Tanya Carne - Studio Director

Tanya started dancing at the age of 5. She trained in Jazz and Tap and completed RAD ballet exams up to Intermediate level. She completed a year of fulltime ballet with Prudence Bowen and jazz with Janine Breen. Tanya was a dancer with the Rugby League Rockettes under choreographer Pam French and performed at matches and Grand Finals.

Tanya completed the fulltime Performing Arts Course at Sydney Performing Arts Centre run by Ross Coleman while also doing classes at ATYP (Australian Theatre For Young People) and studied modeling at June Dally-Watkins. In 1987 Tanya was accepted into a talent agency and toured Australia with a theatre restaurant show. She featured in TV ads for Coca Cola and Samboy Chips, featured as character in Home and Away and had various roles in short films, TV shows and Mini-Series including Harp In The South and Poor Man’s Orange. She also modelled in Grace Bros fashion parades. Tanya completed a Diploma in Dance Education and started teaching dance in 1989 at The Double Bay Dance Centre, Wiley Park Girls High School and other studios in Sydney and loved it so much that she knew she wanted to make it her fulltime career.

Tanya started Dance Action in a hall in Gladesville in 1990 and completed a Certificate in Dance Teaching through QUT in 1998, and took classes at Pineapple Studios in London in 1994. Since then she has taught hundreds of students and remains the studio’s director today. While running the studio Tanya has worked with dozens of local schools choreographing routines and audition dances for Ryde School’s Spectaculars and school performances. Schools include Lindfield Public, Warrawee Public, Riverside Girls High, Gladesville Public, Ryde Public, 8 years at Putney Public successfully auditioning them every year for Ryde School’s Spectacular. She started back at Putney in 2017 teaching 44 students in the Junior Dance Group. Tanya formed a Ryde Combined Schools Boys Hip Hop Crew in 2010. She started a boys Hip Hop Crew at Boronia Park Public School 8 years ago successfully auditioning them for the Ryde Schools Spectacular each year, and in 2017 formed a boys training crew (T Crew) at Boronia with 40 boys in the crew.

Tanya has staged, choreographed and costumed 27 Dance Action concerts at various venues including the Enmore Theatre. Tanya has taught hundreds of students many of whom are enjoying careers in the performing arts including films, TV, music videos, bands, radio, cruise ships and teaching. Many local dance teachers and school teachers have been Tanya’s students. Tanya was a key note speaker at Exchange Dance Conference in Adelaide in 2015 and at the national dance conference Come Together in 2016 sharing her knowledge and expertise with fellow dance studio owners in attracting and sustaining boys in their studios.

Tanya is highly respected in the dance industry for her work and expertise in boys dance. She started an event called CONNECT in 2016 to bring together the male dance community, their families and those who teach boys,for fun, inspiration and support, and the event has attracted respected male performers and teachers Stephen Tannos, James Barry, BJ Rourke, Dayton Tavares, Jordan Grant, Samson Smith and Pete Evens to the event. CONNECT is now an annual nationwide event with the first Melbourne event in 2019.

Tanya has been influenced by many of her past teachers including Kelley Abbey, Janice Breen, Ramon Doringo, Pamela French, & Wendy Fallon. Her studies in coaching and counselling covered subjects and approaches in positive psychology and coaching techniques which provide Tanya with unique tools to encourage, mentor and nurture the skills and talents of each Dance Action student. The programs offered at the studio are unique and have been created from Tanya’s experience as a teacher, educator and performer. They are built on the studio values of Fun, Empowerment, Creativity, Innovation and Community.

Tanya is proud of the unique culture at Dance Action – the wonderful student friendships, the mentoring from the senior students, the supportive parent community, the strong emphasis on individual attention and creativity, and the huge amount of boys participating in classes.