Critical Path respectfully acknowledges the Gadigal people as the traditional custodians of the land where the organisation is based. We recognise Australia’s First Peoples continuing connection to these lands and acknowledge the elders past and present.
WELCOME
Critical Path’s Annual Report 2021 sets out the activities of the organisation over the twelve-month reporting period. 2021 was definitely a year.
Within the midst of continuing to deal, grapple and evolve with the effects of everything going on in the world, Critical Path has persevered and shown resilience. The organisation has consolidated and grown its program reach, looking to continue to engage with new communities and strengthen its ties within the sector. Existing programs continued in strength and Critical Path maintained its place as a support and facilitating organisation whilst being a driver for artist exploring new territory.
Critical Path’s engagement with artists grew through the Digital Artist Curator role, with Matt Cornell undertaking ambitious digital based projects and building throughout the year. It’s an incredibly interesting direction for Critical Path that will continue in years to come.
In 2021, Critical Path’s programs continued to listen to the voices of diverse artists, building on advice from board members, community and staff within the organisation to grow our ability to connect with different people, artforms, locations
and of socio-cultural settings within the dance and choreographic industry. Jasmine Gulash took up the role of First Nations Producer and has cemented herself as an invaluable part of the team.
I feel the organisation is particularly stable at the moment through the vision and leadership Director, Claire Hicks and the foundation support in the organisation by Stephanie Tatzenko in the role of Finance and Administration Manager. Through their close work over the last twelve months Critical Path has been able to persevere, grow and be a rock for independent artists. Without this core support and leadership the organisation can’t achieve any of its lofty goals.
Funding and delivery of projects and programs whilst dealing with the ongoing global effects of COVID-19 has still been an incredibly challenge which Claire and the team have delivered on. Sector support has been a huge focus for last year and continues to be this year as we look to move forward, supporting and engaging with as much of the sector as we can.
Travis De Vries – Chair
ASSOCIATION INFORMATION
ABN
AND INCORPORATION NUMBER
ABN: 12 049 903 261
Critical Path Incorporated is an Incorporated Association (NSW)
Incorporation Number: INC9881671
REGISTERED OFFICE & PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS
The Drill
1C New Beach Road
Rushcutters Bay NSW 2011
RESPONSIBLE ENTITIES
Auditors
Mitchell & Partners, Chartered Accountants
Public Officer (2021)
Claire Hicks
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
The Committee members of Critical Path Incorporated present their Report together with the financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2021 and the Independent Audit report, covering those financial statements. The following persons were committee members of Critical Path Incorporated during or since the end of the financial year.
There were 4 general meetings during the year (the AGM was held on 27 April). In addition, there was a Committee Planning Day after the general meeting on the 31 July as well as a gathering to discuss Anti-Racism and Digital Drill. Meetings during the year and the number of meetings attended by each member are as follows:
Alexio Chibika (Treasurer)
Lee Pemberton (Artist Representative)
Catherine Sullivan has been Secretary since 8 April 2019. Claire Hicks has been the Association’s Public Officer since June 2016.
Details of Committee Member’ qualifications, experience and special responsibilities can be found below.
TRAVIS DE VRIES
Chair (to 1 September 2020)
Travis is the producer and host of Broriginals and the producer of Fear of a Black Planet he is a concept artist and a gamer. He is also the founder and director of Awesome Black and an avid artist. Travis is a trained dancer and fine artist and is alumni of NAISDA Dance College. Travis has a wealth of producing experience having worked as a producer for Sydney Opera House and a range of arts programmes and festivals.
CATHERINE SULLIVAN
Secretary
Catherine is a lawyer with extensive law firm and in-house corporate legal experience and is currently Senior Manager & Senior Legal Counsel at ASX Limited specialising in financial markets, corporate, governance and regulatory law. She is a director of Urban Theatre Projects and National Young Writers Festival and former Chair of Critical Stages and director of Brand X.
ALEXIO CHIBIKA
Treasurer (agreed to joined Board December 2021, commencement 1 January 2022)
Alexio is a Chartered Accountant with extensive audit experience in an international audit firm across five countries. He is currently a Senior Audit Manager and is responsible for the audits of large listed and multinational organisations. He has experience in Audit, Financial Management, Corporate Governance, Internal controls and Financial Reporting. He has also volunteered as Treasurer for various Not-for-profit entities.
BRENDON O’CONNELL
Brendan has held senior management, programming and producing roles at Sydney Opera House, City of Sydney, Performance Space, Sydney Festival, Adelaide Fringe, and the Australian Consulate-General in New York working across artforms and genres on a suite of large-scale projects and festivals. Brendan is currently Executive Producer at Lucy Guerin Inc.
VIRGINIA LEE
2021 Acting Treasurer
Virginia is a legally qualified professional with extensive strategic and operational experience in government, think tanks and non-profit organisation. She has a background in international trade relations, Asia engagement and law. Her expertise is in developing sustainable corporate strategy, risk assessment, and governance. She currently works in Trade and Investment within the NSW Treasury and is a Board Member on the Professionals in International Trade.
ELLE EVANGELISTA
Artist Representative (Stood down 27 April 2021)
Elle performance credits include Force Majeure, KAGE Physical Theatre, Murmuration, Carriageworks and Opera Australia. Elle has collaborated with other independent artists including Matt Cornell, Joshua Pether and on multiple works by Ghenoa Gela. Elle has worked as Rehearsal Director for Force Majeure and KAGE Physical Theatre.
AZZAM MOHAMED
Artist Representative (Joined 16 November 2021)
Azzam, also known as Shazam, is a dancer, performer, and educator from Sudan. Azzam’s dance practice encompasses a range of styles, from traditional cultural dance through to hip hop styles, he is able to bring these forms together to create a breathtaking original dance fusion that echoes his history and at the same time showcasews his incredible ability as a dancer. Azzam’s dance practice involves teaching at studios and festivals, performing and touring in stage shows, competing in dance competitions and judging, organizing events, facilitating workshops, and mentoring and coaching young and emerging Australian dancers.
LEE PERMBERTON
Artist Representative (Joined 2 March 2021)
Lee has worked as a dancer and choreographer. Her experience, skills and interest lie in regional development and equity in the arts. Lee’s recent works engage with site-specific performance creation, the cultivation of remembering and collecting, awakening in the environment and fostering awareness.
JASMIN SHEPPARD
Artist Representative
Jasmin is a contemporary dancer, choreographer and director, a Tagalaka Aboriginal woman with Irish, Chinese and Hungarian ancestry. She spent 12 years with Bangarra Dance Theatre, performing numerous lead roles and choreographed one major work for the company, ‘MACQ’. In 2020 Jasmin will create works for NAISDA Dance College, Sydney Dance Company’s PPY program, and Catapult Dance. Her work is passionate, political and has been described as “surreal and highly evocative” (The Australian).
PATRICIA WOOD
Artist Representative (to 2 March 2021)
Patricia is an independent dancer, choreographer and performer. Her work draws from choreographic and ethnographic processes and takes multiple forms, including performance, radio transmission and text. She is also a teaching artist with Sydney Dance Company and a caretaker of ReadyMade Works
CHANGES TO THE GOVERNING COMMITTEE
In 2021 changes to the Committee are as follows:
Lee Pemberton (Artist Representative) joined the board on 2 March 2021 and Azzam Mohamed joined on 16 November 2021.
Elle Evangelista and Patricia Wood (Artist Representatives) stepped down 27 April 2021 and 2 March 2021 respectively.
PYT Why Is This Mine Choreographic Lab, Credit Anna Kucera
OPERATIONS REPORT
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
There were changes to staffing arrangements throughout the year, including temporary hires and changes to contracts. Please see next section for full details.
STAFFING NOTES
In 2019, Claire Hicks continued in the role of Director (0.8).
Stephanie Tatzenko joined the organisation as Finance and Administration Manager on the 2 March 2021 (1.0). Laura Osweiler stepped in to support the finance function from January 2021 for Stephanie’s handover.
Jasmine Gulash took up the new role of First Nations Producer on 18 January 2021 (0.5).
Matt Cornell joined Critical Path on a project contract (0.3) as Digital ArtistCurator in January.
Ozlem Bekiroglou Aldogan continued as Producer (returning from parental leave in January 2021 with an incremental workload) with a renewed contract (0.6) until December 2021.
Critical Path also continued with Karen Steains (financial consultant) on a casual service contract basis.
Contracts with Webgirl (web and e-news support) and QBT Consulting (IT support) continued across the year.
PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES
Critical Path is a choreographic research and development centre based at the Drill Hall, a large rehearsal space on the harbour in central Sydney, Australia. Our mission is to cultivate a program of research and practice development opportunities for choreographers and dance makers, nurturing diversity and excellence in a supportive critical environment which fosters creative risk-taking.
With a distinct focus on research and innovation, we support Australian choreographers to incubate new ideas and experiments in our studio so that excellent new work can make it to our stages. We aim to nourish a genuinely independent dance company as they push the boundaries of existing practice in relation to local and international fields, enhancing the vibrancy of the Australian dance sector.
We emphasise our role as a hub, a space for the independent artists to congregate, cross fertilise, debate, critique. A place connected into the broader arts sector through a host of partnerships.
OPERATING RESULT
The net surplus for the year amounted to $17,091 (2020: $24,747).
Critical Path has been serving the contemporary dance community for 16 years.
2021 ARTISTIC PROGRAM FUNDING
STATE
In 2021, we continued to be supported by Create NSW with multi-year funding secured (2+2 years) until end 2024; $280,000 per annum to cover the period January through to December each year. This is a standstill figure on previous year.
Critical Path also received Create NSW Rescue & Restart funds of $80,000
AUSTRALIA COUNCIL
Project Name
Lessons and Visions for Future Dance $99,995
Resilience Create – AUSTWN Online Exchange and Residency
Resilience Adapt – Digital Artist-Curator $19,864 $19,864
Woollahra Municipal Council supported Critical Path with a rental waiver for the Drill (in response to Covid-19) of a value of $17,594
City of Sydney provided a grant of $20,000 for a 12-Month Choreographic Development Program. We also secured $28,311 for our Amplify Digital Enhancement project commencing 1 July 2021 and running until end June 2022.
PARTNERS
Other partners provided in-kind support or spent cash directly on joint programs including BlakDance, Performance Space, PYT Fairfield, HORSE & Barefeet Dance in Taiwan, Asian Newtork for Dance (AND+).
OTHER
Other income was generated through:
Donations
Venue Hire
In-kind rent and Rent Waiver
$10,845 (consisting of individual donations)
$7,759 (rehearsal and development periods for subsidised artists/companies and independent makers severely impacted by Covid-19 but picked up towards the end of the year)
Woollahra Municipal Council continue to offer Critical Path the Research Room at no hire cost to support our artistic program. In response to Covid-19 WMC provided $17,594 in-kind as a rent waiver for the Drill.
Other direct in-kind Various professional services and miscellaneous items
Sundries A combination of membership fees and interest income
AUSPICE
Critical Path auspiced the March Dance by the Independent Dance Alliance (an unincorporated group with a membership consisting of Critical Path, DirtyFeet and ReadyMade Works) which included a City of Sydney grant of $25,000.
The organisation also acted as auspice for First Nations’ artist Henrietta Baird for her Australia Council grant of $38,339 ($6,611 spent in 2021).
STATISTICS REPORT
OVERALL ENGAGEMENT
Total artist participation (173 Unique*)
Total live audience for Critical Path activities in 2021
Total online audience for Critical Path activities in 2021 Critical Path ECR partnership, In Perpetuity, in Liveworks and An Afternoon with Performance Space
Live audience
Digital audience (unique viewers)
Digital readership1 of resourcesreports, videos, e-journals
Online readership2 (including resources from website, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, newsletter and Soundcloud)
Website visitors
Total pageviews3 on website
RESEARCH
Unique artists participated in the research program
Artist engagements in the research program
Live audience to research sharings
Online audience to research sharings
Research projects, including
Residencies
Space grants
Digital projects
Research room residency
1. This includes reads of resources (website and issuu) and views of videos.
2. This year’s numbers include page views from google analytics. Page views show how many times people loaded the website after clicking the content. Page views are a far superior metric compared to link clicks because of the depth of information that it can reveal about the success of the content.
3. Pageviews is the total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted.
DEVELOPMENT
Unique artists participated in our development program
Artist engagements in the development program
Artists contributed to Critical Dialogues
Audience to development presentations (including talks)
Online audience to development presentations Development
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Public events
Unique artists participated in our public program
Artist engagements in the delivery of our public program
Total live audience for Critical Path activities in 2021
Total online audience for Critical Path activities in 2021
Audience and participants across public program
Content-driven digital audience
YEAR ON YEAR OVERVIEW
ARTISTS INVOLVED IN CRITICAL
PATH 2021
Our focus is on those who identify as having and/or are connecting with a choreographic practice. The unique artists Critical Path worked with in 2021 was 173 in total.
ARTIST
DEMOGRAPHICS
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Artists
Artists from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Background
Young
Artists
ACTIVITIES
Research Residencies | Labs and Workshops | Discourse & Sharing
RESEARCH RESIDENCIES
The Responsive Program emphasises the value of risk–taking for future choreographic development and seeks to give choreographers an opportunity to innovate their practices in an environment that promotes open discovery and experimentation. The program encourages self–directed and collaborative proposals by independent choreographic artists that reflect their particular interests and goals. We have had many artists working at the Drill throughout the year engaged in research on their own artistic practice. This work has taken place in line with Covid-19 government restrictions and guidelines. As a workplace we moved all those activities that could be undertaken at home out of the Drill and our partner spaces, some work was re-shaped or postponed.
At the heart of Critical Path’s work are our Responsive Research Residencies. Our annual program of residencies invites artists, to bring their research to us; new ideas, practice, collaborations, reflections. Participants selected by peers receive space and financial support.
Research Artist Alice Weber, Credit Ozlem B Aldogan
Alice Weber is a dance artist working with choreography, performance and discursive outputs. During the two-week Research Artist Residency at Critical Path in April 2021, Alice researched her ongoing project Dream Cellscapes, a choreographic practice that plays out in a spreadsheet and in real life (IRL). Alice’s research takes shared digital spaces as the choreographic field. This work addresses curation as a digital and online choreographic workspace, specifically the creation and embodiment of shared digital spaces. The residency then led to a three-week solo exhibition of the same name at Cement Fondu, in April and May 2021 as part of the Textbook for Desire program.
“Rich, interesting, stimulating...enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the freedom to spend time with the artistic questions of my research, without being accountable to wider questions about a digital residency, digital choreography, etc. I also enjoyed the timing of the Research Artists’ gathering, because I was able to discuss the research from a position of immersion.” - Alice Weber
Research Artist Alice Weber, Credit Four Minutes to Midnight
In an Australia-Asia artist-led initiative and exchange, Sri Lankan born Australian grown dance-artist Amaara Raheem and Chennai-based contemporary dancer Preethi Athreya researched and built a museologically inspired ‘collection’ of gestures from handling objects sourced in each of their family homes. In conversation and practice-exchange, Amaara and Preethi seeked to follow two interconnected lines of enquiry:
1. Explore critical questions of our attachment to the things that define our identity, our sense of place.
2. Document how the concept of ‘inheritance’ can build future worlds, particularly post-pandemic.
In July 2021, Amaara, Preethi, Berlin-based dance researcher and movement artist Paula Kramer and Fijian-Indian-Australian artist and curator Shivanjani Lal explored ‘the history of colonisation in four objects’, through each bringing an object to the table, to discuss their practice and questions of inheritance.
During a two-week residency at each artist’s home in August 2021, Amaara and Preethi explored processes of homing, place-making, developing a shared language of scores and objects, reading various texts and compiling references, writing individually and collaboratively, supported by UK based dance-artist Amy Voris through somatic/ choreographic scores delivered via audio.
“CP is occupied with generating spaces of complexity where dance meets the world. CP supports a wide range of artists who are exploring what dance is or could be in multiple modes. CP facilitates process that bring different artists together, where we can unpack commonalities and differences in culture, research methods and practice.” - Amaara Raheem
Research Artist Amaara Raheem, Credit Preethi Athreya
Collaborators David Huggins and Lauren Eiko investigated the fictions and non-fictions inherent in the ongoing discovery and construction of personal cultural identities, through a choreographic framework. The research has involved learning Nihon Buyō dances from YouTube videos as a starting point. David and Lauren continued to build on this choreography during the residency and developed a dance that is a hybrid of our limited understanding of Nihon Buyō with a master’s. David and Lauren collaborated with Nihon Buyō teacher Akashi-Suma, independent dance artist Ryuichi Fujimura and performance-based artist Eugene Choi.
They considered following questions in their Research Artist Residency: How do we learn and create with a teacher at a distance; what does this do to our ability to position ourselves in the role of a student? Furthermore, this raises the question of what or who is a teacher and what is a learning experience in this present moment of bodily separation and online saturation. Investigating how we learn together-separately also connects to personal experiences of identity forming across cultural and spatial boundaries, which are shared experiences between all the collaborators in this work.
Research Artists David Huggins & Lauren Eiko, Credit Lucy Parakhina
“There was a lot more flexibility in this residency than I initially realised. At first I thought this was out of necessity due to lockdowns etc, but I later realised that CP meant what they said by “artist-lead”. Taking charge of the “shape” of our research/activities was both challenging and empowering.” - David Higgins
Research Artists David Huggins & Lauren Eiko, Credit Lucy Parakhina
Raghav Handa is an Australian choreographer and performer of Indian heritage with training in modern and Indigenous contemporary dance. Vicki Van Hout is an Indigenous independent artist with over 20 years’ experience.
In 2010, Raghav and Vicki created and performed, Dance Like Me for the TE NGARU HOU Festival in New Zealand. Dance Like Me unfolded as a series of increasingly absurdist provocations testing what happens when we utilise our cultural property as the only form of financial currency. The political/social landscape has changed dramatically since the original 2010 duet, which examined similarities between their common pre and post-colonial heritage.
In Raghav and Vicki’s Critical Path Research Artist’s Residency - no man’s land, they visited topics that is deemed “too touchy”. Together they revisited past material. This research tested how to reignite the original conversation, ‘what happens when we utilise our cultural property as the only form of financial currency’, considering it is no longer deemed appropriate to imagine ourselves, outside of ourselves.
Through this research residency, Raghav and Vicki continued to reinvigorate a significant cultural partnership and to lay down new ground rules for communication extending to the next decade drawing on the knowledge accumulated in the interim, particularly in respect to Raghav’s contemporary inter-cultural collaboration with Indian classical musician Maharshi Raval and Vicki’s ongoing cross-cultural collaborative relationship with Lebanese digital media artist Marian Abboud.
Dedicated time and resources provided by Critical Path meant we could we hone in on our research and to interrogate a ‘risky’ space deemed ‘no man’s land’, where nothing is precious and everything is sacred”
– Raghav Handa and Vicki Van Hout
Research Artists Raghav & Vicki, Credit Raghav Handa
Reina Takeuchi Space Grant, Credit Reina Takeuchi
Rhiannon Newton
Rhiannon continued her research into questions relating to making sense of, and with, the world. Following on from recent somatic practice studies she explored how touch-based technologies, cybernetic models, biological storytelling and feeling-led knowledge systems support movements, of chemical, nervous and fictive kinds, across fleshy borders and different scales. In 2021 she continued her exploration in a lab with key collaborators.
Henrietta Baird
Critical Path Associate Artist Henrietta Baird continued work on Plant A Promise (working title), growing out of her ongoing research into native plants, First People’s land management practices and climate change. Along with offering space and some seed research funds for Henrietta Critical Path took on the role of Auspice for her Australia Council grant (2021/22).
SPACE GRANTS
We offered a number of space grants in 2021 responding to the need for artists local to our base to continue to work in a dedicated dance space.
Reina Takeuchi, Amy Zhang, William (Billy) Keohavong And Jeremy Santos
Reina Takeuchi, Amy Zhang, William (Billy) Keohavong and Jeremy Santos was a recipient of a 5-day space grant at The Drill Hall in September.
Amy Zhang, William (Billy) Keohavong, Jeremy Santos and Reina Takeuchi are dance makers currently exploring parallels and intersections of their individual, collective and nuanced experiences as Asian diaspora. The Critical Path Space Grant Residency allowed them to develop their movement language, decolonise processes and continue to carve out the types of stories they would like to tell. By sharing choreographic tasks, conversation, food and time, they explored dualities between lived experiences, ancestry and the present day, transformation, code switching, moving mountains and the potentiality of beginnings. They are excited to present parts of their work Holding Lightness as a part of Live Dream: Island in October.
Amy Zhang
A recipient of a 5-day space grant at The Drill Hall in September.
Amy is a movement artist currently focused on unpacking intrinsically learnt Chinese values and knowledge passed down from her upbringing and how to cross-culturally exchange this knowledge with others through movement. The Critical Path Space Grant Residency gave Amy time to think, dance and embody with street dancer, Jackson Garcia, to develop movement language and processes that explore questions such as: What does passing on cultural knowledge look like? Can cultural knowledge be passed on through bodies to which it didn’t come from?
The learnings from this research will be circled back to Amy’s project, Cool Asian Mum’s Guide-to-Life, a dance work that explores the life lessons and old Chinese wives’ tales compulsively passed down to Amy by her migrant mother. It was born out of Amy having to move back to Queensland and into her mum’s house due to the impacts of Covid-19.
Amy Zhang Space Grant, Credit Amy Zhang
In residence for two weeks.
“I use hair in different ways, as metaphor, to transform physical and social spaces, within which I access different entity-embodiment processes through movement, gesture and voice. From a premise that all human living is performed, the concept/method values the body as an anatomical library and memory device; an embodied line of inquiry which accesses cultural/familial re-membr-ance combined with animistic rituals that inspire (re)-invented entities from fragmented mythologies.”
Weizen Ho
WeiZen Ho Space Grant, Credit WeiZen Ho
Niv Rajendra
A recipient of a 5-day space grant at The Drill Hall in February.
Niv is a spiritual and ecological artist working across mediums like video, performance, education and sound. She is currently thinking about the intersections of selfawareness, traditional wisdom, environmental care and collective resilience as modes to help heal the land (and all that it holds).
The Farthest You’ll Ever Travel Is From Your Mind To Your Heart –
Each day of the residency was framed by a single word; as Niv revisited the values she finds integral to a meaningful social practice. Care, courage, self-will, humility, and compassion provide the constraints and the Drill a site-specific lens: informing and grounding her embodied research. On the final day Niv invited local artists to join her to collectively unearth compassionate ways of moving and being together.
Niv Rajendra Space Grant, Credit Niv Rajendra
Dean Walsh
Dean Walsh had a two-week space residency at The Drill Hall leading up to his presentation of Context Is Everything in March Dance.
Starting in 1990 with his first work, Homme Fatale, this “performed archive” functions as a fascinating tour guide of some of the more diverse and unorthodox dance and performance practices in Sydney/Australia and the venues and events that encouraged conceptual risk-taking, experimentation with new choreographic and performative forms, rattling the cages of the more traditional and conservative dance and theatre norms of the time.
Context is Everything was presented at The Drill Hall in March 2021.
RESEARCH ROOM
February and March
Diane Busuttil is a physical performer who trained as a dancer at the University of Western Sydney, Australia from 1992 to 1994, where she majored in dance on film, and has a Masters degree from Macquarie University. Her artistic passion is to use her skills to encourage people to keep on dancing in their twilight years. Diane believes dance and storytelling are strong devices that unite all communities. She is the founder of Creative Caring which brings dance classes within reach of all people with chronic movement restrictions, with a focus on community building for people with Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis.
December
Rhiannon Newton undertook preparation for a digital residency in 2022 with A Strange Place a collaboration with Elysa Wendi. A Strange Place describes Elysa and Rhiannon‘s collaboration that has evolved since they first met in Campbelltown in 2018. Their collaboration is grounded in conversation, which is understood as a kind of choreography that materially connects their different worlds and which gradually constructs an embodied (strange) place that they inhabit and speak from together.
The Research Room was shut due to Covid for the majority of 2021.
EXPERIMENTAL CHOREOGRAPHIC EXTENSION RESIDENCY
The Experimental Choreographic Residency (ECR) is presented by Critical Path and Performance Space. The ECR supported a 2-week period of research & creative development that explores experimental or interdisciplinary approaches to choreography.
Rebecca Jensen
In 2021 the ECR was awarded to Rebecca Jensen for the development of her new work, Dolphin Caller. This project works with choreography and sound using whirly instruments produced from corrugated hosing of different lengths and diameters. Harmonic Whirlies, also known as ‘blugals’ or ‘dolphin callers’ are designed and created by Australian musician Sarah Hopkins. It delves into archives, looking at Australian performance works employing the Whirlies – relying heavily on oral history and memory, acquiring knowledge through conversations, considering how movement, sound and process is remembered and transmitted without video or physical presence, developing dialogues within the choreographic, experimental and interdisciplinary art lineage in Australia.
Dolphin Caller celebrates multiplicity and complexity in creating art, looking at process, context, fact, fiction and how ephemeral work lives on beyond performance. Those involved become part of the archive and in web-like, non-linear pathways information, ideas, and influence spreads.
As part of this residency, Rebecca hosted a workshop; artists who work with dance, movement and performance were invited to join Rebecca for an afternoon working between sonic and choreographic composition alongside this new experimental work.
A research sharing was held for an invited audience.
Rebecca Jensen ECR, Credit Alex Davis
Ivey Wawn In Perpetuity, ECR, Credit Mark Mailler
Ivey Wawn
Critical Path in collaboration with Performance Space has been supporting the development of new presentation outcomes of Ivey Wawn’s In Perpetuity project. During her residency at the Drill, Ivey created live and recorded materials for her project. The developed video work is part of Liveworks 2021.
In Perpetuity investigates the rhythms that bodies are trained into at the demands of capital accumulation. In Perpetuity has been developed during Ivey’s Experimental Choreographic Residency in 2019.
“It was such a treat to get to work on something in the middle of a lockdown, especially with such a wonderful group of people. But, my goodness it’s tricky trying to get all of this together in such trying times. I’m eternally grateful for the wonderful space and support that Critical Path provides – the Drill Hall… the best. I love it down there.”
The Critical Path/Catapult ‘Studio Exchange’ aims to facilitate the movement of artists between the two organisations and between metropolitan Sydney and regional Newcastle. The visiting artists use this opportunity to invite connections with local artists and open up dialogue around their current practice and new work.
Mikayla Nangle and Alexandra Ford headed to Catapult Studios in June to develop Re/Collect. Re/collect explores how our perceptions of events are subject to repeated change throughout our lives. Through retrospection, we are able to alter, distort or emotionally enhance meaning to our memories, despite being fixed in time. This can be an unconscious or conscious change that follows alongside our personal evolutions.
The Double Bill featuring Mess by Allie Graham & Skip Willcox and Re/Collect by Mikayla Nangle & Alexandra Ford has been postponed because of Covic-19 last year. Allie and Skip worked on the development of Mess at Catapult Studios in Newcastle beginning of 2021.
Catapult Dance Exchange, Credit Ashley de Prazer
DANCING SYDNEY ARCHIVE PROJECT
Our Unspoken – Alan Schacher
This video work was commissioned by Critical Path for the Dancing Sydney: Mapping Movements: Performing Histories project 2019.
Alan Schacher, “Through a series of Covid-related hiccups the project was completed nearing the end of 2021. I was invited to work on an element of my personal dance history, but my current practice, whilst still body-focussed, is barely dance. So instead, I proposed a call-out to elicit responses from the broader performance community. I hoped we might collectively ask difficult questions about the balance between the personal and professional imperatives entailed in maintaining a practice and in belonging to an artistic community. This collective unspoken was to be a map of individual trajectories, rather than of works I have personally made. I hoped to unearth an even more fragile trace, that of the collective thoughts and unfinished sentences that pass amongst and between us, artists and audiences. Floating words about and in response to both performance and practice, the ends of things unresolved, discussions not completed. My callout became a broad question about experiences, thoughts, regrets.
My vision for the method of presentation was a sound installation set up in The Drill Hall to be experienced by visitors sitting in a circle of chairs. Due to Covid I decided to make a video of just myself in an empty circle of chairs, an introductory monologue followed by a pastiche of contributed text and words.”
Alan Schacher OurUnspoken, Credit Alan Schacher
LABS AND WORKSHOPS
Why is this Mine?
Critical Path and Powerhouse Youth Theatre (PYT) Fairfield have partnered on a choreographic lab since 2018.
The aim of the lab is to give Western Sydney dance artists and choreographers an opportunity to deepen their research into their own practice, while co-sharing the studio and exchange practice with two other artists.
Each year, a question is offered to be the artists’ starting point. The first year asked ‘Why is it art?’, the second year asked ‘Why is this contemporary?’ and in 2021, we are asking ‘Why is this mine?’. A facilitator is also appointed to support the artists.
The WHY IS THIS MINE? Choreographic Lab ran from 15 – 26 February 2021, with the first week taking place at The Drill Hall, Rushcutters Bay and week two at PYT Fairfield. Participating artists were Cynthia Florek, Neda Taha, Azzam Mohamed and facilitator and dance artists Charemaine Seet when they sat together to reflect on their experience.
Why Is This Mine Choreographic Lab, Credit Anna Kucera
Why Is This Mine Choreographic Lab, Credit Anna Kucera
A platform for mid-career artists to further develop form and presentation opportunities for work; an intensive incubator and accelerator for artists and their producers. Led by BlakDance, the peak body for First Nations dance, BlakForm in 2021 included a creative process lab as part of a partnership with Critical Path. Participants were Carly Sheppard, Joel Bray, Joshua Pether, Karul Projects, Preparing Ground.
BlakForm was delivered through two distinct streams – the development lab focused on performance practice and a series of market development workshops. The practice development lab with Critical Path explored the creative process and performance making methodologies. The market development workshops led by BlakDance focused on deepening capacity for artists to self-determine their practice and presentation outcomes for the future. Artist guests during the lab were Amy Flannery and Vicki Van Hout.
Critical Path’s lab was shaped and led by First Nations Producer Jasmine Gulash.
PRACTICE ARTICULATION WORKSHOP – NORTHERN RIVERS
Critical Path supported by NORPA offered Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal, Juliet Burnett, Matthew Day, Mitch King, Nadia Milford the opportunity to attend a 3-day development project based in Lismore. The selected artists explored and shared where they find themselves in their practice now, their connections and responsibilities to community, and how they represent their work (in text, image and when speaking about it) along with what they communicate with others. Finally, they looked at how they can support each other to take their respective practices forward.
ONE-TO-ONE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN PRACTITIONERS
SLOW TALK
As an antidote to speed networking Critical Path provided 15 practitioners the chance to engage in conversation – a group of sector peers, advisors and leaders.
The idea was not to network, not to sell or to buy, not to speed anything. A conversation amongst peers at various stages of their careers of interest to both parties and whilst one may have been seeking advice from the other, all participants were encouraged to be open to share and learn.
Slow Talk was conceived as part of a 3-day gathering for artists working with and connected to dance, choreography and embodied practice, organised by Critical Path with support from NORPA. Due to covid restrictions (particularly cross-border) the activities were adjusted to include a mixture of in-person, live streamed, and recorded conversations.
What Is Choreography – a filmed monologue / dialogue with AñA Wojek and Laurie Young.
Locality-Local-ness-Localism – in person, live stream and recorded talk between Philip Channells and Vanessa Marian.
DISCOURSE & SHARING
Talking Dance
These panel conversations, dialogues and forums make space for artists to exchange ideas and knowledge and to open this up to a wider public audience. A first Talking Dance project ran as part of our Dancing the Drill celebration at the end of February (see Sharings below) - artists Jasmin Shepard, Matthew Doyle and Yolande Brown participated.
The second Talking Dance: Dance Ecologies was led by Martin del Amo and included artists Katina Olsen, Rhiannon Newton and Victoria Hunt in conversation as part of a larger writing/online project (other artists were Angela Goh, Ivey Wawn, Jade Dewi, Kirk Page, Taree Sansbury and Thomas E. S. Kelly).
Centred around a series of conversations, designed to explore more deeply the way independent choreographers work within the Australian arts sector, and how Critical Path relates to that inter-relationship, Martin’s interviews with the artists have been distilled into three texts.
The project concluded with a public conversation between Martin and Rhiannon, Victoria and Katina, where each artist discussed the project and shared some further insights into their artistic practice.
The final Talking Dance ran as part of the Asian Network for Dance (AND+) meeting online. With a focus on Indonesia (originally planned as taking place in Jakarta) the activities included closed core group meetings, invited sessions on the relationship between industry and the academy with a new project in planning as the ‘hook’ of the dialogue and on pan-Asia practice development intensives. The project invited presentations to the core group by guests from Indonesia and commissioned a presentation on Indonesian contemporary practice from the three curators of Indonesian Dance Festival (IDF). The latter disseminated to 10 practitioners by each core group member (140 in total, including 20 to Australia). Critical Path Director Claire Hicks was co-convener for the meeting ‘series’ and Critical Path commissioned two guest talks with Melati Suryodarmo and Keni Soeriaatmadja and the IDF curators’ presentation.
Critical Dialogues
Critical Path’s e-journal for promotion and dissemination of creative research & thinking was developed in two editions starting in 2021 (for launch in 2022).
First up was a First Nations led edition to be guest edited by Jasmine Gulash. Jasmine wanted to shape the contributions to include some of the artists participating in BlakForm and to connect with those selected to participate in a residency at Bundanon (postponed due to Covid). It has also been important to Jasmine to work with First Nations graphic designer/s.
As part of our Digital Drill program Matt Cornell began to develop an edition of Critical Dialogues working with some of the artists who participated in the Open Tab project. He was also keen to explore how the design and format of the publication could be played with to reflect not only the content submitted but also the approaches and ideas behind the work hence the title Massaged by the Medium.
E-news Introduction
Across 2021 Critical Path invited different members of the staff team, board and program artists to write the introduction to our e-news. Those contributing in 2021 were Claire Hicks, Matt Cornell, Alice Weber, Lee Pemberton, Marilyn Miller with Katine Olsen and Jasmin Sheppard, David Huggins with Lauren Eiko, Stephanie Tatzenko, Amaara Raheem, Vicki Van Hout, Ozlem Bekiroglou Aldogan, Travis De Vries.
Sharings and Studio Presentations
Research and visiting artists opened up their process and/or present within the studio –within program above. This continued to be curtailed by Covid, but many participating artists found alternate ways to continue to share their work and/or to meet restrictions whilst engaging with community around their practice – some mentioned above.
Critical Path’s partnership with Performance Space continued to provide direct opportunities for artists working on research projects with us to present their work publicly, to both live and online audiences.
AND+ meetings
Claire was co-convener of the Asian Network for Dance (AND+) digital meeting, with a focus on India. The meeting one of a number held by the core group in different parts of Asia across an initial 3-year term was held online due to covid. The meeting included invited working group sessions exploring Residencies and Co-production, as well as focus session on
• Global / Local – TransLocal, Digital and Travel Bubbles
• Dance and Political Engagement
• Developments in Dance in India
Video presentations were created exploring contemporary dance practice in India for public presentation.
Additionally, a video by Indonesia Dance Festival curators for AND+ November 2020 meeting was shared with 140 practitioners across Asia including 20 Australians in early 2021.
OpenTab Open Studio, Credit Lucy Parakhina
Digital Drill
Critical Path has as part of its next four-year vision made the creation of a Digital Drill –a new ‘place’ where digital tools and online space can be harnessed for artistic research and development – a priority. In the last two years, Critical Path has worked to engage with the opportunities for practice offered by digital tools and the online ‘space’. This has been focused around how a Digital Drill might create a place where research and development can happen.
In 2021, we have appointed a Digital Artist-Curator, Matt Cornell, to make space for new experiences and interests for this area of our work. Matt Cornell will initiate, develop, and produce digital projects for artistic research and development.
The Open Tab project was a sharing of methodology and insights from artists working at the nexus of choreography and digital – in the form of a wiki. It continues to be a place for experiments and archive of remote collaboration and digital exchange.
“A wiki is a hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience directly using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project and could be either open to the public or limited to use within an organization for maintaining its internal knowledge base.” – https://en.wikipedia.org/
Initially, invited artists from across the Pacific and Asia region will met in the Drill Hall (IRL and remotely) to establish OpenTab.wiki. This week-long wiki working bee aimed to stress test a geographically distributed yet co-temporal residency model. Artists were dancing and typing and talking, being physically digital while we populate OpenTab.wiki.
Critical Path held an open studio live in the Drill Hall and online with special guest DJing from fellow artist-contributor Riana Head-Toussaint.
“I’m really interested in the idea of creating a database. Lately I’ve been thinking about and writing on video game movement systems, motion capture, and dance/rhythm games. I’d love to explore the line where these things change between physical and digital. ” – Nasim Patel – Independent artist and choreographer involved with the Open Tab project.
OpenTab Open Studio, Credit Lucy Parakhina
Distributed Digital Residency – collaboration with Sydney Opera House Digital Program
Su Yu Hsin (Taiwanese artist) and Angela Goh (Australian choreographer) were in residence at the Drill Hall (and online) researching their work Tidal Variations (working title) which premiered later in 2021 in Australia, Taiwan and online.
This project connected Critical Path into a relationship with C-Lab in Taiwan. CP worked across the latter part of 2021 to build a project for 2021 to be supported by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan.
Tidal Variations, Credit Su Yu Hsin and Angela Goh
Australia-Taiwan Digital Residence
A practice exchange, dialogue and sharing materials between artists from different cultures and practices. Also, to create a basis for English and Chinese bilingual materials by exploring the artists` practice. Finally, to build a platform for face-to-face collaborations in the future.
We collaborated with HORSE working with a bi-lingual producer. 6 Australian and 4 Taiwanese artists participated.
The artists undertook filmed introductions, group conversations, slow online exchange and setting tasks for participation and documentation.
The last session was an online gathering where they took part in shared activities. Critical Path 2021 Research artist Alice Weber with Ella Watson-Heath and Wendy Yu led an online collaboration. Digital-Curator Artist of Critical Path Matt Cornell invited participants to an online gathering through a metaverse world called Gather Town.
Aus-Twn Family Photo
Independent Dance Alliance (IDA) and March Dance
Independent Dance Alliance (IDA) is a collaborative project of Critical Path, Dirty Feet, ReadyMade Works.
IDA brings together three Sydney organisations committed to dance development and supporting independent dance artists. Coordinated through Critical Path, this unincorporated group comes together to address issues within the Sydney dance community, primarily those around the needs of the city’s independent practitioners. Our collaboration offers a collegiate approach to dance development for the independent scene in Sydney.
Initiated in 2019, Critical Path auspice, and now led by Critical Path with Dirty Feet March Dance champions the diversity of Sydney’s ongoing independent dance practice; raising the profile of the city’s dance-sector and reaching diverse audiences.
Our aim is to create an inclusive festival of independent dance practice in Sydney along with an associated development program; working across movement traditions and choreographic approaches to create vibrant contemporary practice March Dance provides a place for independent artists to work in a range of settings.
Sydney has the largest, most diverse professional dance community in Australia. The independent dance scene, the largest and most significant portion, is crucial for the ongoing well-being of the artform, but often unseen. There are few avenues to present, share and generate new audiences for independent dance in Sydney. March Dance provides focus and a platform for diverse forms of independent dance to reach city audiences; supporting this diversity and participation is our strength.
March Dance 2021 supported 120 artists, 31 performances, 8 workshops, 16 dance classes, in total 111 events over the 31 days. 1500 audience attended March Dance.
FINANCIAL REPORT
Committee Members’ Report
Auditor Independence Declaration
Financial Statements
Statement of Surplus or Deficit and Other Comprehensive Income
Statement of Financial Position
Statement of Changes in Equity
Statement of Cash Flows [3]
Notes to the Financial Statements
1 General information and statement of compliance
2 Changes in accounting policies
3 Summary of accounting policies
and cash equivalents 6 Trade and other receivables
Declarations
18 Members’ Guarantee - Contribution in winding up 19 Charitable fundraising 20 Company details
Committee Members’ Declaration
Declaration by Chair, Finance & Risk Committee INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DISCLAIMER
SCHEDULE 1 –
COMMITTEE MEMBERS’ REPORT
Contributions in winding up
The Association is incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009. If the Association is wound up, the constitution states that each member is required to contribute a maximum of $10 towards meeting and outstanding obligations of the Company at 31 December 2021, the total amount that members of the Association are liable to contribute if the company is wound up is $80 (2020: $80).
Auditor’s Independence declaration
A copy of the Auditor’s Independence Declaration as required under s.60—40 of the Australian Charities and Not–for–profits Commission act 2012 is included in page 25 and forms part of the Committee member’s report.
Signed in accordance with the resolution of the Committee Members.
AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE DECLARATION
AUDITOR’S INDEPENDENCE DECLARATION UNDER AUSTRALIAN CHARITIES AND NOT FOR PROFITS COMMISSION ACT 2012 SECTION 60-40 TO THE COMMITTEE OF CRITICAL PATH INCORPORATED
As lead auditor for the audit of Critical Path Incorporated (A.B.N. 12 049 903 261) for the year ended 31 December 2021, I declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, there have been:
(a) no contraventions of the auditor independence requirements of the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission Act 2012 in relation to the audit; and
(b) no contraventions of any applicable code of professional conduct in relation to the audit.
This declaration is in respect of Critical Path Incorporated and any entities it controlled during the period.
MITCHELL & PARTNERS
Chartered Accountants
Glenn Merchant CA Partner
Sydney, NSW
Dated this 2nd day of May 2022.
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF SURPLUS OR DEFICIT AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
This statement should be read in conjunction with the notes to the financial statements.
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
This statement should be read in conjunction with the notes to the financial statements.
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
This statement should be read in conjunction with the notes to the financial statements.
STATEMENT
OF CASH FLOWS [3]
Operating activities
Receipts from:
• Client contributions
• Government grants
• Partners
(253,669) (358,951) (37,437) 288,023343 (184,786) (383,013) Net
(10,000) Net cash used in investing activities
(10,000) Net change in cash and cash equivalents
This statement should be read in conjunction with the notes to the financial statements.
Rebecca Jensen ECR, Credit Alex Davis
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
For the year ended 31 December 2021
Critical Path Incorporated
1. General information and statement of compliance
The financial report includes the financial statements and notes of Critical Path Incorporated.
These financial statements are general purpose financial statements that have been prepared in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards Reduced Disclosure Requirements and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012.
Critical Path Incorporated is a not-for-profit entity for the purposes of preparing the financial statements.
The financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021 were approved and authorised for issuance by the Committee members.
2. Changes in accounting policies
2.1 There are no new and revised standards that are effective for these financial statements
3. Summary of accounting policies
3.1 Overall considerations
The significant accounting policies that have been used in the preparation of these financial statements are summarised below.
The financial statements have been prepared using the measurement bases specified by Australian Accounting Standards for each type of asset, liability, income and expense. The measurement bases are more fully described in the accounting policies below.
3.2 Revenue
Revenue comprises revenue from the sale of goods, services income, government grants, fundraising activities and client contributions. Revenue from major activities and services is shown in Note 4.
Revenue is measured by reference to the fair value of consideration received or receivable by the Association for goods supplied and services provided, excluding sales taxes, rebates, and trade discounts.
Revenue is recognised when the amount of revenue can be measured reliably, collection is probable, the costs incurred or to be incurred can be measured reliably, and when the criteria for each of the Association’s different activities have been met. Details of the activity-specific recognition criteria are described below.
Government grants
A number of the Association’s programs are supported by grants received from Federal, State and Local governments. If conditions are attached to a grant which must be satisfied before the Association is eligible to receive the contribution, recognition of the grant as revenue is deferred until those conditions are satisfied.
Where a grant is received on the condition that specified services are delivered, to the grantor, this is considered a reciprocal transaction. Revenue is recognised as services are performed and at year–end until the service is delivered.
Revenue from a non-reciprocal grant that is not subject to conditions is recognised when the Association obtains control of the funds, economic benefits are probable and the amount can be measured reliably. Where a grant may be required to be repaid if certain conditions are not satisfied, a liability is recognised at year end to the extent that conditions remain unsatisfied.
Where the Association receives a non-reciprocal contribution of an asset from a government or other party for no or nominal consideration, the asset is recognised at fair value and a corresponding amount of revenue is recognised.
Donations and bequests
Donations collected, including cash and goods for resale, are recognised as revenue when the Association gains control, economic benefits are probable and the amount of the donation can be measured reliably.
Bequests are recognised when the legacy is received. Revenue from legacies comprising bequests of shares or other property are recognised at fair value, being the market value of the shares or property at the date the Association becomes legally entitled to the shares or property.
Interest income
Interest income is recognised on an accrual basis using the effective interest method.
3.3 Operating expenses
Operating expenses are recognised in surplus or deficit upon utilisation of the service or at the date of their origin.
3.4 Intangible assets
Recognition of other intangible assets:
Acquired intangible assets
Website construction costs as well as acquired computer software licences are capitalised on the basis of the costs incurred to acquire and install the specific website and software.
Subsequent measurement
All intangible assets are accounted for using the cost model whereby capitalised costs are amortised on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives, as these assets are considered finite. Residual values and useful lives are reviewed at each reporting date. In addition, they are subject to impairment testing as described in Note 3.14. The following useful lives are applied:
• Database development: 25%
• Software: 25% - 33%
• Website: 33%[4]
Subsequent expenditures on the maintenance of computer software, brand names and website are expensed as incurred.
When an intangible asset is disposed of, the gain or loss on disposal is determined as the difference between the proceeds and the carrying amount of the asset, and is recognised in surplus or deficit within other income or other expenses.
3.5 Property, plant and equipment
Leasehold improvements, plant and other equipment
Leasehold improvements, plant and other equipment (comprising office furniture and equipment) are initially recognised at acquisition cost or manufacturing cost, including any costs directly attributable to bringing the assets to the location and condition necessary for it to be capable of operating in the manner intended by the Association’ management.
Leasehold improvements, plant and other equipment are subsequently measured using the cost model, cost less subsequent depreciation and impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised on a straight-line basis to write down the cost less estimated residual value of leasehold improvements, plant and other equipment. The following useful lives are applied:
• Leasehold improvement: 20% - 25%
• Plant and equipment: 15% - 33%[5]
In the case of leasehold property, expected useful lives are determined by reference to comparable owned assets or over the term of the lease, if shorter.
Material residual value estimates and estimates of useful life are updated as required, but at least annually.
Gains or losses arising on the disposal of property, plant and equipment are determined as the difference between the disposal proceeds and the carrying amount of the assets and are recognised in surplus or deficit within other income or other expenses.
3.6 Leases
Operating leases
Where the Association is a lessee, payments on operating lease agreements are recognised as an expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term. Associated costs, such as maintenance and insurance, are expensed as incurred.
3.7 Income taxes
No provision for income tax has been raised as the association is exempt from income tax under Div 50 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.
3.8 Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash on hand and demand deposits, together with other short-term, highly liquid investments that are readily convertible into known amounts of cash and which are subject to an insignificant risk of changes in value.
3.9
Employee benefits
Short-term employee benefits
Short-term employee benefits are benefits, other than termination benefits, that are expected to be settled wholly within twelve (12) months after the end of the period in which the employees render the related service. Examples of such benefits include wages and salaries, non-monetary benefits and accumulating sick leave. Short-term employee benefits are measured at the undiscounted amounts expected to be paid when the liabilities are settled.
Other long-term employee benefits
The association’s liabilities for long service leave are included in other long-term benefits as they are not expected to be settled wholly within twelve (12) months after the end of the period in which the employees render the related service. They are measured at the present value of the expected future payments to be made to employees. The expected future payments incorporate anticipated future wage and salary levels, experience of employee departures and periods of service, and are discounted at rates determined by reference to market yields at the end of the reporting period on high quality corporate bonds that have maturity dates that approximate the timing of the estimated future cash outflows. Any re-measurements arising from experience adjustments and changes in assumptions are recognised in profit or loss in the periods in which the changes occur.
The association presents employee benefit obligations as current liabilities in the statement of financial position if the association does not have an unconditional right to defer settlement for at least twelve (12) months after the reporting period, irrespective of when the actual settlement is expected to take place.
Post-employment benefits plans
The association provides post-employment benefits through defined contribution plans.
Defined contribution plans
The association pays fixed contributions into independent entities in relation to several state plans and insurance for individual employees. The association has no legal or constructive obligations to pay contributions in addition to its fixed contributions, which are recognised as an expense in the period that relevant employee services are received.
3.10 Provisions, contingent liabilities and contingent assets
Provisions are measured at the estimated expenditure required to settle the present obligation, based on the most reliable evidence available at the reporting date, including the risks and uncertainties associated with the present obligation. Where there are a number of similar obligations, the likelihood that an outflow will be required in settlement is determined by considering the class of obligations as a whole. Provisions are discounted to their present values, where the time value of money is material.
Any reimbursement that the association can be virtually certain to collect from a third party with respect to the obligation is recognised as a separate asset. However, this asset may not exceed the amount of the related provision.
No liability is recognised if an outflow of economic resources as a result of present obligation is not probable. Such situations are disclosed as contingent liabilities, unless the outflow of resources is remote in which case no liability is recognised.
3.11 Deferred income
The liability for deferred income is the unutilised amounts of grants received on the condition that specified services are delivered or conditions are fulfilled. The services are usually provided or the conditions usually fulfilled within twelve (12) months of receipt of the grant. Where the amount received is in respect of services to be provided over a period that exceeds twelve (12) months after the reporting date or the conditions will only be satisfied more than twelve (12) months after the reporting date, the liability is discounted and presented as non-current.
3.12 Goods and Services Tax (GST)
Revenues, expenses and assets are recognised net of the amount of GST, except where the amount of GST incurred is not recoverable from the Australian Taxation Office. In these circumstances the GST is recognised as part of the cost of acquisition of the asset or as part of an item of the expense. Receivables and payables in the statement of financial position are shown inclusive of GST.
Cash flows are presented in the statement of cash flows on a gross basis, except for the GST components of investing and financing activities, which are disclosed as operating cash flows.
3.13 Economic dependence
The association is dependent upon the ongoing receipt of Federal and State Government grants and community and corporate donations to ensure the ongoing continuance of its programs and fundraising. At the date of this report Management has no reason to believe that this financial support will not continue.
3.14 Significant management judgement in applying accounting policies
When preparing the financial statements, management undertakes a number of judgements, estimates and assumptions about the recognition and measurement of assets, liabilities, income and expenses.
Estimation uncertainty
Information about estimates and assumptions that have the most significant effect on recognition and measurement of assets, liabilities, income and expenses is provided below. Actual results may be substantially different.
Impairment
In assessing impairment, management estimates the recoverable amount of each asset or cash-generating unit based on expected future cash flows and uses an interest rate to discount them. Estimation uncertainty relates to assumptions about future operating results and the determination of a suitable discount rate.
Useful lives of depreciable assets
Management reviews its estimate of the useful lives of depreciable assets at each reporting date, based on the expected utility of the assets. Uncertainties in these estimates relate to technical obsolescence that may change the utility of certain assets.
Long service leave
The liability for long service leave is recognised and measured at the present value of the estimated cash flows to be made in respect of all employees at the reporting date. In determining the present value of the liability, estimates of attrition rates and pay increases through promotion and inflation have been taken into account.
The Association’s revenue may be analysed as follows for each major product and service category:
4.1 Net grant income [6]
Less:
4.2 Grants received in advance – 1 January
4.3 Grants received during the year
Create NSW (multi-year)
• Core Funding
• Project Funding
• Project Funding (Quick - Covid)
Create NSW (project)
• Core Funding
• Project Funding
Australia Council
• Core Funding
• Project Funding
• Project Funding (Resilience)
Woollahra Council
City of Sydney Cultural Grant
Grants
49,829 5,475 10,800 18,00051,162 467,996 423,150
4.4 Grants received in advance – 31 December
Create NSW Grant
Create Digital
Australia Council Dance Board 2020
Australia Council Dance Board 2021
Australia Council Resilience Fund
Australia Council Re-imagine
Australia Council SLS
Australia Council Auspice
Woollahra Council Community Grant
City of Sydney Festivals (March Dance) 2020/21
City of Sydney Grant 2020/21
City of Sydney 2021/22 221,051 59,852-48,473 99,996 31,728-23,311 196,00080,78434,364-23,000 18,000484,441 352,148
5. Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents consist the following:
405,351Cash and cash equivalents
405,351
Cash at the end of the financial year as shown in the statement of cash flows is reconciled in the statement of financial position as follows:
6. Trade and other receivables
Trade and other receivables consist the following:
7. Other assets
the following:
8. Property, plant and equipment Details of the company’s plant and equipment and their carrying amount are as follows:
9. Intangible assets
Details of the company’s intangible assets and their carrying amounts are as follows:
at 1 January 2021
at 1 January 2021
10. Trade and other payables
Trade and other payables recognised consist of the following:
11. Employee remuneration
11.1 Employee benefits expense
Expenses recognised for employee benefits are analysed below:
11.2
Employee provisions
Operating leases as lessee
The Group’s future minimum operating lease payments are as follows: Minimum lease payments due
15. Related party transactions
The association’s related parties include its key management personnel and related entities as described below. Unless otherwise stated, none of the transactions incorporate special terms and conditions and no guarantees were given or received. Outstanding balances are usually settled in cash.
Transactions with related entities
No remuneration is paid to Committee member or their related parties for acting as Committee members. From time to time Committee members who are also independent artists may be engaged in our Research and Development program and are remunerated under normal industry terms.
Transactions with key management personnel
Key management of the Association are the Executive Members of Critical Path Incorporated’s Committee and members of the Executive Council. Key management personnel remuneration includes the following expenses:
Total key management personnel remuneration
2021: $68,584
2020: $90,258
16. Contingent Liabilities and Assets
No contingent liabilities and assets to report.
17. Subsequent Events
No significant events have occurred since the end of the reporting period which would impact on the financial position of the Company disclosed in the statement of financial position as at 31 December 2021 or on the results and cash flow of the Company for the year ended on that date.
18.
Members’ Guarantee - Contribution in winding up
The Association is incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009. If the Association is wound up, the constitution states that each member is required to contribute a maximum of $10 each towards meeting any outstanding obligations of the Association. At 31 December 2021, the total amount that members of the Association are liable to contribute if the Association wound up is $90 (2020: $110).
19. Charitable fundraising
The association holds an authority to fundraise under the Charitable Fundraising Act, 1991 (NSW) and conducts fundraising appeals throughout the year. Additional information and declarations required to be furnished under the Act are as follows:
All funds raised from fundraising activities, net of direct costs, were applied to the association’s normal operations. The association did not conduct any appeals in which traders were engaged.
COMPANY DETAILS
Critical Path Incorporated
is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated and domiciled in Australia.
The registered office and principal place of business is:
The Drill, 1c New Beach Road,
Darling Point NSW 2027
DECLARATIONS
COMMITTEE MEMBERS’ DECLARATION
Critical Path Incorporated
In the opinion of the Directors of Critical Path Incorporated (‘the association’)
(a)
Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012, including;
(b) (i) (ii)
giving a true and fair view of the Association’s financial position as at 31 December 2021 and of it’s performance, for the year ended on that date, and
complying with Australian Accounting Standards (including the Australian Accounting Interpretations) and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Regulations 2013; and
there are reasonable grounds to believe that the Critical Path Incorporated will be able to pay its debts as and when they become due and payable. ( Refer Note 3.13)
Signed in accordance with a resolution of the Directors:
TRAVIS DE VRIES
COMMITTEE MEMBER
Sydney, 26 April 2022
DECLARATION BY CHAIR, FINANCE & RISK COMMITTEE
in respect of fundraising appeals pursuant to the Charitable Fundraising (NSW) ACT 1991
Critical Path Incorporated
I, Alexio Chibika, Treasurer of Critical Path Incorporated, declare in my opinion:
the Annual financial report gives a true and fair view of all income and expenditure of Critical Path with respect to fundraising appeal activities for the financial year ended 31 December 2021; the statement of financial position gives a true and fair view of the state of affairs with respect to fundraising appeal activities as at 31 December 2021; the provisions of the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991 and Regulations and the conditions attached to the authority have been complied with for the financial year ended 31 December 2021; and
the internal controls exercised by Critical Path are appropriate and effective in accounting for all income received and applied from any fundraising appeals.
We have audited the financial report of Critical Path Incorporated (the association), which comprises the statement of financial position as at 31 December 2021, the statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity, statement of cash flows for the year ended on that date, a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes and the committees’ declaration.
In our opinion, the accompanying financial report of Critical Path Incorporated is in accordance with Division 60 of the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission Act 2012 and the Associated Incorporations Act 2009, including:
• giving a true and fair view of the association’s financial position as at 31 December 2021, and of its performance for the year then ended ; and
• complying with Australian Accounting Standards, Division 60 of the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission Regulation 2013, and the Corporations Act 2001.
Basis of Opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with Australian Auditing Standards. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Report section of our report. We are independent of the association in accordance with the auditor independence requirements of the Corporations Act 2001 and the ethical requirements of the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board APES 110: Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (the Code) that are relevant to our audit of the financial report in Australia. We have also fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with the Code.
We confirm that the independence declaration required by the Corporations Act 2001, which has been given to the committee of Critical Path Incorporated, would be in the same terms if given to the committee as at the time of this auditor’s report.
We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
Emphasis of Matter – Covid-19
The Association has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with both revenues and expenses falling although it has managed to record a surplus for each of the past 2 years. The ability of the Association to return to normal operations will be dependent on the ability of Governments to control the pandemic so that restrictions can be permanently lifted. We note that many of the restrictions have been lifted since year end.
Key Audit Matters
Information Other than the Financial Report and Auditor’s Report Thereon
The committee members are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the association’s annual report for the year ended 31 December 2021, but does not include the financial report and our auditor’s report thereon.
Our opinion on the financial report does not cover the other information and accordingly we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. In connection with our audit of the financial report, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial report or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.
The Responsibility of the Committee for the Financial Statements
The committee members of the association are responsible for the preparation the financial report that gives a true and fair view in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards, the ACNC Act, and the Associated Incorporations Act 2009 and for such internal control as the committee members determine is necessary to enable the preparation of the financial report that gives a true and fair view and is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial report, the committee members are responsible for assessing the association’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters relating to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the committee members either intend to liquidate the association or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternatives but to do so.
Auditor’s Responsibility for the Audit of the Financial Report
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial report as a whole is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with the Australian Accounting Standards will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of this financial report.
As part of an audit in accordance with the Australian Auditing Standards, we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional scepticism throughout the audit. We also:
• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial report, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal controls.
• Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purposes of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the association’s internal control.
• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by the committee.
• Conclude on the appropriateness of the committee’ use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the registered entity’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial report or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the registered entity to cease to continue as a going concern.
We communicate with the responsible entities regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.
We also provide the committee with a statement that we have complied with relevant ethical requirements requiring independence, and to communicate with them all relationships and other matters that may reasonably be thought to bear on our independence, and where applicable, related safeguards.
The additional financial data presented in the following pages is in accordance with the books and records of Critical Path Incorporated (“our client”) which have been subjected to the auditing procedures applied in our statutory audit of the association for the year ended 31 December 2021. It will be appreciated that our statutory audit did not cover all details of the additional financial data. Accordingly, we do not express an opinion on such financial data and no warranty to accuracy or reliability is given. Neither the firm nor any member or employee of the firm undertakes responsibility in any way whatsoever to any person (other than our client) in respect of such data, including any errors or omissions therein however caused.
MITCHELL & PARTNERS
Chartered Accountants
Glenn Merchant CA Partner
Sydney, NSW
Dated this X February, 2022
DETAILED STATEMENTS OF SURPLUS OR DEFICIT
For the year ended 31 December 2020
SCHEDULE 1 – GENERAL OPERATIONS
INCOME
Donations
The above UNAUDITED detailed statement of surplus or deficit should be read in conjunction with the disclaimer.
