

Summer School 2027 – Teachers Course
Tuesday 19 January 2027 – Friday 22 January 2027
9.00am – 4.30pm
Booking Deadline:
Monday 14 December 2026
Event Date:
Tuesday 19 January 2027 – Friday 22 January 2027
Event Time:
9.00am – 4.30pm
Country:
Location:
Wellington
Available Online?
No
Who’s it for?
Teachers
Fee:
See program details for fees
Contact:
Teachers Programme – New Zealand Summer School 2027
Teaching for Excellence
Technique, Artistry & Dancer Support
This inspiring professional development course is designed to empower dance teachers with practical strategies to refine their teaching practice. Explore effective tools to communicate dance vocabulary with confidence, develop movement quality with precision and clarity, and nurture artistry in every student. Through focused workshops, discussion, and hands-on learning, teachers will gain fresh insights and resources to elevate both their own teaching and their students’ performance.
Course Aims:
- Develop a deeper understanding of the RAD Intermediate Foundation and Intermediate syllabus, with particular focus on the variations and their technical challenges and artistic elements
- Explore the technical, stylistic and performance requirements of character steps and consider effective approaches to teaching them in creative enchaînements that compliment the RAD syllabus dances
- Develop greater confidence in addressing technical challenges within syllabus work and using appropriate teaching strategies to support student progression
- Increase their understanding of the shoulder complex, including support, stability and neutral positioning during dance-specific movement and loading
- Develop practical strategies for applying anatomical and movement principles within ballet teaching, supporting dancers to move safely, efficiently and with greater body awareness
Learning Outcomes:
On completion of the activity participants will have:
- Have an enhanced understanding of effective teaching approaches to the key technical and artistic requirements of the Intermediate Foundation and Intermediate variations
- Have an enhanced understanding of the stylistic characteristics and technical demands of character steps and a greater range of strategies to develop students’ performance and musicality
- Have a wider range of practical teaching strategies to address common technical challenges and support student progression
- Understand the role of the shoulder complex in dance, including the importance of stability, support and neutral positioning during dance-specific loading
- Incorporate practical exercises, imagery and teaching cues that help students develop greater awareness and control of the shoulder complex and apply these principles safely within their dancing.
Venue
Te Whaea, National Dance & Drama Centre, 11 Hutchison Street, Newtown, Wellington
Fees
| Course | Earlybird* Member | Earlybird* Non – Member | Member | Non- Member |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Course | $500 | $575 | $550 | $625 |
| Daily Rate | N/A | N/A | $220 | $295 |
| Half Day (Friday only) | N/A | N/A | $110 | $185 |
| Observation Day (Tuesday 19 Jan) | N/A | N/A | $160 | $235 |
| Teachers Course + Observation Day | $660 | $735 | $710 | $785 |
| Teachers Course + Musical Theatre Introductory Course | $1100 | $1175 | $1150 | $1225 |
*Earlybird available until 30 November 2026, after that normal prices apply.
Discounts
Special Teacher Offer
Teachers who register five or more students from their studio in the Vocational or Grades course at Summer School will receive a 10% discount on the full-week Teachers’ Course. A great way to support your students while investing in your own professional development.
Creina Gee Memorial Award
The RAD is very aware of how challenging it is for many teachers to find the fees for CPD, so teachers are encouraged to apply for a Creina Gee Memorial Award to attend Summer School. We have brought forward the closing date for Awards to 1 October to align better with Summer School registration dates and to give more time for teachers to be advised of an award and book their travel etc.
For Summer School January 2025, 6 teachers were presented with awards to attend. Here’s how one recipient summed up her experience of receiving the Award to attend Summer School:
- Receiving the Creina Gee Memorial Award to attend my first full RAD Summer School was an incredible blessing. The collective energy and inspiration shared among the RAD staff, guest tutors, speakers, and fellow teachers were utterly revitalizing. It was the perfect way to begin the new year, and I am deeply grateful for the experience.
Timetable
A full programme with outlines of courses is available to download here
| Wednesday 20 January | Course |
|---|---|
| 9.00am | Stretch, Release and Move: Tutor: Rebekkah Schoonbeek-Berridge |
| 10.00am | BREAK |
| 10.15am | Teaching Intermediate level Variations with Confidence – Part 1 workshop Tutor: Julie Fleming |
| 1.00pm | LUNCH |
| 2.00pm | Teaching Intermediate level Variations with Confidence -part 2 class observation Tutor: Julie Fleming |
| 5.30pm | Finish Day |
| Thursday 21 January | Course |
|---|---|
| 9.00am | Stretch, release and move: Tutor: TBC |
| 10.00am | BREAK |
| 10.15am | Character in Context: Dance, Culture & Technique – Part 1 introduction Tutor: Julie Fleming |
| 11.15am | Character in Context: Dance, Culture & Technique – Part 2 class observation Tutor: Julie Fleming |
| 12.30pm | LUNCH |
| 1.30pm | Character in Context: Dance, Culture & Technique – Part 3 workshop Tutor: Julie Fleming |
| 4.00pm | Finish Day |
| Friday 22 January | Course |
|---|---|
| 9.00am | Stretch, release and move: Tutor: Sophie Ryan |
| 9.50am | BREAK |
| 10.00am | From port de bras, to pas de deux prep: Training stability of the shoulder complex during dance load Tutor: Sophie Ryan |
| 12.30pm | Review and Wrap Up |
| 1.00pm | Finish Day |
| OBSERVATIONS – Tuesday 19 January | Class |
|---|---|
| 9.00am | Stretch, release and move: Tutor: Juliet Saunders |
| 10.10am | BREAK |
| 10.30am | GRADES OBSERVATIONS Teachers can choose between the Ballet (Grades 3 – 4) and Musical Theatre (Grades 4 – 5) |
| 11.45am | Observation: Advanced technique Tutor: Tonia Looker Includes 1.15-1.30pm Q & A with Tonia Looker |
| 1.30pm | LUNCH |
| 2.00pm – 4.30pm | VOCATIONAL OBSERVATIONS Advanced (Advanced Foundation ,Advanced 1 & Advanced 2) Variations: Technique, Style and Performance Tutor: Julie Fleming Includes 4-4.30pm Q & A with Julie |
Tutors




Julie Fleming
Dip RBS TTC, ARAD, AISTD, RAD Faculty of Education Tutor – teacher training & CPD, Royal Ballet School ATAP Tutor, RAD Coordinator at VCASS
Julie trained vocationally at The Dance School of Scotland and graduated from The Royal Ballet School Teachers’ Training Course. With over 35 years’ experience in dance, training and education, her career spans performance, choreography, teaching and teacher development.
An alumna of The Royal Ballet School, Julie is an international Tutor for its Affiliate Training & Assessment Programme. She was selected by the RAD Creative Panel as an original Tutor of the new RAD syllabus and delivers CPD courses for teachers throughout Australasia.
Julie has 17 years’ experience with the RAD Faculty of Education and is regularly invited to teach at exam intensives and summer schools. She is also an experienced adjudicator and currently works at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in Melbourne.
Sophie Ryan
Dance Physiotherapist BHSc (Phty), NZRP, Cred. MDT, Nat. Dip. Dance
Sophie Ryan is a Wellington-based dance physiotherapist, dance conditioning tutor and dance educator. She is a New Zealand School of Dance graduate and former professional dancer. She works with dancers of all levels and has treated professionals from the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Ballet Collective Aotearoa, Opera Australia, Footnote, Java Dance and the New Zealand Dance Company.
Sophie spent five years on the NZSD Health Team as Dance Conditioning tutor, delivering workshops, NZQA assessments and individual rehabilitation prior to commencing her community dance physio service. In 2024, Sophie completed her Post Graduate Certificate in Sports Physiotherapy and she presented a movement workshop on scapular biofeedback at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science in Rimini, Italy. Sophie is planning to continue her studies towards her Post Graduate Diploma in 2026.
Rebekkah Schoonbridge-Berridge
NgatI Maru
Rebekkah is a highly regarded performer, choreographer and dance educator based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Dance Studies from the University of Auckland and has undertaken further training at Broadway Dance Center in New York.
With more than a decade of experience in dance education and the performing arts, Rebekkah has worked across theatre, musical theatre, television, festivals and live performance. Her credits include Auckland Theatre Company, Dancing with the Stars, X-Factor, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. As a choreographer and educator, she is passionate about storytelling through movement and supporting dancers to develop their creativity, confidence and performance skills.
Juliet Saunders
Juliet trained in RAD, achieving Advanced. She has a BA in Dance and Movement from the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne and has been working in the Fitness Industry for 28 years in Australia, London and NZ. She is a qualified Pilates Instructor, Indoor Cycling instructor, Les Mills Instructor and Personal Trainer. From 2003-2007 she was the strength and conditioning coach for the RNZB.
Currently she is part of a small team of trainers based across Australia and NZ known as Holistic Movement Coaches.
Juliet is also qualified as a Silver Swans teacher.
Further information
Payment
If paying by internet banking (please quote your full name as the reference and email a copy of the Internet Banking confirmation to office@rad.org.nz) Payment should be made to: Account Name: Royal Academy of Dance Bank Name: ANZ Bank Account No: 01 0517 0198208 00
If paying by Credit Card – we will send an invoice and there will be an option to pay by debit/credit card. Please note this will incur a surcharge.
What to bring?
Comfortable clothes to dance in. A notebook and pen. Pilates mat.
Food for the day
How to Book?
Click on the book now button and fill out the form and submit, we will be in touch within 2 business days with payment information and confirmation of registration.
Please note payment of the 50% deposit secures your place.
Terms and Conditions
Applicants are asked to apply early to ensure a place as each workshop has a limited number of places.
Fees
All fees are inclusive of GST. The Academy reserves the right to amend fees where either tax changes take place during a calendar year or circumstances, such as the introduction of or a devaluation of a currency.
Closing Dates
Closing dates will be published locally, but the general rule is that closing dates is 10 days prior to the date of the workshop.
General Terms and Conditions
- All applications and payments will be processed in order of receipt.
- Correspondence will be sent primarily via email, if the email address is incorrect the RAD cannot be held responsible for missed or misdirected email communications.
- Applications are non-transferable.
- The Academy reserves the right to alter the advertised programme and/or tutor without prior notice. The information in this and other printed or electronic brochures/notices is correct at the time of print or going online.
- If participant information is not received it is the responsibility of the individual who completed the booking to contact us to arrange for the information to be reissued:
Withdrawals, Transfers and Refunds
A refund of 80% of the fee (excluding the registration fee) will be considered for cancellations on medical grounds and on receipt of a medical certificate up to 21 days prior to the course commencement.
In limited situations on compassionate grounds, a refund of 80% of the fee (excluding the registration fee) will be considered for cancellations due to a family emergency up to 21 days prior to the course commencement. To apply, please contact the National Director: bwilliams@rad.org.nz
A refund of 50% (excluding the registration fee) will be considered for cancellations on medical grounds and on receipt of a medical certificate that is received less than 21 days prior to the course commencement.
Force Majeure
The RAD shall not be liable to refund fees or any other penalty should activities be cancelled due to any cause whatsoever beyond their control.
Press and Publicity Consent
During Summer School RAD staff may take photographs and video recordings. All photographs and video recordings will be the property of the RAD.
The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) does not allow photographs, video, audio (sound) recordings or any other images of anyone to be taken without their consent.
By signing the registration form, you agree to give the RAD your consent for you or your child/ward to be photographed and/or filmed by the RAD.
The RAD may use the photographs and footage in the following ways as part of our legitimate interests, and we may share them with local partners, and RAD offices worldwide) to use:
• As promotional material in RAD publications (print and digital)
• On the corporate RAD and RAD shop websites, social media channels and third-party partner sites
• To distribute to press and media outlets to use in their print/digital publications and on their social media channels, as requested
• To be shared with RAD staff and students for training/educational purposes
• For Library and Archives specific marketing and promotions
Staff and photographers will be informed of students who do have consent and they may be excluded from group situations.
- In group settings where complete exclusion is difficult (e.g. large class photos) we will make reasonable efforts to avoid clearly identifying students. As it is often hard to exclude students in class groups, the RAD will make sure that no names or other identifying details are used
The RAD will only keep and use the images and footage for as long as is appropriate for business purposes (this means, for as long as we need to have access to the pictures/videos to operate as a company).
You are free to withdraw your consent at any time by sending an email to bwilliams@rad.org.nz. You do not need to specify a reason why you are withdrawing consent. If you do decide to withdraw your consent at a later time, any pictures/videos/audio taken and uploaded will not be used in any future publications or on our websites, but may continue to appear in publications already (including hardcopy publication) in circulation or in cache until cleared.
No monetary fee will be granted.
Data Protection Statement
The RAD hold information and contact details requested at the time of your booking that enable them to provide you with information relating to a participant’s registration for an activity. We will not disclose your information to a third party except where legally required to do so. In addition, our Privacy Statement and Company Privacy Policy are available to view and download: The full RAD Privacy Statement is available to view online here.
ROYAL ACADEMY OF DANCE, RAD, RAD PRE-PRIMARY IN DANCE, RAD PRIMARY IN DANCE and SILVER SWANS are registered (and in some territories unregistered) trademarks ®/™ of the Royal Academy of Dance. RAD INTERMEDIATE FOUNDATION, RAD INTERMEDIATE, RAD ADVANCED FOUNDATION, RAD ADVANCED 1, RAD ADVANCED 2, RAD CLASS AWARD, RAD SOLO PERFORMANCE AWARD, DANCE TO YOUR OWN TUNE, CBTS and KARSAVINA SYLLABUS are unregistered trademarks™ of the Royal Academy of Dance. The use or misuse of the trademarks or any other content of this publication, without prior written permission from the Royal Academy of Dance is strictly prohibited.
The Royal Academy of Dance is a charity registered in England and Wales No 312826 and in New Zealand No CC21861
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