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I discovered that I really love teaching. My natural instincts seem to always try to help people, so that's the way I see teaching - a way to help others through their own dance discovery and their own journey.
Dance journey
One of my earliest memories of dance was watching “Swan Lake” on the TV when I was 7 years old. It inspired me so much that I decided I wanted to be a prima ballerina. I was so impressed with whoever was on stage that day that I decided it was what I wanted in my life.
From then onwards I found ways to move to music. I had been given a book about classical ballet and I followed the pictures and read about it as much as I could. A friend of mine who lived across the road started doing ballet classes and her mum asked mine if I wanted to join. I joined and I did that for 18 months. It was so much fun. But sadly, after a while I had to stop because it was too expensive my parents.
After that I kept finding ways to dance, although I only realised that afterwards. We did choir at primary school and there were opportunities to dance in the performing arts. In high school I joined an after school folk dance class that the librarian used to run. In that class, we explored some contemporary and jazz lyrical moves. We got to choreograph to pieces of music if we were inspired that way. And as an adult I would go out to nightclubs and hit the dance floor. For me, that part of my life wasn´t about going out and drinking with my friends. It was all about dancing. I would go out just dance and drink water all night.
I came back to classical dance after having my second child. I decided I wanted to be more active then, so I joined the gym and started to join classes that were dance based. The instructors at the gyn saw that and we had a brief conversation about my options as an adult learner. So, I joined the Australian Dance Theatre’s beginner classes and when those times didn´t suit me anymore I found what now it´s Dragonfly Dance, when it was still Move Through Life. I found a good option there and I haven’t looked back since.
Teaching
When Jo McDonald said she was thinking about doing a pilot program for teachers in her syllabus I said: “Pick me! Pick me!”. I discovered that I really love teaching. My natural instincts seem to always try to help people which is something that always came naturally for me. I consider myself as a problem solver, so that´s the way I see teaching: a way to help others through their own dance discovery and their own journey.
I have this energy and passion that I don´t feel scared or don´t want to hide and my students commented they noticed that about me. They also see how enthusiastic I am as a teacher in class. I try to make things as fun as possible, which is great and makes you want to learn more.
I have a Certificate IV in Fitness and being a personal trainer gives me a good knowledge on the body and how it works. Part of that qualification is to study anatomy and physiology. I went deeper and studied how the body moves and what work for what moves and patterns. And I like think as the body a series of muscles and I found it useful for myself and for others.
At the moment I am teaching classical ballet. I also have danced jazz and contemporary and tried tap. I´ve also recently discovered vernacular jazz. I have also done pole dance, which is a lot of fun and involves a lot of strength. I found it was a very good way to explore my femininity, and what it means to me.
I love to teach at Dragonfly Dance. The other teachers are fantastic to work with. Anne and Jo are just beautiful people and it feels like so much more than a job. It’s a community. The specific thing about teaching adults is that they want to be here. Even when they feel like they don´t want to come, they do anyway and say “I'm so glad I'm here”. With kids it´s not usually like that. Sometimes they decide they want to do a style of the dance in half way through they say: “I don't want to do it anymore”. And their parents have to force them to attend because they paid for the term. I like teaching to adults because we can have discussions about all sorts of things because we're all adults in the room and that's valuable to me.
Biography and qualifications
Personal trainer
Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) teacher training for Level 1
Teacher training through the Dragonfly Dance teacher training course in 2022.