The GOLD group started as a fabulous idea in 2010. Philip Piggin (past Director of CDT and project officer Belconnen Arts Centre) and Liz Lea (newly the Artistic Director of CDT) successfully applied for funding from the ACT Health Promotion Grants Program to run a 10 week course in 2011 and create a work on over 55’s, followed by performances. To be called Growing Old Disgracefully (GOLD), the idea was that no one is to old to be a creative dancer and there were health benefits to be had. With a nod to the logo of Ulysses Motorcycle Club, these days we tend to just say GOLD.

That first program ran in 2011 when 27 people regularly met to create the very first work, Baroque Flock, on the theme of flight, aviation, and birds, in a quite beautiful celebration of seniors. It was performed on Sunday 17 April at the Belconnen Arts Centre along with some other shorter pieces to an enthusiastic crowd of 200, and then later in the foyer of the National Library of Australia as part of Liz Lea’s Taking Flight evening of dance.

GOLD went on to create many other major works across the years, starting the next year with Indian Light choreographed by Liz Lea for the National Multicultural Festival and Air Kiss choreographed by Glenn Murray for the You Are Here Festival.

This was quickly followed by more significant works such as The Three Gunas, choreographed by the amazing Elizabeth Cameron Dalman and performed in 2015 at the National Portrait Gallery.

Air Kiss, first performed on Northbourne Avenue in Canberra, frequently performed since especially as it’s danced to Iggy Pop’s We’re Bored, and here performed in Adelaide at the Panpapanpalya festival in 2018.