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Background/Family - Music & Dance Qualifications - Performance Achievements - Teaching and Judging Experience - Other - Tap dancing (I have just realised just how jam packed my life has been, after having "gotten" this all on this page, - perhaps you might like a cuppa while you read this!) My background has to be thanks to my mum and dad who had a flair for entertaining. Dad learnt classical piano as a young lad, and a number of other instruments as he grew up - he also played piano accordion throughout the war years - and the musical saw - and later as I was growing up he would constantly play me the accordion, and then he purchased an electronic organ and mastered the technique of playing this - the one with the foot pedals as well! He taught modern style methods for piano and guitar through the Modern School of Music, was involved with the local "Savage Club" which included mainly veteran entertainers providing an evening's entertainment (variety) each month and dad also played for old time dances around the West Coast region of the South Island, New Zealand. Mum on the other hand took classical piano lessons during her teens and tackled some quite difficult pieces during this time. She also played piano accordion and learnt tap dancing. Mum was involved in another local entertainment group the "Wahine Club" which provided entertainment on a monthly basis with anything ranging from vocal items, musical items, skits, dance and the like. She often taught them some tap dance steps for various members to learn and would always get me to give her some "new" simple steps so she could pass them on! Both mum and dad have since passed on, but through their life they gave me the opportunity of learning to do tap and ballet dancing from the age of 5 and learn to play classical music from the age of 8. They saw me through my tap dancing exams to Teacher's Diploma Level and also some ballet exams and also saw me through to Grade 4 practical level playing the piano by the time I reached High School. For this I am ever so grateful, as it has lead on to be such a big part of my adult life and has resulted in so many involvements and achievements throughout. I think with dad teaching "modern style" music, it helped me to adapt from classical to chord methods for "vamp" style old time sing-along music on the piano, which then had me mastering the electronic organ, followed by the electronic keyboard. Apparently before my brother and I were five years old, mum and dad had us playing the ukelele! I recall the musical and sing-along evenings that mum and dad used to have at home, with veteran entertainers and musicians arriving to contribute to the evening. In later years mum and dad recorded some of these evenings and are a real treat to listen to! My brother incidentally learnt to play guitar, and in latter years has dabbled with the electronic organ and saxophone! As a teenager I moved to Christchurch (NZ) and learnt tap and jazz dancing from two different teachers, entered dancing competitions and successfully won many types of classes in both modern jazz and tap (including comedy items) and also competed successfully in Auckland where I was one of four nominated for a prestigious award. Unfortunately the awards were not contested until the following week, by which time I had flown back to Christchurch back to my job! In Auckland, I met another younger tap competitor, Nicola Donald from Christchurch whom I later spent four years teaching tap and jazz dancing to. I was proud to be involved in helping her achieve her major success when she won the New Zealand National Tap Performer of the Year through the Performing Arts in 1986. Amongst all this I also took up classical lessons again to sit my Grade 4 piano and theory through Trinity and also sat four modern dance grades and the final three tap exams beyond the Teacher's Diploma Level. At this time I was still teaching tap and jazz dancing. Then came marriage and two sons and for some reason, after a spell from teaching dance, I got back into teaching again! I also inquired about music teaching and gained a Teacher's Diploma with the NZ Modern School of Music which got me started through their methods. After 18 months I taught music privately and organised a number of recitals involving 130+ music and dance pupils. They also successfully achieved well in music and dance examinations and competitions. At some point I was also involved in judging both dance and music competitions on occasions! The time had come for an opportunity to move back to my home town in Westport and after a period of time I commenced teaching music and dance again, although the town enrolments weren't has high as city enrolments. Never the less I had the opportunity to teach music appreciation to many primary school children throughout 9 schools in the Buller Region. Well over 1,000 children in just over 10 years. This too, was very successful with children who performed all types of entertainment and musical and dance items towards end of year school concerts. Even of late, I have had teenagers come up to me and say "I remember you, you were my music teacher at school!" I never did receive a bad word, so I guess I must have impressed them during their younger years! I had also become involved in Country Music and for the first time tackled using a microphone and successfully achieved well at various Country Music awards in instrumental, comedy, songwriting and vocal. About this time too, I was privileged to be a member of a group of six vocalists and we practised heaps to master many songs in 4 part harmony (sometimes without backing!). This allowed us to produce two types of concerts to the public and on one occasion involved the Municipal Brass Band. Carrying on in my parent's footsteps I also joined the Wahine and Savage Clubs and assisted in contributing entertaining items (both musical and dance) for a few years. This lead on to the creation and production of four annual "Old Time Music Hall" concerts involving 20+ adults, a number of senior dancers and featured entertainers. We used to practise over a 13 week period before production time. We received much publicity and each year's production was a sellout! I then spent 2 and 1/2 years travelling weekly to Nelson teaching music through the Technics Music Academy plus teaching guitar, keyboard, choir and recorder through the Ministry of Education for various schools and Nelson School of Music, and teaching private music (drums and keyboard) at a High School and Primary school - and of course private music and dance lessons. This got to be quite tiring and so I discontinued my travelling to Nelson, and resorted to my private music and dancing in Westport along with other clerical work positions. Before long I was a "bass" player (on the keyboard ) for a 5 piece band which after 2 years lead to the creation of "Barb & Nigel" duo where we provided music entertainment for waltzes, foxtrots, rock'n'roll, quicksteps etc., at many dance clubs throughout the coastal centres. This was yet another stepping stone for me as it gave me further experience with arranging and sequencing songs (on the keyboard) and allowed me to sing harmony lines with Nigel and the odd vocal solo too! My sons Christopher and Mathew, both now 22 and 21 years of age are following in my footsteps, not so much in dance, but in vocal performance and music. They have both competed successfully at many Country Music awards over the past 16 years. I first noticed their ability to harmonise when they were about 5 to 7 years of age, so what better opportunity to encourage them to perform through the local Country Music Club! Christopher has been singing at club nights and was playing bass and drums for their fortnightly get-to-gethers and was recently accepted for NZ Idol auditions. He is currently working in Perth. Mathew had attended a Music Course involving playing the drums, learning theory and all aspects of music performance and band work. He is now currently in Perth working and practising lead guitar and is paying off a land and house package! Looking back, there is no "one" thing that has attributed to my success as such, it has been building block upon building block in the various forms of entertainment that has got me to where I am today. What I can say is, through teaching children and adults, it has always kept my heart young and my mind ticking - for new ideas, new steps, new songs all for the purpose of the enjoyment of entertaining people, and for people to enjoy being entertained! So here I am, finally able to spread my wings and have left New Zealand for the first time in my life - destined for Perth due to a new gentleman in my life whom I met in New Zealand. I have been here in Perth for over 3 years now and currently teach 40 private music pupils and approximately 60 music and dance pupils at my studio in Pioneer Village, Armadale. I'm thoroughly enjoying it over here and look forward to building up "Star Studio of Music and Dance" so I can pass on my knowledge and expertise to others. There is so much not to be missed and it brings so much fun and enjoyment! MUSIC AND DANCE QUALIFICATIONS Music Licensed Kindermusik Educator NZ Modern School of Music Teaching Diploma Grade 7 - Piano - Australian Guild of Music and Speech Inc (AGMS) Grade 6 - Electronic Organ - AGMS Grade 5 - Theory of Music - AGMS Grade 4 - Classical Piano - Trinity Grade 4 - Jazz Piano - AGMS Grade 4 - Electronic Keyboard AGMS Grade 4 - Theory of Music - Trinity Grade 1 - Piano Accordion - AGMS Technics Keyboard Product Knowledge - Level C - Technics Music Academy Dance NZ Federation of Dance Teachers - Grade 7 - Medal Test (Cabaret Section) British Ballet Organisation Tap Exams - Primary, Juvenille, Junior, Senior, Lower Preliminary, Higher Preliminary, Elementary, Intermediate, Prep Advanced, Advanced. British Ballet Organisation Ballet Exams - Grade 1, Grade 2 NZ Association of Modern Dance Jazz Exams - Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4. Memberships NZ Association of Modern Dance - to teach American Style Jazz and Tap exams, and NZ Jazz Dance exams. Australian Guild of Music and Speech - to teach music exams in various instruments and theory examinations. PERFORMANCE ACHIEVEMENTS and EXPERIENCE 1963 - 1981 Successful Competitor in Tap, Song & Dance, Jazz, Ballet and Instrumental - Performing Arts Competitions in Westport, Greymouth, Christchurch and Auckland (New Zealand). 1966 - Most entertaining performance in any category (any age) - Westport Competitions Society 1981 - Nominated as one of four finalists for Prestigious Award in Auckland - Performing Arts Competitions 1986 - Tutor and choreographer of NZ National Award Tap Winner (Nicola Donald) 1973 onwards - successful achievements from music and dance pupils through dance and music exams and competitions. 1992 - 1998 - Various achievements at Country Music Awards throughout the South Island (comedy, instrumental, original songwriting and vocal duo) 1994 - 2005 Winner of best presented music chord charts (Country Music Awards) - Takaka, Motueka, Blenheim, Timaru 1998 - Radio Announcing Course certificate (Christchurch) 1990 - 1989 Solo organist and pianist providing background music at various Christchurch restaurants, member of a trio for band music for old time dances Christchurch. 1991 - 1992 Member of six piece vocal group Harmonix involved in putting on two concerts. 1996 - 2001 Band member as bass player on keyboard, and duo member - for private functions and club venues. Occasional band work as a drummer for two bands. TEACHING and JUDGING EXPERIENCE 30+ years - Tap dancing, jazz, ballet, hip hop (preschoolers to adults) 20+ years - Private music tuition - piano, electronic organ, electronic keyboard, guitar, piano accordion, recorder, drums (all ages) and preschool music groups 10+ years - Music and movement appreciation, choir and instrumental groups at many primary schools including end of year concert performances for pupils, plus music appreciation for Kindergartens and preschool groups 3 years - through Ministry of Education at schools for choir, recorder, guitar and keyboard Tutor course - for NZ Modern School of Music Christchurch Teachers relating to aspects of teaching electronic keyboard Judging tap and jazz dancing in Christchurch and Waimate Judging music competitions in Gore Organiser of private pupils' recitals and performances Organiser and producer of four annual old time music hall productions involving 20+ adult cast Television appearances in minor roles Self created publications for music and dance Ex member of Savage and Wahine entertainment Clubs Contractor to NZ Association of Modern Dance to extract from video and write up tap exam notes acceptable for NZ teachers to use for teaching (8 levels) BACKGROUND REGARDING TAP DANCING So tap has been around for many years now and of course my favourites have been the likes of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly and many others of course! I have always been interested in the American Tap, simply because of the integration of syncopated beats (or seemingly "out of time" rhythmical beating) that dominates the American style. Certainly the American Tappers have a fairly relaxed style compared to my earlier days performing, teaching and judging in New Zealand. What used to fascinate me though, was the "where do all the beats come from" when watching many tap dancers on the television. For this reason, I teach more advanced pupils the ability to tap with ease with more difficult rhythms producing sounds faster than one can see where they come from! And tap dancing still fascinates me today - with the likes too, of Tap Dogs who performed here recently at Perth, which is another aspect of entertainment, simply by creating complicated rhythm patterns without the aid of music - by tap dancing! |
