Join the Dance Together! (.75 CPD hours)

Gwen started dancing at the age of 3. She attended the prestigious dance and stage school Bush Davies School of Theatre Arts, in the UK, where she was a member of the Bush Davies Dance Company, appearing productions including Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz!

Gwen obtained her teaching qualification with the ISTD, after being granted special permission to take them at 17, and became an Associate Member in Ballet, Modern/Jazz, and Tap.

Gwen then attended the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London, where she ended up making the transition from student to teacher when they invited her to become a member of the teaching staff. She opened her own dance school in the UK in the late 80’s.

Moving to Australia, Gwen taught for Sydney Festival Ballet and also ran her own dance school called JellyBeans. She was the NSW coordinator for the Imperial Society of Teacher of Dance.

Gwen has always had a passion for empowering people to reach their full potential, especially when channeling that potential through dance. She has seen first hand the rejuvenating power dance when her father suffered a stroke at the age of 45. She was 13 years old and had no preconceived ideas of rehabilitation but just knew she wanted the father to return to full health. She encouraged him to sing dance and recite poetry, and slowly step by step, verse by verse his brain began to repair its self, and within 12 months he was back to normal except for a small limp. That was the start of Gwen’s journey to discover the marriage between dance and health.

After a full dancing and theatrical career, Gwen studied in Holland with leading dance methodologiest, Andrew Greenwood, and together they launched the Dance Health Alliance in Australia in 2015.

The Dancewise DanceWell DanceMoves and StretchWise programme are now run throughout care facilities hospitals and community centres across Australia.