Student Achievements
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At Cathy-Lea we value the achievements of all students – big and small. Here are some of the many exciting things students have accomplished through their performing arts training at Cathy-Lea:
Tahlia Lewis Tahlia has been dancing for 13 years, 11 of which have been at Cathy-Lea. During 2008-2009 she was selected to train at the Australian Ballet School. Over the years she has achieved the following: Honours for all Cecchetti ballet exams and Honours or Honours with Distinction for SFD and ATOD jazz exams. She has won “Passion to Dance” scholarship, the Brenda Chapman scholarship, and several other ballet and jazz eisteddfod scholarships and open sections. In 2007 she was selected as a Cecchetti scholar and in 2010 she was selected to perform at the SFD “Dance Fusion” syllabus launch. In June she was chosen to perform at Dandenong Plaza in the holiday entertainment show “Let’s Dance” with Pania Taku from “So You Think You Can Dance Australia”. She studied VCE Dance units 1-4 at Cathy-Lea in 2010 and 2011, gaining an audition for "Top Class" to perform her VCE solos. During 2011 she won the Lucie Saranova Memorial Award for most outstanding results in the state for Advanced 1 level of Cecchetti International Classical Ballet. She has been accepted into 2nd year at Dance World for 2014. Monique Johnson Monique is one of Cathy-Lea’s most awarded dancers. In 2010, while studying her Year 12, Monique achieved the following: She was selected to dance her VCE solo at VCE Dance Top Acts Show at Southbank. She completed her Advanced 1 Cecchetti classical ballet examination achieving Honours with 94%. She also completed her Southern Federation of Dance Jazz level 10 with Honours. She was selected to perform at the SFD “Dance Fusion” syllabus launch in October. At the Southern Federation of Dance Eisteddfod in 2010 she won the Open age Jazz championship, the Open Jazz solo section, the Open National section and placed second in the Open Ballet section. At the Traralgon Dance Eisteddfod that year she placed 1st for open jazz solo, national solo and jazz improvisation. She placed 2nd for open ballet solo, jazz championship and ballet championship sections. Monique also played the role of Mrs Potts in the Musical theatre production of “Beauty and the Beast.” Monique won a two-year scholarship for full-time Diploma of Dance and Performance with the Dance Factory, in Richmond, commencing in 2011. In her first year she achieved Honours plus for all her Dance Factory Teaching Associate Exams including Classical, Jazz, Tap, Hip-Hop, Acrobatics, Singing and Acting and was also asked to be a part of the Dance Factory Agency. She is currently completing her graduate year at Dance Factory where she has been given the opportunity to choreograph workshops for their term performances. Monique as been touring nationally and internationally with the "Nickeloden Live Dora the Explorer Show" for 2013 - 2014. Jamie ManserJamie commenced his Dance training at Cathy-Lea at the age of 8. He studied at the Victorian College of the Arts (2005-2010) where he trained in Classical Ballet, Contemporary Dance, Jazz, Tap and Musical Theatre. He has since trained at various professional Melbourne studios including Dance World, The Space and Chunky Move as well as taking classes at Cathy-Lea. Jamie has performed in several professional shows with Showtime Productions including “Shrek 4”, “New McDonalds Farm” and “The Scooby Doo Show”! He was a key performer in “Let’ Dance” with Pania Taku in June 2010. In 2011 Jamie gained a dancing contract in Turkey. Jamie is currently touring Australia with a theatrical production of “Spiderman”. He also engages in freelance choreographic and dance teaching work. Amy PykeAmy danced at Cathy-Lea for 15 years and has competed at numerous eisteddfods, winning many sections including the Tap championship at both Warragul and Southern Federation of Dance competitions. She has completed all her exams in Tap and Jazz with the Southern Federation of Dance, and has completed Cecchetti Ballet to Advanced 1 level. Amy has been awarded the Southern Federation of Dance Outstanding Achievement Award. Recently Amy has performed at the State Theatre for the Australian Dance Awards. She danced at the North Melbourne Grand final Breakfast. She has performed for Showtime Productions in various pantomimes, also taking part in the Australian tour of Looney Tunes Live: Classroom Capers. She has performed at many Corporate/Commercial events, including dancing at the State Theatre for the Australian Dance Awards, dancing at multiple events at Crown Casino. Amy performed in a televised episode of Shaun Micallef’s comedy show, “Newstopia”. Amy trained at Jason Coleman’s Ministry of Dance in their full-time course in 2010-2011. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Education majoring in Dance at Deakin University. She has also been been selected as a cheer leader for Melbourne Tigers for 2013-2014. Andrew KinseyAndrew is currently in his 16th year at Cathy-Lea and began his performing arts training at the age of 4. Andrew’s speciality is Acting and he has completed Trinity Guildhall examinations in Speech and Drama and Individual Acting Skills achieving many distinctions. He has also won many acting awards at the Speech and Drama Teachers’ Association of Victoria Performance Festival and the West Gippsland Music and Drama Eisteddfod submitting many original monologues and storytelling entries. He was awarded the Speech and Drama Spoken Words Encouragement Award in 2007 and the Senior Shakespeare Prize in 2010. Andrew has performed in many leading and supporting acting roles in the Cathy-Lea End of Year Concerts as well as in primary school and in his secondary college productions of “Bugsy Malone”, “Grease” and “Joseph and HIs Amazing Technicolour Dream Coat” which required him to sing as well as act and dance. Andrew was also selected to perform in Europe in Romeo and Juliet A Rock Opera in 2007 and The Tempest A Rock Opera in 2009. He has also trained in Classical Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip-Hop and Acrobatics and danced in the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games. In 2006 he received a performing arts scholarship (Drama) to attend Beaconhills College. Andrew has a keen interest in screenwriting and is currently studying a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing at NMIT Collingwood. Natasha DunstonNatasha has studied Dance for 16 years, 12 of which have been at Cathy-Lea. In 2011 she auditioned for 6 full-time Dance courses and gained entry to ALL of them! In 2012 she commenced full-time Studies at Spectrum Dance. Recently Tash danced in the Myer Christmas Parade and at the launch of the SFD Dance Fusion syllabus at St Martin’s Theatre. She performed at the EJ Whitten Legends’ game in 2012 as a Big Brother dancer, danced at GDC (global dance convention) in Sydney with several renowned US Choreographers. Natasha performed in the Opening ceremony of Deaflympics, in an episode of the television series “Newstopia” and as a cast member of “Let’s Dance” with Pania Taku from SYTYCD. In 2010 Tash completed VCE Dance at Cathy-Lea as well as completing her Jazz 9 examination with Honours and Advanced 1 Classical Ballet with Highly Commended. Tash has won many awards at eisteddfods and competitions including Jazz, Ballet and Neo-Classical championships and scholarships. In 2011 she gained the aggregate runner-up award at Beachside Competition and the Adjuduicator’s Award at the West Gippsland Eisteddfod. Tristan Gross Tristan started dancing at Cathy Lea as a 6 year-old taking classes in Jazz, and soon picked up Tap and Classical Ballet. At the age of 11 he auditioned successfully at VCASS and studied on a dance scholarship there for 4 years. In year 11 he decided to leave school to pursue dancing full time and is now at APO (Dance World) in South Melbourne studying a Diploma in Classical Ballet and Certificate 4 in Dance. His goal is to dance with a ballet company and become a professional dancer. Jessica GrossJessica trained in Jazz, Classical and Contemporary Dance at Cathy-Lea from Grade 2 right through her school years. Alongside her Dance studies she also sang with Berwick Youth Choir for 9 years and Gondwana Voices for 5 summers and studied Classical Voice privately. She performed in many of the Annual Cathy Lea concerts with singing and acting roles and loves musical theatre. In 2008 Jess played Jemima in Cats with the Windmill Theatre Company. Jess commenced Ballarat University's Music Theatre degree but decided that she would prefer to study for a double degree in Music (Classical Voice) and Arts at Monash in 2013. Currently she teaches Musical Theatre and private voice at Cathy Lea and studies Literature through OUA. |
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Dance
Classical ballet is recommended as the essential foundation to any course of dance study. Classes are offered in the internationally Cecchetti method...
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Cathy-Lea Dance, Music and Drama Works is the leader in performing arts education in Melbourne’s South-East
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