Dance Academy (Season 3, Episode 13): Not For Nothing by Samantha Strauss

JUDGES' COMMENTS 

The final episode of this beloved children’s drama series focuses on the students’ last days at the dance academy, before we are thrown forward to consider what their future might hold. Strauss weaves the many narrative strands with skill and dynamism as each character faces a moment of truth, building to gripping moments of suspense.

The storytelling is generous and energetic, almost bursting at the seams with humour, romance, heartbreak, fantasy sequences and dance, using classic story shapes with freshness and wrestling with big moral questions. It explores the sacrifices made by the young dancers and their struggles to make sense of life in the face of the ruthless measure of talent and the unfairness of arbitrary events. As series creator, Strauss knows her ensemble of characters well and succeeds in taking them to a deeply satisfying conclusion. The work honours the intense passions of the show’s audience, unapologetically emotional, sometimes grand, always honest and thoughtful.