Student Workshops

Styles workshops are available for both Primary & Secondary School Students of all abilities who are performing in the 2019 festival. Styles workshops offer the opportunity for students to work with a range of industry professionals. Festival workshops will include tutors from diverse backgrounds and styles.

Each workshop will go for 1.5 hours and will cost $20.00 per student, per session. Please indicate your preferences by completing the form located below. If you would like to book any additional sessions for your school, please fill in a separate form for each group.

The Workshop Coordinator will do their best to allocate everyone their first preferences, however, please understand this is not always possible. 

KEY DATES:

Workshop Applications Due: Monday 13 May (Week 3, Term 2, 2019)
Workshops confirmed: Monday 27 May (Week 5, Term 2, 2019)
Festival Dates: Monday 17 June -  Friday 28 June 2019 (Week 8 - 9, Term 2, 2019) 

Venue: Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre, City Rd & Cleveland St, Chippendale NSW 2008

Workshop Tutors

ASHLEIGH TAVARES - Commercial Jazz/JFH
Ashleigh Tavares is a commercial dancer based in Sydney, Australia. Since graduating from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and Brent Street’s Full-time course she has gone on to work consistently both throughout Australia and overseas. Some of her professional experiences include; So You Think You Can Dance Semi- Finalist, Resident Dancer on X-Factor, The Voice and Australia’s Got Talent. And live performances with Cher, Ricky Martin, Kylie Minogue, Zara Larsson, Charli XCX, Little Mix, Delta Goodrem, Havana Brown and many more.
COURTNEY HORTON - Contemporary
Courtney Horton graduated from Newtown High School of the performing arts in 2006. Following this he travelled to the United States on Scholarship to New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. Courtney Graduated with a BFA with Highest Honors in Dance in 2011 before moving to New York City where he danced as a soloist for several dance companies including Brooklyn Ballet, Willow Oak Contemporary Ballet, Iglevsky Ballet Company of Long Island, Ballet Neo and Continuum Contemporary Ballet, Ruddur dance and many more.
 
During his career Courtney has performed the works of Martha Graham, Robert Battle, Ohad Naharin, Tony Fabre, Judith Jamison, Michael Uthoff, Darshan Bhuller, Peter London, Christopher Rudd, Jaunjo Arques and many other well-known artists.
 
Courtney returned to Australia and became a tutor and choreographer for many respected programs including NSWPS Senior Dance Ensemble and has been a choreographer of the Featured Contemporary and Combined Dance sections of the Schools Spectacular for the past 5 years. Most recently Courtney has been studying Physiotherapy at the University of Sydney and has been combining his knowledge and experience in both dance and physiotherapy in order to give informative and comprehensive training to every student he encounters.
PETE EVANS - Jazz/Contemporary/Hip Hop/Lyrical
After moving to Sydney when he was 19 to further evolve his career in dance, Pete completed two years of full time dance at ‘Ev&Bow’ under the guidance of Sarah Boulter and Lisa Bowmer. Once graduated, he took part in the ‘Dream Dance Company’s’ pre-professional program facilitated by Marko Panzic, which he used to network with other like-minded commercial dancers, whom he now works regularly alongside of. Represented by Grayboy the Agency, Pete has continued to work regularly within the Sydney dance scene as well as internationally. Some of his credits include Honda, ASICS, Telstra, Apple, Toyota, Qatar Airways, the Eurovision Song Contest, Opera Australia, Chinese New Year Parade, LEDancers Australia and Sydney Trains. After spending time in Los Angeles and Japan recently, his love for teaching and creating has heightened, leading him to become a sought after choreographer within Sydney, most recently creating for and also assisting on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and the NSW School Spectacular. Pete has recently completed his first season of Neale Whittaker’s ‘Una Palabra’ and is now performing in Graeme Murphy’s adaptation of ’Turandot’ for Opera Australia, which will soon be touring to Melbourne.
JAMES DEANE - Hip Hop
James Deane has extensive experience performing both nationally and internationally. He has worked with artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Terry Crews, Willow Smith and Jaden Smith to name a few. James has trained extensively in developing both the physical and mental understanding of dance. He shares this knowledge with his students during his classes and workshops and creates a learning environment that is positive, fun and encouraging.
CAT RALPH - Jazz/Contemporary/Hip Hop/Musical Theatre/Latin
Cat has been dancing for 20 years, trained extensively in jazz, ballet, tap, musical theatre, contemporary, and hip hop - and more recently, singing and acting.
She attended Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts, involved throughout all her years there in school musicals, Regional and State Dance Festivals, as well as a featured artist in School’s Spectacular. At the conclusion of her high school years, Cat placed first in the state for HSC Dance (2012).
In 2016, Cat completed a Certificate IV in Dance and Performance at Brent Street. During her fulltime year, she auditioned for and was awarded the largest performing arts scholarship in Australia – a four month all expenses paid scholarship to train at Broadway Dance Center in New York City. There, she trained with many greats of jazz and musical theatre – David Marquez, Richard J. Hinds, Jim Cooney, Karla Garcia, Sheila Barker and Ashle Dawson just to name a few. Freshly inspired from her trip, Cat is home and working towards building a professional career in the Australian industry, with a real love for theatre. She has most recently appeared in So Popera Productions ‘A Chorus Line’ as Cassie - a dream role for any dancer - and the Cyd Charisse originated role of the Broadway soloist in the company’s production of Singin’ in the Rain. 
Cat has a great passion for teaching, and has been sharing her knowledge between the South Coast and the Gold Coast for 10 years. She withholds no wisdom from her students and teaches with the belief that being a good human and good dancer must go hand in hand. She has been lucky to obtain the wealth of dance and industry knowledge from her extraordinary mentors over the years, and is always excited to pass it on.
SHELLEY MOORE - Contemporary/Lyrical
Shelley is a Sydney-based choreographer and teacher specialising in Contemporary dance, and is a graduate of the Bachelor of Dance/Bachelor of Education UNSW degree. Shelley is the Founder and Director of DanceMoore Choreography - an online Contemporary Dance business which connects dance teachers in Australia and worldwide to her unique Contemporary choreography via the DMC Studio Suite Program (dancemoore.com.au). Shelley also travels extensively with DMC to choreograph for educational schools and private organisations as well as running workshops and Professional Development sessions in Choreography and DMC Studio Suite delivery. With over 18 years experience as a sought-after choreographer and dance educator, Shelley continues to enjoy a varied and active industry profile, such as teaching regularly at Sydney Dance Company, touring internationally as the NSW Choreographer to the Australian Girls Choir, teaching with REDed (a prominent dance education company based in Sydney) and also delivering national and international workshops for the Royal Academy of Dance and other high profile organisations. Shelley has performed with Chunky Move (Melbourne), appeared in various TV commercials and is also World Aerobics Championships silver medalist.
JRISI JUSAKOS - Middle Eastern Dance (Belly Dance)/Oriental Styling/Folk Dance/Persian Classical Dance/Contemporary Belly Dance
Jrisi is a Chilean born cross-cultural trained dance artist. One of the few bellydance artists in Australia who has devoted her life to dance.  With 25years of extensive training, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance, international travel and research, Jrisi has carved out a unique style that is both captivating and recognisable. As a teacher she leads classes in Bellydance, Fitness and Iranian dance around Sydney for women of all shapes and sizes. She has been a guest lecturer at the Australian College of Physical Education as well as guest lecturer for graduating dance students from University of Western Sydney. Jrisi founded Hathor Dance Studio with the permission and blessing from master teacher Dr. Mo Geddawi. She is currently working closely with two non for profit community organisations in creating accessible dance classes for women living the western suburbs suffering from domestic violence, low socio economic backgrounds and women newly immigrated to Australia. Her ability to connect and engage with women of all cultural backgrounds has made her a popular and much respected teacher. She has been invited to teach in Japan, Singapore and New Zealand as well as across Australia.
 
Jrisi has been one of only Oriental Dance artists in Australia to be awarded an Australian Council for the Arts grant for professional development in Egypt, Lebanon, Germany and New York working closely with master teachers Mdme Raqia Hassan, Mahmoud Reda, Dr. Mo Geddawi, Yousry Sharif and Mdme Georgette Gebara. She also has been involved in contemporary dance residencies and has been awarded various dance commissions.
 
Not just a teacher and dancer, she is an entrepreneur producing popular bellydance theatre shows (over 20 shows since 2002), producing a line of instructional DVD’s which have sold worldwide and sponsored internationally acclaimed master teachers to Sydney. This will be the second Bellydance Evolution production she has sponsored since 2014 Dark Side of the Crown. Jrisi has been called an “inspiring ambassadress” to the world of Oriental Dance in Australia, a constant reminder that can be aspired to even while raising a young family.
Zoë Dunwoodie - Contemporary
Zoë’s began dancing at the age of five in her hometown Mona Vale, NSW Australia. During high school, she performed in the NSW Schools Spectacular, Rock Eisteddfod Challenge and Public Schools State Dance Festivals (2000-2008). After completing her Higher School’s Certificate, she travelled to New Zealand to study at the New Zealand School of Dance in 2009.
Whilst living in NZ, Zoë performed in the internationally renowned World Of Wearable Art Show (WOW), Wellington Fringe Festival and TEMPO Dance Festival where she was nominated for Best Female Dancer. Training at the New Zealand School of Dance exposed Zoë to choreographers such as Craig Bary, Sarah Foster, Malia Johnston, Lina Limosani and Paul Taylor. She graduated from NZSD in 2011 with a Diploma in Dance Performance.
In 2012 Zoë moved to Adelaide after been offered a position at Australian Dance Theatre (ADT). She has since created, performed and toured works by Artistic Director Garry Stewart nationally and internationally. These works include Be Your Self, Proximity, G, Objekt and excerpts of BirdBrain, The Age of Unbeauty and Devolution performed for Stewart’s 20th anniversary gala performance, Anthology in 2019. She was involved in the creation and performed in the Australian and international premieres of ADT’s Habitus, The Beginning of Nature, Doppelgänger and a dance theatre work with second year acting students of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Choreography. She has also performed works by local dance artists including Lina Limosani and Daniel Jaber and will later this year premiere a work conceived by Norwegian choreographer Ina Christel Johannessen.