Ballet schools in Australia - Armidale

[tinydancer31]

I recently moved to Armidale, NSW. I am having a hard time finding a ballet school in the area. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or suggestions. I don't have a recent video, and I have been on break for a month, so I really can't see myself auditioning in person at the moment. I really just need someplace whgere I can take regular class until I get into good enough shape to make another video or do in person auditions. Also, I have been trained oin the vaganova method, and would like to stick to that as much as possible.

[Mel Johnson]

We have quite a few members from Australia, and I think more adults than students. If I put this thread onto Cross Talk, it should get more responses. I'm a little rusty on my Oz geography.

[jimpickles]

I've done a quick Google search, and it doesn't look particularly hopeful (though of course that method is not exhaustive). Though Armidale calls itself a city, its really a small country town, wth 22,000 residents. Not big enough to support a proper dance school base, I'm afraid, though there are lots of mentions of "ballet schools for the young" (difficult to tell from that if any of them are real schools). Vaganova is not commonly taught in Australia, so you are likely to be even less in luck there. The University of New England is based there, so they may offer something, though if it does it's unlikely to be year-round.

 

I don't think any of the members posting here are from Armidale or surroundings, but if I'm wrong I guess one will reply. I'll also ask the teachers at my dance school (Brisbane, just up the road - well, a few hundred km up the road) if they know anything or have any contacts.

 

Jim.

[Redbookish]

It's ten years since I lived in Australia, and then I lived nowhere near Armidale. But a bit of googling got me the site for the Australian Yellow pages -- the business telephone directory -- and a very brief search using the term "ballet" for Armidale brought up two studios.

 

Australian Yellow Pages

 

No web sites for either studio, so you will probably need to telephone, and there are probably more studios than I found.

 

Most Australian dance schools use the RAD syllabus for teenage students (sometimes Cecchetti), although I know of several teachers who use the Vaganova syllabus, but they are in Sydney & Melbourne. But as many people have commented on BT4D, the syllabus really doesn't matter too much -- you learn the same things with a good teacher, whatever the system!

 

As JimPickles says, Armidale is a small country town, although it does have a university, and (if I recall correctly from the last time I was there in the early 1990s) a rather nice regional art gallery. It's a small town, but a regional centre, for a very beautiful part of the world, although drought is taking its toll.

[jimpickles]

I've asked two teachers in Brisbane, and neither knew I'm afraid, though one said "it's bound to have an advanced RAD class somewhere" (but didnt know). Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

 

Jim.

[jimpickles]

I guess this reply is too out of date now, but here goes anyway.

 

Someone has just turned up our ballet school who spent her early adulthood in Armidate. She did get ballet lessons, but only by going in with younger girls. If you'd like me to ask more, please say.

 

Jim.