Ballroom Dance Group
Give yourself a chance to express yourself! Learn new dances and improve your balance, coordination and posture - all while having lots of fun!Ballroom Dancing
Started in 1995, the Ballroom Dancing Group (BDG) has become very popular and there are now two evenings a week dedicated to ballroom dancing.
Irina Borisevich
Irina Borisevich is a Professional Ballroom Dancing teacher with over 25 years of teaching experience. She has taught a range of students from beginners to advanced, and specialises in Standard and Latin American styles.
Originally from Minsk, Belarus, Irina is a former World class competitor and Byelorussian Ten Dance and Standard champion. After a successful international Amateur career in Europe, she turned Professional in Australia.
Irina was a finalist in all major Australian Dancesport Championships in the Professional division (Standard and Latin American), including the Australian Open Championship.
She also competed for Australia at the British Open Professional Standard Championships in Blackpool, England.
Irina’s hobbies include music, reading and travelling.
Note: The dances covered in the Ten Dance are the five International Ballroom (Standard) dances: waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, tango and Viennese waltz, along with the five International Latin Dances: rumba, samba, paso doble, cha-cha-cha and jive, as defined in ballroom dancing terms.
Jennifer Blum
Jennifer Blum is an examiner, judge and dance coach and has had many years of experience in teaching. She has also trained several Australian Dancesport Champions.
Her achievements include:
- 5 times Australian Dancesport Champion (twice as Amateur and 3 times as Professional). Of these, 4 times were in New Vogue and once in Modern.
- Runner up twice in Professional New Vogue
- Finalist in Latin Amateur
She has won many more championship titles in Modern and New Vogue.
Jennifer ran the Strictly Masters Championship for over-35 couples for 21 years and was the founder of this successful championship.
She also appeared on the TV production of ‘Carson’s Law’ as the “Sensational Debonairs”. Staring as a Professional Caberet Act with her then partner Wayne Douglas. Jennifer and Wayne did many floor shows for functions and on Cruise Ships.
Apart from dancing Jennifer follows the Brisbane Lions and is an avid fan. She also likes spending time with her family and their family get togethers.
Craig Monley
Craig is a professional dancer who has been a regular on the TV series “ Dancing with the Stars”, which he won in Season 7 with Australian actress Birdie Carter, and was runner up with Bec Hewitt in 2021. Craig joined us in 2022 as one of our teachers for the Wednesday classes.
His other credits together with his partner Sriani are:
- 2011 Australian amateur latin champions
- 8x Australian Finalist in both standard and latin
- Twice semi-finalists (top 12) at the world’s largest and most prestigious competition, the British championship, Blackpool, England
- 3x selected for Australia’s international team, the world teams match, World Cup, Shenzhen China.
- 3x Australia’s no. 1 representative to the World championships
- Australia’s 2019 representative to the World Show Dance Championship
- Winners of JDC Japan open, WDC Korean open, Lion City championship Singapore.
- Finalists Japan international, Singapore open, Donnie Burns cup Hong Kong, New Zealand open, English championship.
Its all about the fun
The aim of the BDG is for members to have fun dancing, and enjoying the company of like minded people.
Why not give it a try?
The Ballroom Dance Group
Lessons are taught by two professional dance teachers, Irina Borisevich and Jennifer Blum. At this time, we are running two sets of weeknight classes:
On Wednesday nights we have a beginners group for members wishing to learn basic dancing. The Wednesday classes run as follows:
7:30 pm – 8:15 pm – First Dance Teacher (Craig/Jennifer depending on group)
8:15 pm – 8:45 pm – Social dancing/revision/Announcements
8:45 pm – 9:30 pm – Second Dance Teacher (Jennifer/Craig depending on group)
On Thursday nights, the more advanced members of BDG meet for two hours, split into two groups as follows:
7:30 pm – 8:15 pm – First Dance Teacher (A Grp-Irina, B Grp-Jennifer)
8:15 pm – 8:45 pm – Social dancing/revision/Announcements
8:45 pm – 9:30 pm – Second Dance Teacher (B Grp-Irina, A Grp-Jennifer)
BDG members wishing to refresh their ballroom dancing steps are also able to attend practice sessions on Monday mornings and Wednesday nights.
The BDG has a Formation Dance Team consisting of advanced and experienced BDG members who perform at various social functions. The dance team meets regularly for practice with the choreography being done by one of our BDG Dance Teachers. This group has performed at the our Gala Balls, the Mid-Year Dinner and at internal dance presentations. It has also provided support for the Karaoke subgroup with performances at its social functions.
The BDG runs monthly socials on the second Sunday of every month. BDG members are given the opportunity to be the DJ for the night. This helps members to develop an understanding of appropriate music for the various dance styles.
BDG Covid Safe Guidelines
2021 Dance Program (updated Feb 2021)
2023 BDG Lesson Fees and Contact
Fees:
CAV members – Beginners (Wednesday): 6 months $300; Yearly $500.
Advanced and Intermediate (Thursday): 6 months $300; Yearly $500.
Contact:
Chairperson, Brian Tyedin
2023 BDG Executive Committee
Committe Members : Linda Chan
Useful Youtube Videos
Our Favourite Dance Playlists
Brian Tyedin
Chairperson, Ballroom Dance Group
Wednesday class doing the Bachata for their internal BDG presentation
A Thursday class doing the Tango Terrific for their internal BDG presentation
“Dancing improves your spatial awareness, increases your heart rate and aerobic fitness. It is even thought to be good for staving off dementia.
But more importantly, its just fun. Dance introduces you to new people and our regular dance socials help you to make new friends. Its fun to see everyone learning new steps and then dancing in formation together. It has such an uplifting effect on your psyche! “