MEET CARLY DOCTOR
From tip-toeing through Rosebud Memorial Hall to Directing Academic Studies at Transit Dance
Carly Doctor combines her loves of dance and teaching teens at Transit Dance in Melbourne. She remembers asking her mum if she could start ballet classes when she was just three years old.
Photo of Carly Doctor
Did you start classes when you were three?
At that stage, Miss Sandra didn’t take students until they turned five, so I had to wait. By then, I was champing at the bit. My mum had been a dancer growing up, so we were always dancing around the house.
A young Carly Doctor with her friend Chloe Dallimore at Rosebud Ballet School’s 1984 Choreographic Competition
I remember buying my leotard, shoes and little crossover then going to my first class, which was Primary, at nine o’clock on a Saturday morning.
Starting ballet with Miss Sandra was the best thing in the entire world. I feel envious that little ones are now able to start going to dance at age three. But, it probably was best that I had to wait. You see, I took ballet very seriously from the outset so, if there had been kids running around, I would have been quite miffed!
“My memory never worked very well for maths… but I have a great memory for choreography.”
You then moved away for a time?
I went to five different primary schools and several different ballet schools, but I continued to do the Cecchetti grades. Then, at age 10, we moved back to Rosebud and I was straight back to Rosebud Ballet School. Even though it was October, I begged mum to see if I could join in. To my delight, Sandra welcomed me back into the fold, even fitting me into that year’s performance.
It felt so special that she had any recollection of who I am. I think that might have been partly because I had won a gold medal in the school’s chorographic competition when I was five.
I still remember my choreography. My memory never worked very well for maths equations or science things but I have a great memory for choreography.
I started jazz classes with Miss Shelley and later added contemporary when that was brought in. I never did character classes though I loved watching my friend, Bridie Hill, dance character. At age 12, I was a finalist in the Grade Four Cecchetti Scholarship.
Carly in 1984 before her Choreographic Competition performance
“One of my most fond memories is… when I was finally old enough to be in the side-stage dressing room… When you’d made that dressing room, you had made life!”
I remember Sharon Peters visiting and Jason Coleman coming back in for class when he was between shows. I always looked up to Jason and remember getting to perform a series of jazz runs around him in the concert when I was 10 and he was the prince in a jazz version of Cinderella.
The choreography competitions were a highlight of the year. We’d rehearse for so many hours out on the sound shell. It’s lovely that my name is out there on a trophy alongside names like Jason Coleman and Chloe Dallimore.
A performance of ‘Vogue’ at a gig at Carrington Park Golf Course with Rosebud Ballet School
Carly Doctor and Brydie Hill in 1989 in the sacred “top” dressing room reserved only for the senior dancers at Rosebud Memorial Hall
Another person I remember fondly is Miss Marie, playing the piano for classes. I didn’t speak with her but we acknowledged her at the end of each class. She was such a warm and kind presence, giving the classes a lovely vibe.
One of my most fond memories is of the end of year concert when I was finally old enough to be in the side-stage dressing room. Mums weren’t allowed in so the advanced students did our own hair and makeup. I’d aspired to be in that dressing room for years and making it was the bees knees. When you’d made that dressing room, you had made life!
As a teenager, I’d go to dance four days a week after school and all day Saturday. I didn’t have time for a part-time job, a boyfriend or parties but I didn’t care. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Tell me about your dance and teaching career
After I turned 18, I moved to Melbourne and attended Danceworld 301 for a year. I loved it but found the atmosphere within dance somewhat toxic, with such a focus on bodies and weight, so I moved to doing a Diploma of Dance at Box Hill TAFE.
I was taught by so many wonderful people, including Laurel Martyn, which was a dream come true. I was the first person to win her scholarship and was so honoured when she said I was the first person she considered worthy.
I then became a freelance dance teacher. I had done some teaching with Shelley at Rosebud Ballet School during my teens and loved both teaching classes and choreography.
“It’s the ideal gig for me.”
Carly Doctor and her friend Brydie Hill backstage at Rosebud’s 1988 annual performance as Mad Hatters in the Jazz version of ‘Alice in Wonderland’
I performed at private and corporate gigs but, at one performance, the smoke machine was faulty so was spitting out liquid rather than smoke. I slipped during a beautiful hitch kick and tore my cruciate ligament and shattered my patella. I kept performing but then my knee gave out.
I had five operations in five years; surgery, revisions and removal of scar tissue. During that time I couldn’t teach at all, my life centered around rehabilitation and physiotherapy. It was a really tough time.
Carly with her friends as ‘Rocks’ in the ballet ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ at an annual performance.
I realised I love working with people, teaching, writing, counselling and making a difference, so decided to become a secondary teacher.
After doing a Bachelor of Performing Arts and Diploma of Education, everything came together. I taught at a prestigious school for twelve years and, over this time, expanded their performing arts program to include theatre studies at VCE level.
I also directed, choreographed, costume-and set-designed five major musicals of the highest calibre that even received praise in a session of state parliament.
Then, a close friend introduced me to Paul Malek who had started Transit Dance. He was thinking about introducing a high school program like the Victorian College of the Arts, where students dance half the day and do school work half the day.
I’m now the Academic Theory teacher for Transit Dance’s high school program and I teach the theory side of the Diploma of Elite Dance tertiary students. I also teach acting and help with costumes and makeup at shows. I don’t choreograph at the moment but may in the future.
The high school students do their work independently online but I’m there to answer questions or help unpack what they need to do. I’m also there to help them with social issues, confidence, manners and life plans.
It’s the ideal gig for me. I feel like my whole life’s journey — from starting class with Miss Sandra at age five, through my injury and rehabilitation then time in a high school — led to here.
As much the injury was heartbreaking, if it had not happened, I wouldn’t have become a secondary school teacher and had the opportunity to enrich the lives of so many students.
“Once you are a dancer, you are always a dancer”
Do you still dance?
I now do belly dancing and flamenco for enjoyment. I took up belly dancing while recovering from my injury as it’s very soft on the knees. I’ll never be the dancer I was – I still can’t kneel on my injured knee or fully bend it – but it doesn’t hold me back in these classes.
Dance is still so strong in me. When I was injured, people would ask what I did and I would say “I don’t know” because my whole identity was dance. One time, I answered “I used to be a dancer” but someone wise said “Once you are a dancer, you are always a dancer” and they’re right – the love never goes away.
I love being a student. I love listening, learning and getting it right. I find that a real joy.
Carly at a recent Bellydance Halloween gig
“I follow PSD on social media with admiration and awe.”
Are you in touch with the Peninsula School of Dance at all?
I moved away from the Peninsula when I was 18 and pretty much cut ties. But more recently, through Facebook, I’ve re-made connections and spend a lot of time talking about the ‘good old days’.
We were laughing the other day sharing pictures of my friend Bridie and I in a cow costume. It was in a ballet similar to La Fille Mal Garde, we were the lovely peasant girls on pointe and then, a bit later on, we came back on as the cow!
Carly Doctor and Brydie Hill 1989 – both ends of previously mentioned cow costume
A performance of ‘Coppelia’ at a Rosebud Ballet School annual performance
“I give my utmost thanks to Miss Sandra for providing me with such a wonderful dance education, technique and freedom of expression.”
Rosebud Ballet School was a place to learn exceptional technique in a warm and caring environment. It wasn’t about competition and flashy costumes and tricks, it was about technique and strong friendship bonds.
If I hadn’t started classes there when I was five, I still would have danced but it wouldn’t have been the same. I can’t imagine my life without it.
I follow PSD on social media with admiration and awe. It’s grown in leaps and bounds with the dance styles they offer, the premises and the community. It feels different from Rosebud Ballet School but in a positive way. It’s like it’s branched out into a new creature, like a new butterfly.
I give my upmost thanks to Miss Sandra for providing me with such a wonderful dance education, technique and freedom of expression. And to Mel for continuing and building on that for new generations of students.
Carly, thank you for sharing your love of dance and teaching, as well as memories of choreography and cow costumes in Rosebud.