Sandra, we can’t wait to hear how it all started.

A mother of a student I was teaching in Mornington asked me a question that prompted the start of the Rosebud Ballet School. “If I got you a hall, a piano and some students, would you come teach in Rosebud?” You see, at that time, there was no dance offered in the southern part of the Mornington Peninsula. I ummed and ahhed, then said yes.

So, in 1961, I started a ballet school with 23 pupils, the classes held at the Rosebud Memorial Hall.

What happened from there?

Things grew quickly. At the start, lessons were only on Saturdays, then I added after school classes. Initially, I only offered ballet, then, some of my students were keen to start the new Modern Dance syllabus introduced by the ISTD (International Society of Teachers of Dance). 

Until I moved to Frankston, two years later, it took me an hour and a half to drive from my home in Brighton to class.

I also added the ISTD National syllabus, which was character dancing. I had done character dance during my childhood and, to allow me to teach, I did my own Elementary and Intermediate exams. I started teaching ballet simply because I loved it. I never really thought of it as a business. My husband always said I ran an expensive hobby! In those early days, lessons cost four or five shillings and I think the halls were kind to me in terms of rent.

Tell me about some of your many students who went on to achieve great things?

The school produced so many good people – teachers, dancers and choreographers. Even all the way back in 1981, when Dame Peggy Van Praagh introduced the Victorian Cecchetti Scholars program, five of the 12 senior scholars were from Rosebud Ballet School.

The choreographic competition was a highlight of every year. Winners went onto the Victorian Cecchetti Society choreographic competitions and I’m proud to say that 23 of our students went on to win.

Helen Walsh, whose mother was the one who asked me the question that prompted the school to start, won Silver and Gold Enrico Cecchetti medals. In 1969, she was accepted into the Australian Ballet School. 

Jason Coleman, Hellen Sky, Chloe Dallimore, Martin Hanson, Carly Doctor, Sharyn Peters, Kerry Peters, Pauline Allison and Sandra Parker are just a few of the names of past students who have gone on to dance professionally.

Then, there is Michelle Buckley, who’s gone onto build a huge school in Noosa, and Effie Papoulios who has taught in Australia and Greece as well as taking over from me when I wanted to retire from the position of State Organiser for Cecchetti Ballet Victoria.

“My older students are all still best friends and some call me their ‘ballet mum.’”

When I think about the pride I have in my students, I think about those who were Cecchetti Scholars (junior and senior), Medal Award finalists, those who were Associates of the Australian Ballet School and those who have successfully auditioned to dance in the Australian Ballet productions of the Nutcracker and the Queensland Ballet’s productions of Sleeping Beauty and Coppélia.

I have so many students who keep in touch. Students who went onto become performers or teachers would still turn up for class! My older students are all still best friends and some call me their ‘ballet mum’. There are students who have been to weekly class since they were teens and are now in their 40s and 50s. Some of their children – and their children – have been taught by me and other teachers at PSD. I have lots of ‘ballet grandchildren’ and even have one ‘ballet great-grandchild’.

“I was awarded the Enrico Cecchetti Medal (then known as the Mabel Ryan Award) in 1957.”

Sandra at 13 years old as a young ballerina – photo taken by The Herald Sun after Sandra won the Mabel Ryan Award

Sandra Mckay performing as a young dancer

I’ve been heavily involved with the Cecchetti Society of Australia. I was the State Organiser for Victoria for 25 years, I run the famous Cecchetti Summer School that began in 1975, and I was on the panel that formed the new grade and Dance Spectrum syllabi.

I’ve loved being an adjudicator at the Dance Society of Malaysia competition each year from 2005 (until 2020 when it was cancelled due to COVID-19). The adjudicator panel includes artistic directors of dance companies all over the world… and little old me!

On the Queen’s Birthday in 2017, I was thrilled to be awarded an OAM for services to services to the performing arts and ballet. If you search this award, you’ll find it under my married name, Sandra McKay, but Sandra Allan is the name I’ve always used in the ballet world.

What prompted you to hand over your school to Melanie Gard?

I handed over to Melanie in 2006 after running the school for 45 years. I’ve always loved teaching but I’m not a good business woman, that’s just not me. GST and BAS had all been introduced and, at age 65, it seemed like the right time for change. 

I honestly didn’t expect to be doing what I am now even at age 65 but now, I don’t have to handle the admin side of the school anymore. I have my shoes and my iPad full of music, and I toddle off to do what I love. I still teach 10 classes a week, at PSD and other schools. I teach a mix of Cecchetti syllabus classes and Open classes. I’ll sometimes write out an open class but, usually it’s as simple as when I hear the music, I see the steps.

At age 78, I still demonstrate, even if my leg is barely off the ground. I never sit, apart from when I was teaching via Zoom during 2020 and had torn my tensor fascia after doing a double somersault while weeding the garden!

I teach a lot through imagery and I’m a stickler for use of the head and upper body. I love it when the students run up and say “Thank you Miss Sandra” at the end of class. I also still examine, run scholars auditions and teach Cecchetti Awards classes. 

I’ve never stopped learning. If you ever think you’ve learned it all, it’s time to give up. If I ever hear that any of the children are rumbling in the background that class was boring, that’s when I’ll retire.

“I have my shoes, my iPad full of music, and I toddle off to do what I love.”

You must have seen so many changes over the past 60 years?

I’ve seen a lot of change over my career. I’ve seen children move from climbing trees to playing on screens. I’ve seen technique develop; boys jump so much higher now, and girls do many more turns than they did when I was first teaching.

I’ve seen schools change from having students come just for ballet four or five times a week, to doing acrobatics and song-and-dance as well.

I’ve seen changes in technology. We used to use reel-to-reel audio tapes, then cassette tapes, then CDs and now music on my iPad. I had to learn a lot before I could teach via Zoom during 2020.

Sandra Allan on stage at a rehearsal for Peninsula School of Dance’s 50th Anniversary annual performance in 2011. Photo by Jane Steel.