Dalcroze Teachers
Dalcroze Teachers
Dalcroze Australia present workshops utilising the teachers below, as well as special guests
dr SANDRA NASH
Diplôme Supérieur Dalcroze Eurhythmics, Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, Geneva; Director of Studies for Dalcroze Australia.
Sandra graduated with BMus, University of Sydney, followed by Dalcroze training in Sydney, London and Geneva (Diplôme Supèrieur). She has taught in schools, universities, studio and early childhood settings, and since 1994 has led Summer Schools and workshops in Australia in order to train teachers in the Dalcroze 'Music and Movement' approach.
She recently became a co-director of the Dalcroze Eurhythmics International Examination Board (DEIEB). She is a member of the Collège, Institut Jaques-Dalcroze and Australian delegate to FIER. Her thesis for PhD (2011) examined Dalcroze influences in Australian music education, including Early Childhood teacher education.
Katherine Smith
BMus, MMus (UWA), Kodály Cert. (KMEIA), Dalcroze Cert. (DEIEB).
Katherine Smith is passionate about music education. She holds a Master of Music from the University of Western Australia, the Dalcroze Certificate in Music Education and the Australian Kodály Certificate in Music Education. Katherine has worked as a freelance orchestral clarinettist, a clarinet teacher in primary and secondary schools, and as an early childhood music educator. She is currently the Music Specialist teacher at Riva Primary School where she teachers pre-primary to year 6 students, and was a Sessional Academic at Edith Cowan University teaching music units to pre-service teachers. Katherine is the immediate past president of Dalcroze Australia and is currently a candidate for the DEIEB Licentiate.
Dr Christine mearing
DCA, Grad Dip Vis Arts, Cert Ed. Christine began her professional career as a ballet dancer in WA and at the Royal Ballet School, London. After studying Graham technique and Laban movement, she danced in classical and contemporary dance companies throughout Europe. Her interests include acting, painting and sculpture, and she completed her Doctorate of Creative Arts in 2000. Credits include teaching dance at the Australian Ballet School, Victorian College for the Arts and NAISDA Dance College.
bethan Habron-james
Bethan Habron-James is a Welsh Dalcroze practitioner and scholar, and holder of the Diplôme Superieur of the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, Geneva. She teaches part-time at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, UK and is simultaneously a doctoral candidate at Bangor University, Wales, UK, researching into her personal experience and understanding of her Dalcroze practice. She enjoys exploring the hybrid identity of a/r/tographer within her varied professional life as artist, researcher and teacher.
Jerison LEE
MA in Dalcroze Pedagogy, BA in Music and Movement.
A passionate musician, dancer, pedagogue, Jerison has set his sight on making music accessible to a diverse audience and using music to better one’s life. For this life mission, he has chosen Dalcroze Eurhythmics and its approach to facilitate his work. Jerison received both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts (2016) in Dalcroze pedagogy from Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, Geneva . To further develop his knowledge and skills in working with Dalcroze, he has travelled the world to study with various Dalcroze masters. With his strong foundation in ballet and dance, he continued to study ballet and modern dance while in Geneva. The combination of mastery in both music and dance furnishes him with a unique ability to truly deliver the essence of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.
Bianca Parison
Bachelor of Arts in Music Education (Conservatorio Della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano, Switzerland); Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy - Rythmique Jaques-Dalcroze (Haute École de Musique, Geneva, Switzerland).
Originally from North Queensland, Bianca began her Dalcroze journey as a teenager with Madeline Hagon in Brisbane.
A passionate pedagogue, musician and dancer, Bianca has been living, studying and working in Switzerland for the past 9 years. She completed her undergraduate in music education in Lugano before moving to Geneva where she obtained her specialisation in Dalcroze Eurhythmics with distinction.
Over the past few years, Bianca has worked in a wide variety of contexts: performing, teaching violin, piano, solfège, classroom music, Dalcroze Eurhythmics for children and for seniors, expressive movement and improvisation, as well as theatre and choral singing for people with special needs. She has also given presentations and workshops in Switzerland and Mexico.
Bianca is currently finalising her postgraduate specialisation in Dalcroze for Seniors and her Diplôme Supérieur at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva.
jodie spooner-ryan
Jodie graduated from the University of NSW with a Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Education in 1995. In 2002 she completed a two-year Master of Music (Choral Conducting) degree at Florida State University, USA, under the direction of Dr. Andre Thomas and Professor Rodney Eichenberger and an orchestral conducting with Dr. Alexander Jimenez. She was an Associate Conductor at the University of South Carolina's Summer School’s orchestral conducting program.
Jodie is currently Director of Music (P-12) at Meriden School, Strathfield in NSW. She conducts Meriden Senior Singers and Symphony Orchestra and teaches senior classroom music. Her choir competes in eisteddfods and performs regularly for school and community events and services. In 2015, the choir toured to New York for the Choirs of America Festival where they performed at the Empire State Building, Trump Tower, the Cathedral of St John the Devine and in Carnegie Hall. They perform a variety of repertoire, with an emphasis on Australian choral works. In 2017 and 2023, Meriden Senior Singers and Meriden Madrigals were the winners of the John Lamble Foundation Australasian Championship for Youth Choirs and were awarded the People’s Choice Award and Best Performance of an Australian Composition at the Australasian Choral Grand Prix. This year, Meriden Senior Singers won the Open section of the Australasian Choral Championships.
Jodie is passionate about conducting technique and is a regular conducting tutor at the Australian Choral Conductors Education and Training workshop held in Melbourne every January. She has been guest presenter at ACCET, CaSPA, the Anglican Schools Choral Festival, ANCA NSW and ANCA South Australia and various other organisations teaching conducting technique and running workshops for choir and conductors. Jodie freelances for community choirs, orchestras and choral workshops.