Principal - Miss Lani McGeady (Lic Dip)CBA CICB
Diploma in Dance Teaching and Management
Recipient of 2016 WA Dance Teacher Award.
Trained in Melbourne by Miss Shirley Jones, Lani McGeady has continued to educate herself in the Cecchetti Syllabus as well as all genres of dance. She holds a Diploma in Dance Teaching and management and recently completed her anatomy and history component to receive her Cecchetti Licentiate Diploma.
Miss Lani's passion is to see dance available for rural children in all areas and to offer as many opportunities to our country children as possible, opportunities that their city cousins enjoy. Each year Miss Lani gives out between 6-12 invitations for formal training in the form of scholarships and partial scholarships to children who show potential for classical ballet. To see these children and their families travel to Perth, interstate and even overseas, and to open up their worlds to a wealth of experiences and opportunities, is very rewarding.
Miss Lani chooses the music, themes, costumes and choreographs the items for all RDSWA concerts, overseeing the training and direction of all the schools and the children, intent on continuing to spead the love of dance and quality tuition to children in rural areas.
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Sarah Mitchell Advanced Diploma of Dance (NTBS)
Sarah began her dance training in Wongan Hills where she discovered a passion for ballet. She trained with Lani McGeady at the Toodyay Ballet School where she learnt the Cecchetti ballet syllabus along with many other styles of dance including jazz, acrobatics, contemporary and tap. In 2005 at age 12 Sarah was accepted into the WA Young Dancers Youth Ballet Company and then in 2006 joined the Australian Ballet Schools Interstate Junior Program.
Sarah then moved to Perth to further her ballet studies where she attended the Kim Baker Ballet Academy and learnt the Vaganova ballet syllabus. In 2011 Sarah was accepted into the National Theatre Ballet School in Melbourne where, after 3 years of full time training and performing, she received her Advanced Diploma of Dance (Elite Performance). Whilst at the NTBS Sarah performed in many styles including ballet (RAD syllabus), contemporary, flamenco, jazz and tap. Some of her leads roles included Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, Arabian Princess in The Nutcracker, Soloist in Matthew Thompsons De-classification and Rite of Spring, Prayer in Coppelia, Fiancé and Russian Princess in Swan Lake.
In 2016, Sarah moved to London where she combined the wide variety of syllabus and styles of dance she had learnt to become a diverse and passionate teacher. Sarah spent 2.5 years in London teaching a variety of ages from 6 months to adults in many different genres of dance. Sarah has recently returned to Western Australia and has become a qualified acrobatics teacher and can’t wait to continue to share her knowledge and love of dance with her students.
Miss Jade Ryan
Jade has had a long and varied relationship with dance, beginning when she was a little girl.
Her passion to teach started very early and she has continued to share her love of dance with all the lucky rural children of WA. Her love of children is evident in everything she does.Jade has completed her Level One Acrobatics Teacher's Certificate.
Miss Kimberley Mckay CBA
Kimberley is one of our most popular teachers. She has a natural ability and love of dance as well as a genuine caring nature, taking an interest in each and every child. She loves to share the magic of dance with all her students.
Kimberley has completed all her Cecchetti classical ballet exams including her Intermediate and Advanced One level with Honours. She also now holds her first level teaching certificate, her Associate with Cecchetti Ballet Australia and has also completed her level one Acrobatic teachers certificate.
Miss Lily Blechynden
Lily joined our teaching team in 2017. Lily has been a part of our Toodyay family for over 16 years and has completed all her Cecchetti classical exams, recently her Intermediate and Advanced One with Honours, many lovely remarks from the examiner regarding her work ethic and attention to technical detail. Lily wants to pass that on to the children of the wheatbelt and recently completed her first teaching certificate. She is now an Associate with Cecchetti Ballet Australia.
