PO Box 2218
Rowville 3178
03 9752 9202
1300 733 741
26th April 2016
Dear SFD Member,
It’s hard to believe we are already inTerm 2.
COMBINED SCHOOLS CONCERT
What an amazing afternoon! We were entertained by a diverse display of dances andthank the many schools who nominated such wonderful dances to help make our afternoon a great success.A special thank you to Dance Power Studios who travelled from New South Wales!It was lovely to be able to honour those students who successfully got through their Level 10 exams in 2015 and early 2016 with a special Level 10 presentation medal at the finale.
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
A special part of the Combined Schools Concert was the announcement of the Outstanding Achievement Award recipient for 2015– congratulations to Halina Craig.Halina has been involved with SFD for the past 26 years and has spent many years on the Committee in roles such as Secretary, Vice President and President. She has been an Examiner for 16 years and she is a major part of our Teaching Certificate Course which she runs with great professionalism and expertise.
She has been very involved in updates to our Classical Syllabus working alongside Natalie Blenheim with updates to Levels 1 to Pre-Elementary. In the past 12 months she has been extremely busy with the update and filming of our Elementary Syllabus which is due to be released in 2017. Halina is a delight to work with and a very worthy recipient of this prestigious award.
COMPETITIONS
A reminder that the dates for the Southern Federation of Dance Competitions this year will be Sunday 26th June to Friday1stJuly, inclusive. Once again, the venue is The Whitehorse Performing Arts Centre, 397 Whitehorse Road, Nunawading (Melways Ref: 48 G9). Just a reminder that technical classes will be held during the Competitions. The adjudicators for this year’s comps will be Freya List, Brianna Anderson and Angela Hill.
For student’s burning their own music, please advise them that CD’s should be burnt at a low speed.
X 8 or x16 writing speed is the preference. It is also advisable that a 2nd CD copy is available as backup or an iPod with each dance track placed in their own individual playlists. Use of iPod or other similar devices are at the owners risk and SFD will not be held responsible for loss or damage to these items.
Timetables will be ready to distribute to those member schools registered shortly.
SPONSORSHIP
It’s not too late to become a sponsor for our competitions! If you would like to help contribute to the sponsoring of our competitions, your donation goes directly towards the cost of trophies for 1st place and medals for 2nd and 3rd. It only costs$80 for a½ page advertisement or $130 for a full-page advertisement in the program. Alternatively, any nominated cash donations will be gratefully accepted. Please call HeadOffice for a sponsorship form.
VICTORIAN MEMBERS
Exam bookings are flooding into the office. If you require a particular date (especially from July to September), you are advised to book now so every effort can be made to accommodate your request. Examination request forms are enclosed in your manual.
SFD PROMO
Don’t forget to check out our fantastic new promotional video, recently uploaded to the SFD website at This will be a great tool in showcasing the syllabus to potential members and a wonderful opportunity to view for exam work.Members are welcome to share the video on their own websites or Facebook pages, to help students/parents understand what our exams are all about.
DANCE ETHOS MEETING
You should have recently received an email from Susan Tan, President of SFD, advising of a very important upcoming meetingin Melbourne.In the event that you missed this correspondence, I have provided it again below for your information:
I would like to bring your attention to a very important meeting that is taking place in Melbourne on Sunday 1st May 2016. Tracie-marie Seipel together with Jenny Jones, 2 teachers from Sydney, are heading to Melbourne under the banner of Dance Ethos Australia to talk to our dance community about the changes that are likely to come about from the Royal Commission's investigation into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
I'm not sure if you have been following the news but the dance world has been under a very negative spotlight recently, due to the court case of Grant Davies from RG Dance and his multiple charges of Child Sexual Abuse within his dance studio. Tracie-marie Seipel was a teacher at RG Dance for 9 years and tried unsuccessfully for many years to report his abuse of children to authorities and have him charged but no one would listen. She felt so helpless and so did the children as there was no one that they could turn to for help. Tracie-marie Seipel was involved in the Royal Commission investigation recently giving a recount of her story and she knows that whatever findings come out of the investigation will bring about significant changes to any institutions (including dance schools) dealing with children. If the dance community does not act quickly, we may be hit with some very non-dance related body imposing their own rules and regulations that may be under the same banner as institutions like the church. If the dance community can come together and find a way of setting up their own self-regulating body to protect the interests of children, there is a strong chance we may be able to avoid being put under the same umbrella as other institutions. Gymnastics Australia is self-regulated and they have models that could be tweaked to work with the dance industry.
On behalf of SFD, I attended a Dance Ethos Meeting in Sydney 2 weeks ago along with 50+ other dance educators and was extremely moved by the passion and drive of these 2 remarkable women who have been entirely self-funding a drive to make a positive change to our industry. Their initial meeting a month prior saw the development of the body Dance Ethos Australia and at the last meeting Tracie-marie was unanimously voted to be the voice to spread the word to other states. Their mission is to get everyone involved in developing our own industry Risk Management procedures that are related to dance and present these to the Royal Commission first. They want everyone to have their say. Tracie-marie has contacts within the Royal Commission who will listen to her and there is also a potential chance for government funding if we can rally behind Dance Ethos Australia and show that we are working together for unity.
I strongly urge as many SFD members as possible to attend this meeting on 1st May or if you can't go, perhaps send a teacher in your place. We need to stay on the forefront of what is going on and ask all the questions now. For those who cannot make it, we will be keeping you up to date with Minutes and any other information you need to know.
Meeting Date:1st May 2016
Venue: Isolation Performing Arts
Address:51 Catalina Drive, Tullamarine VIC 3043 (near the airport)
Start Time:10.30am (previous meetings went for approximately 3 hours)
I will be attending with a number of other SFD Examiners so we hope to see you there too.
Regards,
Susan Tan
President
Southern Federation of Dance
INTERSTATE MEMBERS – EXAM BOOKINGS
All interstate exam bookings MUST be received at head office by the closing date in order to arrange Examiners.
Please note that early interstate exam bookings closed March 28th and late interstate exam bookings close May 30th.Any requests received after these dates cannot be guaranteed to be accommodated.
EXAMS – TEACHER PARTICIPATION
Just a reminderto members that only one teacher should be present in the exam room for levels 1 + 2 as per specifications in the manual highlighted below:
(1)Level 1 Classical, Jazz & Tap
•The teacher may name and demonstrate the steps, place the candidates into lines, circles etc
•The teacher may not give technical corrections to candidates in the examination room
•Tap shoes may not be worn by the teacher during Tap examinations.
(2)Level 2 Classical, Jazz & Tap
•The teacher may give the names of the steps and help place candidates but may not demonstrate steps or give corrections.
•Tap shoes may not be worn by the teacher during Tap examinations
USE OF IPADS/IPODS/LAPTOPS IN THE EXAM ROOM
Teachers are asked to ensure that if using iPads, iPods or Laptops as music devices in the exam room that the following steps must be taken:
- Make sure that there is a separate playlist (clearly labeled) for each level and style with the exam dance music added to the end of the playlist
- Ensure that the devise is fully charged before the exam session or plugged into a charger through the exams. If it is a long exam day, then 2 devices must be made available to swap or an external battery charger pack must be available (purchase from Apple store, JB Hi Fi or Harvey Norman)
- Ensure the Passcode has been removed and screen saver turned off.
- An exam supervisor must be available to go through the device with the examiner before the exam session commences and also throughout the day, in case of difficulties.
Studio Owners or Teachers managing exam days are reminded that there are strict guidelines for heating, desk size (large enough to allow for 2 examiners if needed) and set food requirements for breaksthat need to be adhered to. One of the biggest complaints we receive from Examiners during exam time is that they are always too cold. As we head into the exam season, we ask you to kindly review these guideline documents that are distributed with exam booking information.
We look forward to catching up with you at the Masterclasses and Competitions.
Jane Thomas
Office Administrator