Imagine teaching a few hundred dance students across an 800,000km2 area and coordinating a teaching team that is located in Toowoomba, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, New Zealand, Julia Creek and Barcaldine? What to some might sound like a logistical nightmare, is just a normal week for Principal and Director of Branches Performing Arts, Amy Tinning.
Established in 2015, Branches Performing Arts offers in-person classes in ballet, contemporary dance, jazz, acrobatics, hip hop, tap and conditioning to students in Barcaldine, Julia Creek and Cloncurry, with regular pop-up intensives in Longreach, Winton and Mount Isa. Online classes are also offered, as Amy says, “to communities far and wide including, Mount Garnet, Bedourie, Barcaldine, Winton, Clermont, Blackall, Jericho, Cloncurry, Cairns, Aramac, Port Augusta, Alpha, Bowen, Brisbane, McKinlay, Boulia, Broken Hill, Mount Isa, Yaraka, Hughenden, Springsure, Rolleston, Longreach, just to name a few”.
Assisting Amy to achieve what might seem to others as the impossible, is a well-respected and well-rounded team of professionals with, Amy says, “World class experience and a shared passion for delivering quality dance training from coast to country”. While Amy is based in Toowoomba, she travels once or twice a term to North-West Queensland (approximately 3,500km by road) and flies North on other occasions to deliver workshops and private lessons in remote communities. Assisting her are Natasha Kovacs and Loni Garnons-Williams, based in Brisbane; Jacquie Rinaldi and Gabriella Millen, based in Melbourne; Erica Sykes from Sydney; Bel Moore from New Zealand (founder of the Body Lab Program focused on enhancing dancers’ strength and mobility). Branches Performing Arts also has two studio managers, Hilary Harley, who is the North West Studio Manager in Julia Creek and Cloncurry, and Hannah Gronald, a current Branches online student, who works as the Barcaldine Studio Manager, while completing her studies.
Amy juggles motherhood (with three children under 7 years) with online teaching, administration tasks and mentoring. She says, “My mornings are filled with coordinating timetables, liaising with the studio receptionist, scheduling workshops and writing grants in collaboration with local councils to secure essential RADF and government funding”. Her teaching duties are a combination of online and in-person delivery, including she says, “Choreographing new routines and instilling strong foundations in technique for younger students, along with private coaching for elite competitors who represent the studio at regional and national competitions”.
She explains that the mindset at Branches Performing Arts is that, “distance is no barrier” and the team relies on online platforms to connect students and teachers in real time, “to ensure that even the most remote dancers feel part of the studio family”. She adds that it is really all about bridging the miles and ensuring consistent communication, achieved through weekly newsletters, regular email updates and the schools own internal podcast, ‘Beyond the Barre’, which Amy says, “keeps students, families and teachers informed, inspired and highly engaged, as well as helps to foster a sense of community, connection and shared purpose across our widespread network”.
Branches Performing Arts, so named, because over the past 10 years they have branched out to offer the gift of dance to students in some of the remotest parts of Australia, offers both competitive and recreational pathways. Amy explains success at Branches is measured in many forms. She says, “From competitive dancers earning recognition on national stages to recreational students taking the stage for the very first time, every achievement is celebrated with equal pride”. Recently students from Branches Performing Arts have moved on to full time training at Dance North Academy in Sydney and Queensland College of Dance, as well as competing at the Youth America Grand Prix and the Brisbane Performing Arts Challenge (BPAC). Amy says these stories are testament to both the dedication of her students, “but also to the spirit of our region, proving that with resilience, creativity and community support, extraordinary opportunities are possible no matter where you come from”.
In addition to managing Branches Performing Arts, Amy has also run the annual Dirty Feet Outback Dance Festival for the last 7 years. Sponsored by Longreach Regional Council, the Remote Area Planning and Development Board and BPAC, the festival offers intensive workshops and performance opportunities to dancers from North Queensland and is, Amy says, “a beacon of creativity, community and possibility for regional dancers”.
Of the challenges of running a dance school that stretches across such a large remote and regional area, Amy is philosophical. She reflects on the scarcity of fights and the unreliability of the internet which is so central to the schools operations, but says she remains optimistic, adding, “As connectivity improves and infrastructure strengthens, so too will the reach and quality of our programs, opening up even greater opportunities for students in the most isolated corners of the country”.
-Michelle Dursun
This article is a Regional Spotlight feature in the 2025 Oct/Nov/Dec issue of Dance Australia
