Workshops

In September this year, seven of our students flew over to Sydney to attend the Australian Dance Festival for a weekend of workshops with some of Australia’s best and inspiring choreographers. Friday to Sunday our students attended workshops at Sydney Olympic Park along with hundreds of dancers from across Australia.

Our students participated in workshops in a variety of styles of dance from choreographers including Marko Panzic, Stephen Tannos, the O’neill Twins, Yvette Lee, Neale Whittaker, James Barry, Cat Santos, Elly Creevy, Will Sabin, Jason Winters, Matt Lee, Michael Dameski and many more. After very long days of dancing, our students attended performances from the Resonate program, Australia’s Best Dance Crew, Australia’s Next Choreographer, as well as the Dance Around the World Solo Competitions.

To end the trip, a day was spent sightseeing in Sydney, visiting the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Madame Tussaud's, and Luna Park. All of our students had an amazing time in Sydney learning and building our dance knowledge in such an exciting and positive environment. Despite being completely exhausted our students are already excited about returning in 2021 for another weekend of all things dance!

Thursday September 14th marked the day we would be departing for Sydney! Students were rushing out of school early to meet at the airport and full of excitement. This year we had a much smaller group heading on the tour of 7 students, 2 teachers and 2 parents.

Friday morning we had a bit of time to relax and wander around the area of Sydney Olympic Park before heading to the centre for 3hrs worth of dance workshops. For the seniors the day started with our good friend from Phly Crew, Neale Whittaker, teaching a contemporary workshop. The junior students starting their day with a jazz class with Stephen Perez. After the workshops we headed back to the hotel for some dinner and then continued the night with a range of showcase performances and the Australia's Best Dance Crew competition.

Saturday was a busy day with 5 hours of workshops with Australia's best choreographers. Students learnt a range of styles including commercial jazz, hip hop, contemporary and breakdance. By the end of the day the students were exhausted and their brains about to pop with so much new choreography. Another quick dinner & shower at the hotel and then it was back to the centre for more performances. This evening we witnessed the Australia's N.E.X.T Choreographer competition and were blown away with pieces by Neale Whittaker, Rob McLean, Lucy Doherty, Cat Santos and more.

For the seniors Sunday came with a much needed sleep in. Unfortunately for the 2 junior students of our group they had another early start for their last few workshops - but they were able to rest and explore in the afternoon. The seniors then had their last workshops in the afternoon followed by one last evening of amazing performances. After the festival we watched Marko Panzic's Dream Dance Tour show "Enter The Vortex" choreographed by Sarah Boulter who some of our students took class with during the weekend.

Our last day of the trip we did some exploring of Sydney, starting with Darling Harbour and Madame Tussaudes wax museum. The students had a blast getting selfies with all the stars and some even got a wax model of their own hand made. Next we caught the ferry underneath the bridge to Circular Quay for some lunch. Students explored around the Opera House, and its gift shop, and more photo's were taken to add to the memories. Finally we ended our day with a walk through town to The Escape Hunt Experience where we split up in to two teams and battled it out to see who could find Harold Holt first! Then it was time to head to the airport where everyone enjoyed looking around the shops and of course getting some Krispy Kremes.

We hope everyone who joined us on the Sydney Tour had a great time and we are looking forward to going back to the Australian Dance Festival for 2019!