Page 3816 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 22 November 2006
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Kulture Break promotes healthy living and positive values and is 100 per cent drug free. It encourages kids of all ages to get involved in dance routines to express themselves, to get fit, to remain drug free, and at all times it offers young kids, younger Australians, the opportunity to talk about who they really are.
The concert hall was full the night I went. The Chief Minister also went and displayed his prowess by leaping up on the stage, as there were no steps from the floor to the auditorium stage, which obviously got a rousing cheer of applause from the audience.
It is a tremendous organisation that operates across Australia and has classes in Lanyon, Woden, Gold Creek and at the ANU. It teaches hip-hop, freestyle and break dancing, and has beginners, intermediate and advanced classes. The whole concept is to take a very valuable form of expression for many young Australians, and particularly many young Canberrans—I guess some people would describe it as a modern dance craze—and use it to promote the message of healthy living, positive values and being 100 per cent drug free. This is something that we should commend.
The beauty of it is that the organisation is international now. An Australian tour earlier this year saw Kulture Break go to Queensland and South Australia in April, Western Australia and the Northern Territory in July, Tasmania in August and New South Wales in October, coming back to Canberra for concerts that I think ran from about 19 to 21 October. It wants young Australians, in particular, to find out that they are someone special, that they have something to offer, and that there are people out there who, like them, want to enjoy dance and physical activity.
The night itself was very exciting for a lot of young people. I have to admit hip-hop is not necessarily my thing, but there were some international stars—a dancer or a singer from Los Angeles was there—much to the pleasure of many in the crowd, although I have to admit I could not recognise the individual, and the older people sitting with me were at a loss also; we had to ask the young guys behind us who he was. There was a lot of activity that really challenged people to make sure that they became involved and supported each other. Each of the dances throughout the night had a story. The story unfolded throughout the night about how you can become isolated, how you can be lured into things like drugs and crime, and how simple mistakes can simply ruin your life. In that regard the message that they sent was very powerful and very important.
Mr Speaker, on another issue, we have received a report from the AHA on their latest annual general meeting, and it is really pleasing to see that at that annual general meeting the Academy Club of the ACT won the award for best entertainment venue. The Academy again is not necessarily a place that I hang out, but I have been there a few times. Mr Barr laughs; he obviously knows the ins and outs of the Academy. But those who know the Academy know that its beauty is that it is a recycled old picture theatre. Local investors purchased the old Centre Cinema, gutted it and built a state-of-the-art facility. Sebastian, who won the Australian Idol award, had heard of it when he came down here for a concert; it was on his list of places to go. So it has a reputation not just here in the ACT but a growing reputation around the country.
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