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 3 years and will be teaching Hip Hop, Performer classes, Contemporary, Tap, Ready Set Dance & Ready Set Ballet in 2021.    

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. 

  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.

Caitlin Bush grew up performing in a small town in Victoria. She began dancing at her family’s dance school in 1999, before discovering her love of singing and musical theatre in a local show of Seussical Jr. 

She studied at Classique School of Dance in Sunbury in many dance styles, including Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and Contemporary. During these years Caitlin completed high levels of both Cecchetti and ATOD exams for these same styles. Caitlin also attended singing and acting classes with a variety of teachers around the Melbourne area. She began her formal training at Federation University in 2018, graduating at the end of 2020 with a Bachelor of Musical Theatre. Previously Caitlin has taught classes at Classique, specialising in both preschool students’ dance programs, and running a Musical Theatre program. Caitlin also began hosting children’s birthday parties in 2015 at The Fairies Northwest Melbourne.

Caitlin will be teaching READY SET DANCE & READY SET BALLET with her Mum, Michelle. We are so lucky to have them at SSD!

Georgia has been a dancer at Sharon Saunders Dancers for 10 years where each year her passion for Dance and Performing grows stronger and stronger. Georgia Has previously assisted in the junior classes at SSD for several years and is loving teaching READY SET BALLET and READY SET DANCE alongside Julia and is beyond excited to expand her teaching and knowledge to the next generation of SSD dancers as she moves into teaching the Junior, Inter and Mini students. 

Georgia is no stranger when it comes to performing and has been heavily involved in the theatre community throughout Bendigo. Appearing in shows such as “The Phantom of the opera” (NEXUS BTY), “The Fiddler on the roof” (BTC), “Bendigo Christmas concert” (BTC) and is currently in rehearsals for 2 upcoming productions of “OLIVER!” (NEXUS BYT) & “CATS” (TRIBE youth theatre). 

Georgia Has also been involved in events such as The Festival of Lights at the Great Stupa of universal hope & Compassion with Anita Scott, Chinese New Year celebrations in Melbourne and various Children Entertainment events. You may or may not have spotted Georgia with Rosy cheeks and freckles appearing at the Central Deborah Gold Mines 2020 Elf Academy as Chrissy Tinsel with SMACS Performing arts Group.

Besides Dancing and being on stage Georgia has previously studied and completed Professional Makeup artistry for stage and screen and is currently studying Early Childhood Education.