This teacher has been embraced by the entire tiny town.
"This little school in the picturesque village of Millthorpe is run by a true triple threat. She teaches from a hall next to the local school. She practises what she preaches – singing dancing and choreographing in local theatre company-run shows and encourages her students to do the same. She regularly gets amazing exam results with BBO dance and has students accepted into professional schools and companies. She has so many boys who have joined her school, which is amazing for the profession and a love of the arts and normalising dance for this gender. The school and their twice yearly concerts which she runs not for profit, but for pure enjoyment and learning stage craft. She doesn’t chase eisteddfod medals, preferring to teach her students to love dance and music for its intrinsic value. Her little town loves her . . .”
So ran just one of many comments about Jasmin Hyde, the teacher and founder of Millthorpe Ballet and Performance Studio in NSW, in response to our call out for nominations. Ten years after setting up her school, she has clearly become a much loved and essential part of the community.
Hyde came to Millthorpe from Perth, where she studied dance first at the WA Conservatoire of Ballet under Beth James, then at the WA Academy of Performing Arts. “Unfortunately, I can’t say I’m a WAAPA graduate because I was sick for three years and didn’t dance at all. I was heartbroken; I was about to a secondment in the UK. I was bedridden for 12 months, then slowly over the next two years I got better.”
Her illness, however, changed her perspective on why dance was important to her. “I used to do dancing because I wanted to be the best, the principal artist and all that. Now it’s just because I want to dance. And if I can’t do it myself then I’m jolly well going to help other kids be involved. So then my teacher-training journey began.”
With a teaching diploma through the British Ballet Organisation, she moved to Millthorpe when her (now ex-) partner took a contract at the nearby Cadia Hill gold mine. The historic village is 252 km from Sydney, situated between Orange and Blayney, and is National Trust-listed for its fine historic houses and bluestone streets. “Sometimes at first I felt I was the only ballet dancer on the planet!” she admits. That soon changed, and she is now teaching 45 classes a week in ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary, from tiny tots to adults, to up to 85 pupils “depending on the sport season”.
Surprisingly, she has quite a good number of boys – 12 to 14 at last count. “. . . the boys really love their dancing,” she says. “And they are beautifully supported by family and community.” Hyde encourages all her pupils’ involvement in eisteddfods and local shows and also holds her own twice-yearly concerts. “I like to get the kids to make their costumes and props so they are involved in the production.”
Clearly, the whole town has come to be involved in her enthusiasm.
– KAREN VAN ULZEN
The photos above are of MBPS pupils.
The Regional Heroes series is proudly sponsored by ONEMUSIC AUSTRALIA, the national music licencing body.
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