It started with one person

Fine Lines was founded by Dr Katrina Rank, a professional ballet and contemporary dancer who trained in Vaganova and RAD methods, Graham and Cunningham styles and in improvisation. Teachers included Marilyn Rowe, Kelvin Coe, Gary Norman, Leigh Warren, Gayrie McSween, Ann Jenner, Garry Lester and Al Wunder. She worked professionally in Australia with The Dancers Company and Victorian State Opera and in the UK with Northern Ballet Theatre under the direction of Christopher Gable.

Katrina’s extensive teaching experience includes formal contexts (primary, secondary, tertiary education and vocational training) as well as community contexts with trained and untrained dancers across all ages, abilities, backgrounds, including those with physical, cognitive and mental health conditions.

In 2018 she was given a coveted Australian Dance Award for Services to Dance Education. She became one of Australia’s four Dance for Parkinson’s certified and accredited teachers in 2023 and continues to hold ongoing teaching registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching. Her broad and detailed teaching experience, plus her love of teaching, has resulted in a highly nuanced teaching pedagogy that focuses on mature and elderly dancers, with particular reference to dancers who undertook dance training and professional work in their youth.

Small beginnings

Fine Lines Dance began in 2013 with an idea: unable to join fully in available dance classes, and missing the community of fellow dancers, Katrina Rank started a class that was challenging yet safe for older bodies.

Fine Lines was created to challenge stereotypes and assumptions about older dancers. At the time of its inception, there were no ongoing opportunities for older dancers that spoke to a serious dance practice. Fine Lines provided a place where mature artists could continue to grow artistically and creatively. Weekly classes led to showings and regular performance seasons, all produced by Rank herself, with some funding support from local government.

The classes began at Dancehouse, Carlton, often with only 3 or 4 people. It grew slowly in the first few years, then, in 2016, it ‘burst’ into a significantly large community of 50+ mature age dancers. This creative body includes print makers, graphic artists, designers, writers, musicians, choreographers and dancers with deep and sustained practices in the arts and those engaging in the performing arts for the first time.

Fine Lines continues to offer Friday and Tuesday contemporary classes, workshops, showings and performances. Other Fine Lines dancers have started their own classes, offering further opportunities for our community.

Building visibility

Fine Lines is interested in sustaining artistic and physical practice and making work that is provocative and conceptually clear.

We present work to raise awareness of the possibilities of movement at any age, to continue to grow as artists and to develop new skills.

We produce live and filmed performances that showcase older dancers as strong, talented, skillful and interesting.

And we aim to reach new audiences, to inspire others to follow their passion.

Fine Lines:

• sees a myriad of possibilities in each body

• connects with audiences and advocates for a changed perspective

• questions labels and assumptions

• is bold and uncompromising

Images by Robert Wagner