Our Team

Sharon Saunders started her school almost 30 years ago to share her expertise with Bendigo children. 

Her mission was to provide quality dance education in a caring and friendly non-competition environment.

Sharon is an Affiliate member of The Australian Teachers of Dancing Limited and Licence holder of Ready Set Dance & Ready Set Ballet in Bendigo. In 2019 she was recognised by her peers as the recipient of Golden Twirl Award at the Ready Set Dance Conference in Sydney.

Sharon loves all aspects of dance; it is her life! She is honoured to share her passion of dance with others – this is evident through the countless number of students who have danced until adulthood at SSD and worked as teachers). Lifelong friendships are constantly formed by Parents and students at SSD. 

Sharon continues to run SSD with great passion and enjoyment. She also keeps a close eye on all dancers often relief teaching different classes and is always working behind the scenes to ensure our SSD runs smoothly and efficiently!

Hannah has been a dedicated student at Sharon Saunders Dancers since she was 2 years old. She was born into our SSD Family as her sister Ashlea was a student for many years too, meaning her parents have been at SSD for well over 20 years!

Hannah has been a student of SSD for 18 years & is currently studying Hairdressing. Hannah studied the Australian Theatrical Dance & Australian Teachers of Dancing Syllabus in Classical Ballet and Jazz Ballet genres. She was a student assistant teacher and worked closely with Sharon for 12 months prior to teaching for the past 2 years. Hannah has built a great rapport with students and parents and adores our school! She is an adored teacher in our Ready Set Dance & Ready Set Ballet classes. Hannah was a finalist in the READY SET BALLET Teacher of the year 2019.

Annaleise began her dance journey at age 3, training in all styles at her local dance school (Beverley Margaret School of Dance) in Rockingham, WA. When Annaleise was 15 she decided that her interests lied heavily in ballet and went on to complete her Advanced 1 Borovansky exam and received Honours and a scholarship for the following year. Around the same time contemporary dance was introduced into her training. Finding something new she enjoyed and found incredibly interesting Annaleise then continued her journey in contemporary dance and it became her main focus. Completing most ATOD exams by 2016, she graduated high school and then started at Transit Dance at age 18 in Melbourne, VIC. Currently, Annaleise has just completed her second year of full-time contemporary (Diploma of Dance Elite Performance) under the guidance of Transit Dance faculty. 

Whilst pursuing dance as a full-time career, Annaleise's other interests include teaching, choreography, photography and videography. Annaleise loves teaching and sharing her knowledge amongst her students, she considers then family. 

Jo has been training in dance her whole life in Adelaide, and has made Bendigo her home. 

After completing her two most recent major Cecchetti exams as a student-teacher, she has spent the past 6 years teaching classes of all ages and genres, including Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop and more. Jo is in her final year of studying a Bachelor of Secondary Education. 

In 2020 she will teach Jazz, Ballet, Hip Hop, Ready Set Dance & Ready Set Ballet.

Julia began dancing at the age of 5 and has been following her passion for dance ever since at Ann Maree Dancers & Start Studio. Dancing is her most favourite thing in the world and enjoys sharing her enthusiasm with her students, as well as helping them grow into beautiful dancers. This is Julia’s second year teaching at Sharon Saunders Dancers, and cannot wait to see what this year brings after loving every second of teaching last year. Julia loves every style of dance there is from modern contemporary to Broadway jazz; however, her favourite style of all time is tap! Julia holds a Tap Dancing Diploma with the Australian Academy of Theatrical & Ballet Dancing syllabus. She recently performed in Bendigo Theatre Company's 'Wicked' and is excited to pass on her Musical Theatre Skills to her students.

Julia’s vision for her teaching is to not teach dance as sport, but instead as art. Julia believes dance is a beautiful form of physical art rather than sport and wishes to educate her students of how dance should be paired with passion and emotions. Julia has been teaching at SSD for 3 years and will be teaching Hip Hop, Tap, Ready Set Dance & Ready Set Ballet in 2020.

Emma is a classically trained singer and dancer, having studied Cecchetti Ballet, Contemporary and Jazz with Julie Heydon and Bendigo Dance Academy for 16years, and singing with Marjory Somerville for 8years. Emma has performed in many local Community Theatre Productions and has also won countless awards in Eisteddfods over many years. Emma works full-time as a hairdresser and makeup artist in Bendigo. Emma has been our ballet and contemporary teacher for many years and will be a backup for us in 2020 as our relief teacher in all genres.

Caitlin has been a dancer at Sharon Saunders Dancers for the past 15 years, ever since she was inspired to start dancing by her older sister Kellie, who also danced & taught at SSD for years. Caitlin has assisted in classes for several years & achieved high grades in ATD Inc & ATOD exams in Jazz Ballet, Tap Dancing & Classical Ballet throughout her training. She has also attended training for Ready Set Dance in Melbourne in the past when she was assisting. Caitlin is currently in her first year of studying a Bachelor of Science advanced and is excited to join our teaching team this year as a relief teacher!

Jordyn has been a student at SSD since 2007, she recently took a couple years break to focus on her nursing studies, this year she is back dancing and is excited to join our Teaching Team! Over the years she has successfully passed ATD inc & ATOD exams in Jazz, Ballet and Tap. Tap has always been one of her favourites along with Contemporary. Through dance Jordyn has formed friendships that will last forever and she is so excited to see that develop through teaching READY SET DANCE & READY SET BALLET. Jordyn trained with READY SET DANCE in 2019 but uni commitments didn't allow her to continue to teach. We are thrilled to have her back on board our Teaching Team!