Amy bale

Ballet

Amy spent over ten years working abroad as a Classical Ballet Dancer with different theatres. Most recently with Staatsballett Berlin (under the direction of Nacho Duato) and The Royal Danish Ballet. Prior to this, she danced with The Romanian National Ballet under the direction of and closely with Johan Kobborg and Alina Cojocaru. Over these years she also gained experience teaching a range of age groups and levels from children to adults.

Having accumulated a variety of experiences in the ballet world on and off stage with different directors, ballet staff and choreographers she is very passionate about the role and responsibility of a teacher at all stages of a dancers schooling/career.

With her own career still fresh, there is a lot that she can pass on to students from technical knowledge to artistic, and even mentorial advice in regards to moving overseas or approaching auditions for example.

Tonia Looker

Ballet

Hailing from Melbourne, Tonia developed a love of dance and music at a young age and studied dance at the Australian Ballet School, as well as the National Ballet School of Canada and the School of American Ballet in New York. She graduated from the Australian Ballet School with an Advanced Diploma of Dance. Her talent led her to the Royal New Zealand Ballet, where she danced in Soloist and Principal roles for 10 years, touring across the world to America, China, the U.K and throughout Europe. She then joined the Queensland Ballet in 2018 where she later retired as a professional dancer in late 2020. A few career highlights in her vast repertoire include roles such as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella in Cinderella, Giselle in Giselle, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, The Sylph in La Sylphide, Kitri in Don Quixote, Jeté Girl in In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, Cacti by Alexander Ekman and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream which was specially created for her by renowned choreographer Liam Scarlett and has been one of her favourites to date. 

Tonia has a passion and well-established experience for teaching and coaching dancers of all ages and experience levels and currently works as Philanthropy Manager for Queensland Ballet and as a freelance dance teacher and coach throughout Sydney.

Victor Zarallo

Ballet & Contemporary

Victor was born in Barcelona and trained at the Instituto del Teatro, The John Cranko School - Stuttgart and graduated from the Royal Ballet School in July 2008.

He joined Scottish Ballet upon graduation and was promoted to Soloist in 2014.

Victor joined Sydney Dance Company in 2018 as a dancer and later expanded his roll to an in-house and virtual teacher, as well as training the Pre Professional Year students of Sydney Dance Company.

Tess Sturmann

Ballet

Tess trained at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Netherlands and has over

10 years professional experience dancing with the Dutch National Ballet.

Her professional career extensively covered repertoire from the Classical

Ballet and Balanchine canon, while also facilitating collaboration in new

contemporary and neoclassical works with internationally esteemed

choreographers. Throughout her career she also engaged in projects as an

independent dance artist, often collaborating with Amsterdam based

interdisciplinary arts collective House of Makers.

Since returning to Australia she has found a passion in sharing her knowledge

and experience in this discipline, through teaching students of all levels.

Veronica Mahon

Ballet

Veronica Mahon was awarded gold at the Genée International Ballet Competition in 1995 at the age of 16. She went on to train at the Australian Ballet School, achieving Dux of the year in 1998 before joining the Australian Ballet Company in 1999. In her second year with the Company, Veronica performed the principal role of Swanhilda in Coppélia with the Dancers Company. During her time with the Australian Ballet, she performed many soloist roles, including: Divergence, Beyond Bach, Street Dancer from Don Quixote, and Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker and Swan Lake. In 2003, Veronica moved to the USA to work with The Atlantic Southeast Ballet Company in South Carolina, where she performed soloist roles in Giselle, Paquita and Nutcracker. She spent 2007 with the Sydney Dance Company, under the direction of Brett Morgan, performing in Aszure Barton’s Sid’s Waltzing Masquerade, Merryl Tankard’s Inuk 2 and Rafael Bonachelo’s 360. Concurrently, Veronica began her role at the Marie Walton-Mahon Dance Academy (MWM) and the National College of Dance in Newcastle, where she piloted the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) Intermediate and Intermediate foundation syllabuses, and prepared students from Grade 1 to Solo Seal Award for their exams. In her time with MWM, Veronica staged the productions of Elite Syncopations, Western Symphony and Paquita. Veronica commenced work as a freelance ballet and contemporary dance teacher in Sydney in 2010, where she worked alongside Christine Atkinson on piloting the RAD Grade 4 and 5 syllabuses. In 2013 Veronica moved to London to study at the RAD, and received distinction in the Professional Dancers Teaching Diploma. Throughout her time in London she taught students in ballet and contemporary dance repertoire at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, London Studio Centre and the Sylvia Young Theatre School. She also worked alongside Vanessa Donkin, creator of RAD’s Dance to your Own Tune, and acquired skills for pre-school aged students. Returning to Australia, Veronica has performed on productions with Opera Australia, collaborated on choreographic works with Paulina Quinteros, and most recentlyhas been teaching and choreographing under the direction of Brett Morgan at the National College of Dance in Newcastle.

Elliot Bourke

Ballet

Stef Lois

Intermediate Contemporary

Stefani trained in Sydney before moving overseas to Spain to continue her ballet studies at Víctor Ullate Escuela. 

After returning to Australia, Stefani joined Sydney Dance Company's Pre-Professional Year where she performed Stephanie Lake’s ‘Colossus’ and repertoire by Rafael Bonachela, whilst also completing her Advanced Diploma in Dance. 

Stefani has worked with numerous renowned choreographers and dancers including James O’Hara, Rafael Bonachela, Stephanie Lake, Gabrielle Nankivell, Cloé Fournier, Omer Backley-Astrachan, and Sam Coren.

Wanda Wojtulewicz-Levine

Character

B Sc Arch (Hons), B Arch (Hons) 

Wanda has a uniquely broad range of knowledge in National and Character Dance, with more than 25 years teaching experience, and has directed major dance events for over 10 years at the Sydney Opera House as Assistant Director of the National Folkloric Festival and Artistic Director of the Festival of Cultures.

Her education was grounded in the Russian Moiseyev style, and most of her teachers came through its rigorous training and tradition. She has studied dance at prestigious institutes in Moscow, and the repertoire she teaches includes character and national dance from many cultures.

Wanda has taught extensively in ballet schools, tertiary institutions and for performance groups, and has had guest engagements for WAAPA, the Royal Academy of Dance, the Cecchetti Society, Ausdance, NIDA, and the University of Natalia Nesterova (Moscow). She has choreographed for productions by Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image and Sport for Jove. Wanda was a regular adjudicator of the World Dance sections for Sydney Eisteddfod and is a Trustee of the Guillermo Keys-Arenas Dance Trust. 

Zac Jaffar

Lyrical & Jazz

Zac trained at Tisch University of Performing Arts, New York, completing a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre and Choreography. Zac is an accomplished dancer, singer, actor and choreographer. His theatre and television credits include: The Arena Spectacular Grease, Into the Woods, MAUI the Musical, The King and I [New York], Kiss of the Spiderwoman, and Pyjama Games.

PATRON

Marie Walton-Mahon OAM

RAD RTS

Marie is internationally regarded as one of Australia’s best ballet teachers, training numerous professional dancers working in famous companies throughout the world. Marie is now internationally renowned since developing Progressing Ballet Technique - a unique method to help dancers reach their potential, taught at prestigious institutions such as Teatro La Scala, English National Ballet School, Washington Ballet School.

Marie trained Director Olivia Jenkins in her formative teenage years giving her the tools that took her to a professional level.

In 2021 Marie was given an Order of Australia Medal from the Governor-General.