IN|FORM | Rosetta Cook & Michelle White
Founders and co-directors of 2ballerinas dance school for adults.
In 2007 we started our school with 4 ballet classes a week in a church hall.
At the time there were no schools in Queensland dedicated to teaching adult ballet. Michelle and I were catching up and chatting about how we were missing dancing and realised that there was nowhere we could go and do a class where we would feel comfortable. So we decided to start our own.
We also recognised the potential for ballet classes for adults in the broader community – that there are so many ballet schools filled with young people who would stop dancing as soon as they leave school as there was nowhere to go. We also knew ballet could be adjusted to learn as an adult beginner as we had each had previous experience of this, in Sydney and in London.
Our vision was to make the classes fun and non-judgemental and accessible to all ages and levels of experience. It had been years since our careers as principal dancers at Queensland Ballet and we knew we wanted nothing of the strict training and pressure that comes with elite ballet.
2ballerinas expanded through word of mouth, without advertising. Occasionally we had little articles in local papers as we were always putting on community events, fundraisers, and workshops with guest teachers. We invited many of our friends – past and present principal dancers from The Australian Ballet and The Queensland Ballet – to take workshops. No other school in Australia was doing what we were doing. We made it our mission early on to provide work for many ex dancers who need support especially during the difficult time of are transitioning out of their dance performing career.
Over time 2ballerinas outgrew the Church halls and in 2016 we invested in fitting out a warehouse with three purpose built studios. We now run over 50 classes a week, mostly ballet but also contemporary, jazz and tap.
The most rewarding outcome is the wonderful community that has evolved. People from all walks of life have made lifelong friends at our school, sharing fun times together and supporting each other through difficult ones.
As teachers we stay open and listen and learn from our students. We are intuitive to their needs in every class. This is how we developed our classes and what to teach at different levels. Now we spend more time managing the business, sharing the admin and PR and are teaching less but are always busy thinking up new ways to enrich our students’ dance experience.
After years of building the business up we are now taking the time to dance again. We have been getting together with our friends and dance partners from our time dancing in Queensland Ballet – Vanessa Mafe, Dale Johnston, Shane Weatherby and Dale Pengelly – and are working on a project.
We’re all in our late 50’s and early 60’s and are loving dancing together again. It was a very creative period when we danced together in the Queensland Ballet during the 80’s with opportunities to work with many choreographers in ballet and contemporary. It’s like we are in our twenties again but with a completely different perspective on life. It was fun then and it’s still fun, we laugh a lot. We keep thinking wow, this is very special. It’s early days and we aren’t sure how this will eventuate, maybe in performance or maybe a film, or maybe it just stays in the studio between us.
For anyone starting a career in dance we say keep dancing and don’t stop! Once your performance career is over there are many opportunities to keep dance in your life as a career or for fun. Dancers can do anything. The training is so rigorous that after that everything is easy.