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!

Sharon is an accredited READY SET DANCE & READY SET BALLET Teacher and will relief teach in classes of all age groups and genres as required while continuing to mentor and train her team and DanceStep students.

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 third year teaching at Sharon Saunders Dancers, and cannot wait to see what this year brings after loving every second of teaching the past few years. 

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 4 years and is a much loved member of our community.  

Michelle has spent her life dancing, starting at age 4 attending the May Downs School of Dance, Barbara Lynch School of Dance and The Lance Davies School of dance. During these formative years Michelle performed in many competitions as both a soloist and troupe member and also performed in Pantomimes. At the age of 15 she moved to The Pat Little school of ballet and began Cecchetti Ballet exams. Whilst there she also completed her grade 4, elementary and Intermediate ballet exams. Michelle completed her Cecchetti teaching exams with Athol Willoughby in Essendon.
Michelle’s passion and dedication to dance has continued and is now reflected by her continued study of dance teaching holding an Associate Diploma of Cecchetti Ballet, a Diploma of Dance Teaching & Management. She is also proudly registered to teach the RAD Silver Swans adult ballet program as well as the Rhythm Works international program for children with special needs and the Dance for Parkinsons program.
Since 1982 Michelle ran her own dance school, Classique School of Dance, for 35 years. Many of Michelle’s students have gone on to have careers with The Australian Ballet and overseas Dance Companies.
In 1994 Michelle proudly joined with a group of other teachers to form the Australian Theatrical Dance Inc. Michelle was Vice- president of the group from 2001-2008 and was an examiner for the same period. Michelle is also a qualified and registered Adjudicator with the International Dance Organisation (IDO) and has the privilege of adjudication at competitions in South Korea.
Michelle’s affinity and passion for working with children also extended to her role as a Kindergarten teacher at the Gisborne Montessori school until October in 2013. Michelle is married with 2 children and lives in Gisborne South. 

Michelle was the winner of Gold Level Achievement Award at The Ready Set Dance Awards in 2021.

  Anita began dance training with the Solymossy Russian Dance School and then Victorian Ballet School Fitzroy with Dianne Parrington, Arthur Turnbull and Luba Baksheev in RAD, Russian Classical, Contempory (Martha Graeme Technique) and Russian Folkloric Dance. Went on to study and train fulltime at the National Theatre Ballet School St. Kilda with Gailene Stock, Gary Norman and Michaela Kirkaldie. Directed and/or choreographed plays, musicals and dance throughout Primary and Secondary School whilst being involved in many Free-Entertainment in the Park (FEIP) and Moomba events. Attended the Australian Film and Television school with Bob Phillips and had extensive experience in film and television including appearing in Good Guy/Bad Guy with Jackie Chan and Man from Snowy River. Appeared in many episodes of Man from Snowy River, Neighbours, Snowy, State Coroner, and recently in the American film series ‘Leftovers’ and ‘Glitch’.

Studied stage makeup at the National Theatre London.

Directed and choreographed several shows for Bendigo Theatre and Arts (now Apollo). Choreographed and trained the Mei Hua team at the Chinese Bendigo association for 6 years. Choreographed several troupe and solo items for Competitions including: Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, Italian, Greek and Polish. 

Won the Choreographic award at the Bendigo Comps in 2014 (Chinese National Dance including Lion). Choreographed Fiddler on the Roof Bendigo 1995 and 2018 (Russian and Jewish Dance techniques)

Completed Level 1 and 2 of the International Dance Syllabus by Alida Seagal. Teaches National dance regularly at Pre-school to Secondary School levels. Choreographed several dances for the last 3 years of the Festival of Lights at the Great Stupa (Korean, Chinese). Anita will be teaching our Ballet extension class and introducing them to more National Character dancing.

Kate has been dancing most of her life, starting at age 4 and finding her home at Michelle’s studio Classique school of dance when she was 7. Where she spent the next 21 years, dancing jazz, tap, ballet acro, and contemporary, competing in troupes and completing ATOD exams then started teaching pre school students in 2012. Kate has vast experience teaching preschoolers after running The Fairies program and parties.

Kate obtained her certificate 4 in dance teaching and management while teaching at Classique, and has completed her diploma of early childhood education and care. 

In her spare time Kate likes to go away camping and four wheel driving with her partner Blake, dog Leroy and friends. 

In 2020 Kate had a break from dance and started working at a Daycare in Gisborne. 

She is really excited to be teaching at Sharon Saunders Dancers as she can pick up her passion again and share it with the future generation of dancers.

Georgia has been performing and dancing for more than 10 years with Sharon Saunders dancers and each year it continues to grow stronger and stronger.

Last year Georgia took upon the role of teaching along side Julia with READY SET DANCE and READY SET BALLET along with the inter performer class.

Georgia has been heavily involved with the theatre community around Bendigo appearing in shows such as, The phantom of the opera, Fiddler on the roof and most recently CATS!. You may or may not have spotted Georgia with rosy cheeks and freckles at the Bendigo elf academy as Chrissy tinsel the Christmas elf.

This year Georgia will be relief teaching as she is taking the next steps in her training and studying full time performing arts at Patrick school of the arts in Melbourne.