Education Officer Erin White (doubling up as one of Cloudland’s Tour Managers) and the Queensland Ballet EdSquad are bringing the world of dance to regional Queensland as the Company goes on tour…
Tim and Emma model off their new EdSquad uniforms
QB’s brand new EdSquad, Timothy Brown and Emma Taylor, and I visited five high schools in Toowoomba last week to deliver our first Arrow Energy Dance+ Workshops that we are running across regional Queensland as the Company tour Cloudland.
We first arrived at Queensland Ballet headquarters early Monday morning to receive our amazing EdSquad uniforms courtesy of Paul Wright Dancewear – it was like EdSquad Christmas! We were so pleased – they’d even gone to the effort of taking up the pants on Emma’s dance pants as she’s so cute and short! Don’t you think they look great?
Emma and Tim
After departing from West End, we first drove to the Empire Theatre to drop off our lovely tour wardrobe team, Frances and Hannah, so they could start work first thing on preparing all of the beautiful costumes for the Cloudland performance on Tuesday night. We then continued on to our first school of the week, Christian Outreach College, where we delivered a Ballet and a Dance Through the Decades workshop to their keen dance students!
Warm up – Ballet Workshop at Christian Outreach College
Introducing Christian Outreach College students to romantic, classical and neo-classical styles of ballet
The Ballet Workshop introduces students to romantic, classical and neo-classical styles of ballet through barre and centre work.
Harristown State High School doing the Dance Through the Decades Workshop
The Dance Through the Decades Workshop is a whirlwind of dance history, where students learn a variety of social dance styles that feature in Cloudland. Both workshops at Christian Outreach College were very well received.
Everyone Cha Cha!
Do the Disco!
Our second stop on Monday was Harristown State High School. Bev from the Toowoomba Chronicle joined us for a quick photo shoot with the students and the EdSquad.
We love QB!
At the end of both sessions at the schools, we asked the students to tell us three words that summed up their experience of the workshops.
We learned that “O.M.G!” was the best way to describe Christian Outreach College’s excitement, while Harristown simply squealed “We love QB!” Awh, thanks guys!
We had a lot of fun working with Ben, Tash and Sarah who came along and filmed and photographed the day. Stay tuned for our silver screen debut soon!
We also visited St Saviour’s College, St Ursula’s College and Toowoomba State High School during our three days in Toowoomba.
We’d like to send a big thank you to the schools we visited in Toowoomba for making us feel so welcome and having such a great time in our workshops, and especially to teachers Mia and Helen for your video testimonials! We look forward to seeing them again next year.
Now the EdSquad moves on to delivering Arrow Energy Dance+ Workshops in Maryborough, Townsville and Mt Isa, and School Holiday Events in Gladstone, Rockhampton, Mackay and Cairns throughout the rest of the tour. Our regional workshops are a core part of QBLEARN, our youth and education program that aims to bring the world of dance to you, wherever you are! Keep up to date with the EdSquad’s activities through our QBLEARN
Big thanks to Queensland Ballet’s lovely Work Experience student Sarah Granholm for her gorgeous pics!
