As of 2021[update] its situation is uncertain after being deprived of its main funding by the Australia Council in 2016, and it announced its disbanding in 2019; however, it has continued to host the Australian Dance Awards until 2020.
The Australian Dance Council was founded in Melbourne in 1977 as the Australian Association for Dance Education (AADE) by a group including Peggy van Praagh, Peter Brinson, Shirley McKechnie, Warren Lett, Keith Bain OAM, Johanna Exiner and Donna Greaves.
It then created the first Ausdance National Committee (later the National Council) in New South Wales, which later moved to Canberra, ACT, and established Ausdance organisations in each state and territory.
[2] Members of the dance community hoped for its reconstitution,[3] but as of November 2021[update], the last annual report on its website is for 2018.
In 2018 Ausdance National hosted the event at the Brisbane Powerhouse in Brisbane, Queensland, and owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the event was held online by the national body in 2020, covering the years 2018 and 2019.