Rozelle School of Visual Arts in Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia | Sport & recreation

Rozelle School of Visual Arts

Locality: Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Phone: +61 2 9362 4649

Address: 57 Nelson St 2039 Rozelle, NSW, Australia

Website: http://rsvaballet.com

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25.01.2022 Week Ten of our lockdown, and I am sharing some lovely artworks by RSVA dancer Marion Ives.These silkscreen images she created from her own photographic works of RSVA dancers Lee Frances, Marilyn Spargo and Kathryn Reynolds and are on permanent display in our front entrance hall.. Barbara

20.01.2022 Isolation, Week 4: Margaret and I have written about our memories of Gertrud Bodenwieser, the person - portrait in words. GB was instrumental in influencing the lives and souls of innumerable people, and this influence still persists today, in 2020 some 60 years after her death. Perhaps these memories can contribute to an image of what she looked like, and how she presented herself. Barbara Cuckson

20.01.2022 Barbara Cuckson writes about her experiences when the Covid pandemic caused the closing of RSVA on March 21st 2020, and its re-opening on the 13th June; the processes and the emotions. For the three Saturdays and two Wednesday nights prior to March 21st, as the spectre of Covid hovered over the community, dance students of all ages had gradually dwindled in numbers as the community sensibly pre-empted lockdown, wrapping a protective mantle over themselves and their families....Continue reading

19.01.2022 !00 years old and we miss you, dear Frances Stone, your spirit is still felt watching over us at RSVA, almost fifty years of sharing joy xBarbara Cuckson

16.01.2022 Happy faces, joyous music and dancing feet, as Barbara & Margaret reopen the doors! Welcome back to RSVA! 50 years in the Rozelle community!

15.01.2022 Week 8 and Margaret and I are making plans for our "start back" and so looking forward to it! I invited my longtime special friend Diane Overall (neeCassidy) to write for my series of portraits of Gertrud Bodenwieser.We started dancing together in 1954, in the St Marys classes of GB Here is Diane's story: I have always felt very privileged to have known Gertrud Bodenwieser. My regret is that I didn’t know her when I was older and she was younger! I was one of her St Marys G...roup, the last group she taught before her death in 1959. I was only eight when I started and was a pupil for four years. I was in awe of Madame. She was so very foreign (although later I had many European friends, partly through Ballet classes, partly through St Marys High School) and I loved the way she called me DEEE AAA na. I treasure the thank you notes, signed Gerty, she wrote to me after I had sent her get well cards. She set exacting standards but could be gentle and understanding too. I can remember telling her that I really wanted to dance on my toes (the ballet school where I had started when I was four and before we left Bondi, taught classical ballet). She was very respectful of my wishes and simply said that I was too young at that stage and could decide later. Of course by the time I would have been old enough I had been totally converted to barefoot expressive ballet. I can remember Barbara Russell, my Eastern Creek neighbour, and I acting out our ballet experiences for our siblings and friends: Madame would grandly arrive by car from the train station, sweep into the Hall, and demonstrate with beautiful arm movements, always observing with her head on one side. She had several pairs of glasses for different purposes and these were forever being mislaid, to our childish delight. One of her trademarks, however, was the lorgnette which she would use to observe facial expressions during our improvisations. The improvisation was the climax of every lesson. From our first lesson we would gather around the piano at the end of the lesson and students and pianist alike would listen to the story to be retold or theme or idea to be expressed. We were soon introduced to her children’s choreographies. Every year members of her Sydney group would provide the second half of our concert. Performances by such dancers as Margaret Chapell, Keith Bain and Coralie Hinkley opened up a whole new world for us. A year after Bodenwieser’s death there was a Memorial Concert at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The St Marys Group performed Cinderella of Old Vienna and that night was certainly one of the highlights of my young life. Child as I was I sensed the greatness of Gertrud Bodenwieser. Diane Overall 2020 See more

13.01.2022 This is week 9 of the coronavirus shut down, and we are hoping to emerge soon. Here are some photos to share with you, of a few of the many personalities who have contributed to RSVA, these from very early in our now fifty year history. I shall collect some more tributes for next week At RSVA, we remember and thank you......Barbara

13.01.2022 Fourth Saturday of classes returning after shutdown, and Margaret and I are enjoying sharing dances with the kids, and exercises with the ladies, within our changed format.Grateful thanks for wonderful support from Farrah Sa'Adullah, Amy Armour and Marion Ives, and to Michael Wright for helping to change RSVA into a Covid Safe venue. Thanks also for all the loving messages from friends. Virtual hugs to all x Barbara

13.01.2022 Great! We have a date to re-open: Saturday 13th June, would you like to join us for 'socially distanced' children's ballet classes? And the following Wednesday night for Ladies ballet exercises, Email me, or contact me on Messenger. Exciting!! Barbara

12.01.2022 It's week 12 Coronavirus shutdown.At last there is light at the end of the tunnel! We can't yet manage to organise pre-schoolers classes yet.(but hopefully, soon) We are starting back with children's classes (on Saturday 13th June,with adults on Wednesday 17rh.Posting artist Lisa Robert's wonderful expressive drawings(drawn at RSVA) celebrates our return to classes Barbara

09.01.2022 Message from Barbara, week 7 I hope you are well, and have found some happy things to counteract all the difficulties we are sharing .It seems we may soon perhaps have limited permission to return to modified classes so I should like to know if you are interested in taking part in our plan to share some 'socially distanced' ballet classes when we are allowed. I can’t teach our regular classes because of the restrictions but plan to teach suitable choreographies to limited num...bers, while spacing out further even than required,which will of course restrict the numbers possible in each group.I have a selection of very enjoyable dances that can be danced in this way, as solo dances,and perhaps even re-jigged at a (hopeful) later date, to be danced as a group. I would teach a twenty minute lesson starting with a five minute barre, giving a gap of ten minutes to air the hall, and clean the barre before the next group. Booked time slots would start at 9 a.m and go on through the morning. Farrah will be playing for us, and it is free for all old students. Unfortunately, I can’t offer this for the pre-schoolers yet. Please could you let me know via email if you would like to take part. Ladies ballet class might be back for exercises only on Wednesdays when we are allowed. When I have the responses from those interested, I shall endeavour to sort out a plan of action!I This is all a bit experimental! Very best wishes. If you are interested,please email me soon. Barbara Cuckson email: [email protected] See more

06.01.2022 Dear friends and students: So sorry that some classes at RSVA were suddenly disrupted. Barbara's 2 year old granddaughter had an accident last Friday, and for the first time in nearly fifty years, some classes had to be cancelled.Little Wilhelmine was in ICU for a week, after emergency surgery, and is slowly recovering from a serious brain injury, but she will be ok. It will take a couple of months in hospital and a year's rehabilitation, but they are confident she hasn't suf...fered brain damage. Thanks to Margaret, Amy Armour and Farrah Sa'adullah for holding the fort . Hopefully it will be possible to re-instate the 3 junior classes we were forced to cancel, very soon.Thanks for your support and kind messages, and love from Barbara Cuckson Photo of Wilhelmine at last year's concert See more

05.01.2022 Hello from WEEK 5 'solitude'! A lovely photo of Eileen Kramer and Elaine Vallance, at the RSVA "Sunset" Reconstruction and Reunion 2017. I collected these impressions of Gertrud Bodenwieser last week, in phone interviews. You will enjoy them!Thinking of all my lovely dance friends,Barbara Cuckson

03.01.2022 Here at RSVA the Show Must Go On......hooray! Our special mini concerts for family groups will take place during November. Here is a sneak preview

03.01.2022 End of year dance recital 'Covid style'.Each child performed for their family group audience.A mammoth undertaking! Our end of year event was a challenge, and involved re-choreographed dances, marked out floor to allow for social distancing, time between classes for sanitising and these special 'concerts' for each student, spread over multiple weekends. Costumed from our vast wardrobe with input from the students themselves. 2021 is our 50th year of teaching in Rozelle

02.01.2022 Saturday number 6! Here are some photos to share with you: Photographs by Barbara Cuckson, taken at the time of filming Living Art of the Dance Six Dances of Gertrud Bodenwieser Choreographies by Gertrud Bodenwieser (1890-1959) Reconstructed From 1960 by Emmy Steinninger-Taussig/Barbara Cuckson Filmed 1969 Bodenwieser Studio St Marys Australia by Barbara Cuckson Pianist Robert Cuckson... Costumes for the film, designed by Barbara Cuckson Film by Rondo Studios. Documentation of GB’s choreographies, danced by dancers trained by GB explicitly in the Bodenwieser style, from Gertrud Bodenwieser’s School in St Marys NSW Australia. Berceuse - Cradle Song Wiegenlied Choreographed in 1928 Dancers: Diane Cassidy, Milena Damjanovic, Lisabeth Martin, Marilyn Redman Music composed by Casella GEOMETRY IN SPACE: 1.Dance with the Golden Hoops Der Tanz mit den Goldenen Reifen Choreographed 1933 Dancers: Diane Cassidy, Lisabeth Martin Music composed by Bortkiewicz 2.Dance with the Golden Discs Der Tanz mit Goldenen Scheiben Choreographed 1932 Dancers: Diane Cassidy, Margaret Cuckson, Megan Roberts Music: Asian motifs arranged by M.Lorber Farewell Abschied Choreographed 1934 Dancers: Julie Damjanovic, Milena Damjanovic Music composed by M.Moussorgsky *Demon Machine Demon Maschine Choreographed 1923 Dancers; Diane Cassidy, Margaret Cuckson, Nadia Konarew, Lisabeth Martin, Marilyn Redman Music composed by Lisa Maria Mayer *Sunset Sonnenuntergang Choreographed 1936 Dancers: Diane Cassidy, Margaret Cuckson, Julie Damjanovic, Milena Damjanovic, Lisabeth Martin, Marilyn Redman Music composed by Karl Weigl *Film of Sunset and Demon Machine can be viewed on Youtube. See more