going to be right with your organisation, whether they are going to find their shiny eyes with you. That is what I am looking for.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

And then when you find them, the beautiful dance happens as well. I am completely with you on that because it is often said that you hire for values and not so much for the skills. So, I really like what you said about the piece around mindset, and I think, especially these days, even at the universities, when we talk about innovating education, we often talk about how we can educate and develop transversal skills, entrepreneurial mindset, creative thinking…

On that, I was wondering if you want to give a little bit of advice to universities and colleges on how they can better prepare students for careers in cultural organisations, especially with this piece around mindset. 

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

It is quite interesting because I think universities and schools have challenges in how they prepare anyone for a workplace these days. If I look back at the crossroads that I have faced over time, or many of my colleagues have faced, I think it is about questioning, “Do I take a predictable path or do I follow my instincts and my passion and just go for it?”.

I think there is a challenge in that we sometimes fight within ourselves, and we don’t have a plan. That is quite hard for some universities to face, because they make you think about your assignments, about your pathways, your degrees, your credits and all those things.

Yes, that is important when you are in university, but I think you also have to empower the individual to follow their instincts and chase their shiny eyes. I want to answer that a little bit differently. Maybe it is not actually about university and schools. Maybe it is actually about making sure that you are being true to yourself, and you are following your passions and your shiny eyes and finding the ways that feel right to you.

If you are going somewhere and it is feeling like hard work, maybe you do have to push through and get that credit and do that piece. But if it is really hard work, I would actually question whether that is a pathway to shiny eyes, or you should be looking at other options.

So, I think there is a little bit of universities helping you find your higher awareness, but also there is a responsibility that makes you go, “Oh, maybe this is not for me and maybe I should pivot and go this way”. That is a bit of a controversial answer, I know, but I think there is a personal responsibility we have to take there as well.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

I really like what you said because I think universities can be a very good home base for those students, and supporting them on their pathway to shiny eyes, as you just said. And again, very beautifully said, everyone can play a little role.

Talking about future-thinking and forward-looking, maybe we can talk a little bit about the future of collaboration and the evolving landscape.

How do you see university-arts, university-creative industries on a larger scale, collaborations’ evolving in the next 5 to 10 years?

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

I think one of the things we aren’t very good about as a society is acknowledging some of the larger challenges. I am biased towards young people, and I think I might have said this already, but I always think that if the future is not bright for them, then it is not bright for any of us.

I wonder whether some of us could get together and collaborate more: universities, arts, business… and think about how to improve some of those societal challenges. I know that sounds very cliche, but if we put our brains and creativity together with business savvy and all those experts that are around us, imagine what we could achieve with some of those scenarios.

For example, there is a challenge for young people, since there are more young people at risk than there ever has been. To have a brighter future, whether that is a career in the arts or a pathway through university, there are important questions to be resolved: “How can we help them find a safe place where they can consider those opportunities? What can we do together? How can we talk to them at school, or at an afterschool program, or in a club, about making better decisions? How can they make better decisions and how can we as an arts organisation, as a university, or with business, help and guide them?

So, I would like to think that the underlying question for collaborations of any nature in the next five to ten years might be: “How can we make a difference together?”. Together, we are stronger. How can we make a difference? What is the pertinent question or challenge or opportunity that is out there right now that together we can make a difference, even if we just change it by one minute degree?

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

It takes time indeed. Wonderful advice. I would like to finish off with one particular question that I thought would be good to end the conversation with. For arts organisations that haven’t yet partnered with universities or academic institutions more generally, where should they start?

Because we heard a lot today of how important and great it is to form those partnerships, but where should they begin?

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

That is really easy: have a chat, have a conversation. There are so many opportunities that you are not going to be stuck for ideas when you have the conversation. So, in arts organisations, there are lots of ideas and lots of opportunities, and in universities, you multiply that, because there are all these disciplines within universities, within the various faculties. If you went to a function with one university, you would find 10 different experts in the space of an hour, if you were working the room.

Have the conversation, you don’t have to have a meeting. You could have a conversation there. If it doesn’t feel right, move on to the next one. Have another conversation. I can guarantee that, in the space of an hour, if you spent time there, you would find a natural chemistry that was worth looking at. And even if that conversation doesn’t go anywhere, you have made a connection, and that will spin off.

I am not necessarily saying LinkedIn or any of those things, but it will spin off to something else. I always say, throw a lot of irons on the fire, have a lot of chats. You never know what is going to ignite.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

So true. It is a people’s game in the end, right? We are all human beings, we just need to talk to each other.

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

We just need to have a chat.

Balzhan Orazbayeva:

That is wonderful. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed the conversation. We look forward to staying in touch and hope you have a good day.

Thank you.

Dilshani Weerasinghe:

Thank you very much. Take care.

Balzhan Orazbayeva: Take care. Goodbye.

Ready for more?

If you want to learn more about the intersection of academia, the arts, and community engagement, tune in to the episode Connecting communities through art: The Research Creation Showcase, where we explore the impact of curatorial engagements and the value of arts and humanities education in a changing world.

Interested about transformative universities-industry partnerships that are bridging theory and practice to future-proof the careers of students? Head now to our case study collection, Fostering talent through education partnerships, to read 4 stories that illustrate the power of collaboration in driving innovation and shaping the future.

Stay tuned for the next episode on this series and don’t forget to follow us on your preferred podcast platform!