The Formative years

Australian Dance Vision was founded by Sydney dance teacher Penny Lancaster who, in conjunction with other dance teachers and examiners, felt the need for a comprehensive assessment program which was Australian owned and developed and allowed students to progress at their own pace. Formed originally as the Ballet d'Action youth dance company to provide theatre experience for young dancers (which performed for 10 years with over 20 new original dance works). ADV's focus also moved to training areas for both students and teachers incorporating new concepts beyond just technique by embedding dance history, body science, nutrition etc in a progressive year-to-year continuum from as young as 6 or 7, mindful of the need to help young people ,particularly in dance, avoid the pitfalls of future eating disorders.

In the mid 1990's ADV became aware that there was a move within government to introduce dance teaching standards and possibly the registration of dance teachers. ADV developed several teaching and assessment syllabuses subsequently applying for accreditation for its courses with the Vocational Education and Training Accreditation Board (NSW). By 1998 ADV's reworked syllabuses, now known as Certificates I-IV in Dance Performance Studies were accredited; that is they had been assessed against the Australian Qualification Training Framework and found to be suitable. This is the first, and to date, only young student dance programme that is accredited - Certificates I-IV in Dance Performance Studies 91249-91252NSW. Students as young as 12 years old may obtain a wonderful certificate. In 1999, ADV's new teacher training course was also accredited by and ADV became a registered training organisation.


ADV's other major formative role was as the parent company of Ballet d'Action. This local youth dance company aspired towards excellence, employed Australian choreographers and designers and gave its young participants (aged 9 to 25) a taste of the professional life of a dancer. Ballet d'Action is now in recess. 

Recently in response to liaison with "sister" Australian dance societies, ADV has set up a subsidiary but separate legal entity - Australian Dance Institute Pty Ltd- into which all former ADV RTO functions (by approval from VETAB NSW) together with courses, syllabus materials and assessment tools have been transferred. This will allow affiliated organisation access to courses and RTO support from ADi. ADV will remain as the retail outlet for all ADV members and assessments, while members of other societies, if their societies choose, can avail themselves of ADi courses particularly Dance Teaching & Management and other professional development resources on the same basis as ADV members. This will offset the ever increasing cost of establishing courses and maintaining Government accreditation and RTO status and provide resources to retain the focus on contextualising new standards from the usual generic framework to  specifically address the private sector dance training  industry.