Class Disciplines

Acro Dance

Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility, and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts as well as in many sports and martial arts. Acrobatics is most often associated with activities that make extensive use of gymnastic elements, such as acro dance, circus, and gymnastics, but also in many other athletic activities such as ballet and diving may also employ acrobatics.

Acro Dance builds on acrobatic tricks applying choreographic movement and group formations to produce an elaborate display with a very strong wow factor.

Ballet - Cecchetti Method, Legat System & Progressing Ballet Technique

The Cecchetti method is a ballet technique and training system devised by the Italian ballet master and pedagogue Enrico Cecchetti. The training system is especially concerned with anatomy within the confines of classical ballet technique, and seeks to develop the essential characteristics of dance in its students through a rigid training regime. The goal is for the student to learn to dance by studying and internalising the basic principles, in an effort to become self-reliant rather than imitating the movements executed by their teacher.

Cecchetti-trained dancers have achieved places in ballet and dance companies all over the world. Well-trained Cecchetti dancers have a purity of line and simplicity of style that enables them to take their places in dance companies of other genres of classical ballet.

PBT is an innovation in ballet oriented core strengthening based on the emerging Australian Progressing Ballet Technique which is hitting top companies and dance studios around the world.

The Legat System is a Russian ballet training style developed by Nicholas Legat - a core requirement to any aspiring ballet dancer.

It is via the innovative combination of these world renowned ballet learning methods that we have both varied as well as strengthened the teaching of the ballet discipline at our studios.

Commercial - Hip Hop & Street Dance

Hip Hop dance refers to street dance styles primarily performed to hip-hop music or that have evolved as part of hip hop culture. It includes a wide range of styles primarily breaking, locking, and popping which were created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in the United States. The dance industry responded with a commercial, studio-based version of hip hop, sometimes called New Style, and a hip hop influenced style of jazz dance called Jazz Funk. Classically trained dancers developed these studio styles in order to create choreography from the hip hop dances that were performed on the street. Because of this development, hip hop dance is practiced in both dance studios and outdoor spaces.

The commercialisation of hip hop dance continued into the 1990s and 2000s with the production of several other television shows and movies such as The Grind, Planet B-Boy, Rize, StreetDance 3D, America's Best Dance Crew, Saigon Electric, the Step Up film series, and The LXD, a web series. Though the dance is established in entertainment, including mild representation in theater, it maintains a strong presence in urban neighborhoods which has led to the creation of street dance derivatives turfing, krumping, and jerkin'.

What distinguishes hip hop from other forms of dance is that it is often freestyle (improvisational) in nature and hip hop dance crews often engage in freestyle dance competitions, colloquially referred to as battles. Crews, freestyling, and battles are identifiers of this style. Hip Hop dance can be a form of entertainment or a hobby. It can also be a way to stay active in competitive dance and a way to make a living by dancing professionally.

The very nature of commercial dance as a free, individualistic and raw style pull it away from a formal structure and therefore, at this stage, there are no international examining bodies offering a comprehensive syllabus in this genre of dance. With years of professional teaching and performance experience, we at Dance Project Studios have developed a unique system for teaching this style of dance in a free yet strucutred method thus enabling students to progress and develop their skills as they evolve their individual commercial dancer style over time.

Jazz - Modern Theatre, Lyrical & Funk

Jazz dance is a classification shared by a broad range of dance styles. Before the 1950s, jazz dance referred to dance styles that originated from African American vernacular dance. In the 1950s, a new genre of jazz dance, Modern Jazz dance, emerged, with roots in Caribbean traditional dance. Every individual style of jazz dance has roots traceable to one of these two distinct origins. Jazz was a big hit in the early 50's and it is still a well-loved style of dance all over the world. Moves Used In Jazz Dance include Jazz Hands, Kicks, Leaps, Sideways Shuffling, Rolled Shoulders, and Turned Knees.

With the growing domination of other forms of entertainment music, jazz dance evolved on Broadway into the new, smooth style that is taught today and known as modern jazz, while tap dance branched off to follow its own, separate evolutionary path. The performance style of jazz dance was popularized to a large extent by Bob Fosse's work, which is exemplified by Broadway shows such as Chicago, Cabaret, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game. Modern jazz dance continues to be an essential element of musical theatre, and it can often be seen in music videos and competitive dance.

Lyrical dance is a particular style of jazz dance which is similar in nature to ballet, combining the many technical elements of classical ballet with the freedom, fluidity, expressiveness and airier aspects of jazz, contemporary and modern dance. Lyrical dance is expressive, simultaneously subtle and dynamic, focused on conveying musicality and emotion through movement.

Choreography can be gripping and exquisitely delicate, at the same time. That a song's lyrics are a driving force and key inspiration for the movement accounts for why a sizeable number of dancers are unaware of how the style's name was derived, erroneously thinking it came from the word "lyrics".

Due to its demand for intermediate to advanced technical skill and emotional focus, the style is popular primarily with passionate dancers who want to combine technique with musicality.

Lyrical choreography is often peppered with intentionally pedestrian moves, amid the more challenging movements, to create a simultaneously organic and dramatic feel. Lyrical is based around choreography and the interpretation of the music. Routines are based around feeling and emotion and, though technique is crucial, spirit generally tells where the dance will go.

Jazz Funk or Jazz Modern as we like to refer to it is a hot, commercial style of dance. It is a fierce, cute, powerful, sensual and a diva-like dance style all in one combining elements from hip hop, jazz and wacking. You get to be your own music industry star and forget everything else. This genre of dance gives you the chance to release sassiness and dance fiercely.

Similar to our strategy in ballet dance, it is through the development of our combined dance style teaching system in jazz that we are able to produce strong jazz dancers at our studios.

Modern Contemporary

Contemporary dance is a popular form of dance that developed during the middle portion of the twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominating performance genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world. Although originally informed by and borrowing from classical, modern, and jazz styles, it has since come to incorporate elements from many styles of dance.

In terms of the focus of its technique, contemporary dance tends to utilize both the strong and controlled legwork of ballet and modern dance's stress on the torso, and also employs contact-release, floor work, fall and recovery, and improvisation characteristic of modern dance. Unpredictable changes in rhythm, speed, and direction are often used, as well. It sometimes also incorporates elements of non-western dance cultures such as elements from African dance including bent knees, or movements from the Japanese contemporary dance Butoh.

Musical Theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines song, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humour, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements.

Modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century. Some of the most famous and iconic musicals through the decades include West Side Story (1957), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1985), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), Rent (1996), The Producers (2001) and Wicked (2003).

Spanish Dance

Spanish Dance, in its strictest sense, is a professionalized art-form based on the various folkloric music traditions of Southern Spain in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Extremadura and Murcia. In a wider sense, it refers to these musical traditions and more modern musical styles which have themselves been deeply influenced by and become blurred with the development of flamenco over the past two centuries.

Tap Dance

Tap dance is a type of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. The sound is made by shoes that have a metal "tap" on the heel and toe. There are several major variations on tap dance including: flamenco, rhythm (jazz) tap, classical tap, Broadway tap, and post-modern tap. Broadway tap is rooted in English theatrical tradition and often focuses on formations, choreography and generally less complex rhythms; it is widely performed in musical theatre. Rhythm tap focuses on musicality, and practitioners consider themselves to be a part of the jazz tradition. Classical tap has a similarly long tradition which marries European "classical" music with American foot drumming with a wide variation in full-body expression. Post-modern or contemporary tap has emerged over the last three decades to incorporate abstract expression, thematic narrative and technology.

Associated Examing Boards

Acrobatic Arts

Acrobatic Dance, or Acro as it is commonly referred to by dancers and dance professionals, is the beautiful fusion of classic dance technique and the precision and athleticism of acrobatic elements. Often defined by unique choreography, acro dancers seamlessly blend musicality, emotional expression, line and extension with acrobatic movements in a dance context.

Acro’s roots are in traditional Chinese dance, later appearing as a favoured style on the Vaudeville stage. More recently, acro gained popularity with the wide spread success of the contemporary circus productions of Cirque du Soleil.

Acro is an especially challenging style for dancers to master as training in both dance and acrobatic elements is required.

The Acrobatic Arts syllabus was created by a successful studio owner with decades of experience in the art of AcroDance. The programme is based on safe and effective progressions with proven results in five divisions: Flexibility, Strength, Balancing, Limbering and Tumbling. Developed with input from professionals and experts in ballet, modern dance, jazz, contortion, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, sport acrobatics, yoga, acro yoga, pilates, physiotherapy, hand balancing and more. Simple thoughtful progressions take the beginner from preschool level dancer with log rolls and summersaults to the advanced dancer tumbling effortlessly across the stage.

Dance Project Studios currently host Acrobatic Arts examinations.

Imperial Society of Teachers in Dance - ISTD

The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) is one of the world’s leading dance examinations board. From Ballet to Ballroom, ISTD cover the full spectrum of genres and for more than 100 years have provided training for dance teachers and examiners, enabling them to enter their students for examinations, develop new techniques and spread the joy of dance.

The examination structure of the ISTD is designed to cater equally for those who wish to progress to making dance their profession, either as a performer or dance teacher, and also for those pursuing dance purely as a leisure activity. The teaching qualifications are structured to give the new teacher the best possible foundation from which to work, with a particular emphasis on safe dance practice and the needs of the growing child.

Dance Project Studios currently host ISTD examinations in Cecchetti Ballet, Modern Theatre and Tap Dance.

The Russian Ballet Society

The Russian Ballet Society is an organisation that was established by Nadine Nicolaeva Legat in 1937 when she opened the first boarding ballet school in the UK. She founded the society to promote the teaching of her late husband, Nicolas Legat and this became known as the Legat System of Russian Ballet. The Russian Ballet Society has since been developed and updated over the years as it continues to flourish today with the addition of teacher training courses and examinations from Grade 1 to Advanced levels.

The Legat system encourages the teacher to create freedom and flexibility within their classes. Each exercise is creatively set for every class so that no two classes are exactly the same. We encourage this approach even from the earliest levels of work so that, right from the start, the students' minds are stimulated and kept alert. The system also has a strong emphasis on correct use of épaulement, the musical use of the upwards beat and élan, meaning to address the spirit and energy of the dancers movements. It is the combination of these factors that makes Legat’s style so appealing to watch and so enjoyable to perform.

Dance Project Studios currently host The Russian Ballet Society examinations in the Legat System of Russian Ballet.

Spanish Dance Society

The Spanish Dance Society is the worlds largest society for the advancement of Spanish dance in all its forms. It is a non-profit, charitable organisation formed to promote interest in the art of Spanish Dance, pursuing excellence in presentation, execution and instruction. It was founded in 1965, and is now represented in more than a dozen countries on five continents.

Dance Project Studios currently host Spanish Dance Society examinations.

Trinity College London

Trinity College London is an examination board based in London, England, which offers graded and diploma qualifications (up to postgraduate level) across a range of disciplines in the performing arts.

The board offers a choice of qualifications for students of drama and speech subjects with various levels of experience and ability. Exams can be taken by individuals, pairs or groups. Study strands include Speech and Drama, Individual Acting Skills, Group Performance, Shakespeare, Choral Speaking, Communication Skills, Musical Theatre and Performance Arts.

Dance Project Studios currently host both group and solo Trinity examination preparation.