Classes / Recreational Dance
Come and try a session for free. If you're attending one of our regular sessions for the first time, it's free! You're welcome.
East Fremantle Lawn Tennis Club, Jerrat Drive, East Fremantle.
Cost $15
A teaching-only session, to introduce basic movements and some easier repertoire.
Dalkeith Hall, 99 Waratah Ave, Dalkeith 6009.
Cost $9 ($7 member)
The format is an hour of teaching (usually starting with an easier dance), followed by a refreshment break and social dance.
We have several regular teachers who teach for a month each. Our "Home" page includes the teaching schedule.
See our Covid dance guidelines for booking details.
Ascension Parish Hall, Spring Park Road, Midland.
Cost $10
This session, introduced in early 2024, focuses on teaching and practicing mainly Israeli dances. It is aimed at dancers with some previous dance experience.
teaching schedule.
See our Covid dance guidelines for booking details.
Come and try a session for free. If you're attending one of our regular sessions for the first time, it's free! You're welcome.
Glen Forrest Hall, cnr Statham St and Marnie Rd, Glen Forrest.
Cost - donation to cover hall costs
The session is mixed teaching and social dance, all organised and taught by Jenny Currell or Jennifer Eyre.
Usually Dalkeith Hall, 99 Waratah Ave, Dalkeith 6009.
Cost $9 ($7 member)
The format is an hour of teaching (usually starting with an easier dance), followed by a refreshment break and social dance.
We have several regular teachers who teach for a month each. Our "Home" page includes the teaching schedule.
See our Covid dance guidelines for booking details.
Uniting Church Hall (Albert Hall), 12 Duke St, Albany.
The Albany sessions are held by Palenque when they fit in with her schedule.
In term 1 Classes are Saturdays at 10.30am and alternating Fridays starting Friday 10th Feb, 4pm for families (i.e. 10th and 24th of February - the same in March!).
Generally there are no classes on public holiday weekends.
If you're in doubt please contact Palenque. Her Facebook page:@internationaldancealbany.
We've prepared some tips for new dancers - we hope they're useful.
New dancers with no experience should consider coming to the first session of the month. Typically, the teacher presents new dances at this session, and focuses on review at subsequent sessions. Check here to view our dance etiquette
We always welcome new dancers and visiting folk dancers, so please come and join us.
Cost for Monday Evening or Saturday Morning is reduced for PID members - membership is $20 per year.
Our experienced teachers are available to teach school classes, create choreographies for school groups, and provide private lessons.
Email info@perthinternationaldance.org.au with details of your requirements (location, dates, preferred country styles, event, age of students, number of students etc) for a quote.
We have several teachers for our regular sessions and special events.
Our "What's Up" page includes the teaching schedule.
I grew up in a London suburb where my mother was a ballet teacher, so ballet was a prominent part of life till I left home and lessons became too expensive. While living in Louisiana (US) I was introduced to international folk dance, a culture born of the children and grandchildren of primarily European immigrants who wanted to dance but were no longer restricting themselves to the dances of their recent ancestors. This resulted in a spectrum of dances drawn from the Faroe Islands to Israel, Russia to Portugal, with an emphasis on Eastern Europe. This was exactly what I wanted, a wide variety of dance styles without the technically challenging aspects of ballet.
After 2 years in the US I moved to Perth, where communities of recent immigrants were keeping their dance cultures alive, but strictly within their own community. To be able to continue international dancing I had to create my own venue: Monday nights with one novice teacher, much help from my husband of the time with the technical aspects of music and the inheritance of two purple loudspeakers from a similarly dance-starved Scandinavian folk dancer who was moving on.
Now 40 years later, no longer a novice teacher, I still love the variety and energy of our repertoire though I am very pleased to be able to share the teaching with the several teachers at Perth International Dance.
Hello, I'm Jennifer. My journey in dance began in New Zealand attending my mother's ballet classes as a toddler. I trained in classical ballet until my late teens. My teacher passed on her love of folk 'character' dance to me and provided many performance opportunities, (from a challenging Balinese wedding dance to an energetic Russian partner dance and everything in between), which led to me teaching and finally travelling in search of more dance.
I eventually arrived in Western Australia where I trained in Adult education and taught speech reading before meeting Jenny Currell who introduced me to Perth International Dance (PID). It was not long before I joined the performance group and was teaching both in the hills and in Nedlands. PID sponsored me to attend the Ausdance 'Skillset for Teaching Dance' which was a reciprocal experience as Ausdance had little knowledge of social groups, run by committees, with multiple personalities contributing to the whole.
I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to dance with PID at the National Folk Festival in 2007 and made the most of a workshop in Bali partly funded by the Shire of Mundaring.
I currently run the Hills group and take great delight in teaching people with such enthusiasm and a passion to equal my own. Ranging in age from 18 - 83 they prove there is no barrier to an enjoyment of dance.
I am also fortunate to teach annual folk dance classes to dance and language students at a couple of High Schools in the Perth Hills. Sharing the language, music and dance of other cultures with the next generation is a highlight. Their positive energy and enthusiasm for learning is the 'icing on the cake'.
Hi I'm Jenny. I learned ballet during my school years and attended jazz ballet classes whilst at Uni. From there I was looking for some dancing that did not involve a partner and stumbled across an International Folk Dance workshop at a folk festival. I'd always loved languages and all things foreign and was hooked immediately. That was over 30 years ago and I'm still enjoying dancing and teaching. I've also enjoyed rehearsing and dancing with the performance group over many years. Over the years the venue for the regular classes moved further away from where I lived so I started a small group in the hills east of Perth that was nearer to my home. After 5 years I handed this class over to Jennifer who has run it since that time and built it up. She still runs the show but I'm back sharing the teaching and general camaraderie. I attended a wonderful dance workshop and tour in Armenia where I learnt about their dance and culture and I've travelled to Victoria on many occasions for Israeli dance workshops. I love the combined mental and physical challenge of learning and remembering new dances. I love dancing together with a bunch of other people having fun together. I love the wide range of dance styles and variety of the music. And I love seeing others finally master a dance which I have been carefully teaching them. It keeps me fit and it keeps me happy!
My name is John and I'm a dancaholic! I love the diversity of dance. There is enchantment in the nuance of a simple repetitive folk dance, exhilaration in the challenge of a complex energetic dance, delight in the camaraderie of set dances, warmth in the passion of many couples dances, and awe in witnessing the skill and athleticism of performances, from folk to hip-hop to ballet.
I love to share dance. I've been teaching for over 30 years, learning for over 40 years, and still learning. As well as teaching and choreographing in Perth for many years, I've travelled to the countryside and cities both in Australia and overseas to learn and teach dance. I've also spent many hours supporting dance by organising events, recording videos, writing notes, distributing materials, promoting dance etc. etc..
When I teach, I want the time to be fun. Some dances are curious and eccentric, some are relaxing and comfortable, some have that balance of challenge and interest and wonderful music that make them worth keeping in your repertoire, and some are too difficult for some of the students. No-one will keep every dance they've been taught, but I hope everyone can enjoy the experience of dance.
I have the most important qualification for a dancer - I am happy to be the first person on the dance floor. I have never been a professional dancer or teacher. It's just my passion.
Long time leader and teacher at Canberra International Folk Dance Group, Maria moved to Western Australia in 2019 and brings a whole new repertoire.
Palenque Blair - as you might have guessed - related to the Eve Blair, the founder of PID! Her daughter in fact. I was of course brought up with folk dance and music a regular part of my life from birth. After being introduced formally to dance through ballet from an early age, at age 11 I decided to give this up due to the commitment required to move to higher grades, and the cramps the toe pointing gave me!
At age 12 Mum (Eve) decided I was old enough to join the adult group evening classes and I chose to pursue this. By age 15 I had joined the performance group; at 20 I began teaching for the group; by 25 I had completed a formal teacher training course run by Folk Dance Australia and had travelled to France, Bulgaria and Romania to experience and collect folk dance for myself. I love to dance. It makes me happy. I also love the sense of community that dancing in a group provides.
Most recently I have been running some sessions for kids on Saturday mornings as I have two young children. I hope I can instill the love for the variety of music and movement that international folk dance gives, though my two of course are the most misbehaved of the students!
I was introduced to dance in 1970 while attending boarding school. A section of the ballet classes that particularly interested me was the learning of national dances within the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing syllabus. One evening in 1976 I was taken to meet a social group of people doing folk dances and I was introduced to Perth International Dance.
I am interested in many varieties of dance. In 1991 I attended ballroom dance classes, in 1999 Cajun dance classes, in 2001 I joined a local Israeli dance group specializing in partner dances and regularly dance with Souleiado and Hora Shalom as well as Perth International Dance, both in their weekly sessions and performances: though these have to be fitted in around playing bagpipes with the City of Cockburn Pipe band.
When I retired from employment in 2015 I started to teach at Perth International Dance in the absence of the regular teachers at that time.
In 1975 Sara Friedman arrived from Israel where she had been a keen participant in their vibrant folk dancing scene.
Israel is one of the few places where such dances are still being created, drawing inspiration from the wide variety of cultures contributing to Israeli society, and enjoyed by a significant proportion of the population.
In Australia Sara initiated the Hora Shalom dance group to foster the dancing of Israeli dance, and when teaching at PID she concentrates on the dances emanating from her native land.
The iTunes playlists for Monday and Saturday are available for download.
Find the name of that dance you really liked!!!
For more information, email info@perthinternationaldance.org.au.
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