Liza Grande
The Many Hats of Liza Grande: Sister, Mother, Teacher… and the Heart Behind Our Musicals
Though Liza Grande has never done a dance class herself, she’s been an important member of the PSD community for decades, through her roles as sister, mother, and now teacher and Musical Director.
Thanks for sharing your PSD story, Liza! What was your first contact with the dance school?
My youngest brother, Alex Marshall, danced with Rosebud Ballet School for about six years in the 1980s. He was a student at the same time as Sandra Allen’s daughter, Kirsty, and Nadine Pye (nee Swift).
I first met Miss Sandra when I played guitar for Alex’s dance in the school’s choreographic competition. Though he’s an academic now, during our childhood, he was the dancer, my other brother was the sportsperson, and I was the musician.
I was that kid who, if I saw an instrument, I’d have to touch it..
My family returned to Victoria at the end of that year and I started classical guitar lessons. After a year, I needed a teacher with extra skills but, because we lived on the Peninsula and were very poor with no car, I had to take a bus to Frankston, a train to Bentleigh, then another bus within Bentleigh all for a half-hour lesson, then reverse it all to get home.
In 1988, at the age of 19, I auditioned for the Victorian College of the Arts at their tertiary level and got in, so did a performance degree focussed on classical guitar. I worked as a musician playing at weddings, bar mitzvahs and corporate gigs, but it’s hard to make a living as a non-orchestral musician, so I did a Dip Ed and moved into music education.
I graduated just as Victoria ran out of money and employed no new gradate teachers for a year. So, I went to Tasmania and did my first two years of teaching in Bernie. It’s a small place so, not only did I have the job of Head of Music straight out of uni but they gave me the job of conducting the City of Bernie Orchestra! Luckily, I’d done conducting at university.
It was such a gift
This was such a gift. I conducted Fauré Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem with the orchestra and choir. Then, at the school I taught at, I did the musicals of Camelot and West Side Story (I lost 10 kilograms that year seating in the conductor’s pit!). We had a rivalry with Devonport and the quality was high. The Mercury newspaper came all the way from Hobart to critique the shows.
I moved back to Melbourne and life got messy for a while, but I ended up back at the high school I attended , Rosebud High, as Head of Music. Full circle! I then stopped teaching to have three babies.
Am I right that all three of those babies went on to dance at PSD?
I have two sons and a daughter and, up until this year, I’ve had a child at the school for the past 18 years!
My oldest son, Marshall, will be 25 this year. He works in politics, has just been admitted as a lawyer to the Supreme Court, and is an excellent tuba player. He danced at PSD until he was around 16 when he moved to Italy for Year 12. Marshall did ballet, jazz and tap. He especially loved doing comedic tap routines with his friend, Hayden Flynn. I think he was a hot dog in one dance! He had the most enormous feet, so I had to scour the country for size 14 tap shoes. Marshall was really good at tap but was never interested in being a dancer.
Marshall and Addis pictured above, Francesca as mermaid and Addis pictured below with classmates.
My second son is Addis, which means ‘the new one’, and is named after Addis Ababa in Ethiopia (where my husband and I spent our honeymoon due to his work as a water borer for Community Aid Abroad). Addis, who’s 23 and manages a bar in Collingwood, is my bohemian child. He did all styles of dance at PSD but his favourite was ballet. He was serious about dance and had a few ambitious years, including auditioning for the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (VCASS), but he didn’t get in. He then went other ways with his creativity, including playing in a band for a number of years. He’s now he’s a published poet.
My youngest is my daughter, Francesca, who is known by all as Chess. She’s danced since the age of three and PSD has been the most amazing constant in her life. Particularly through Covid lockdowns and difficult times at school, dance was her lifeline.
PSD is also where Chess made all her childhood friends. A huge part of her life is her best friend, Tess. Chess and Tess were born on the same day, have danced throughout their lives at PSD, have alternated winning various awards, and even danced together in the Disneyland parade on their 18th birthdays – that was a bit spesh!
“Chess and Tess danced together in the Disneyland parade on their 18th birthdays – that was a bit spesh!”
As well as all the PSD classes and performances, Chess did her VET dance course with PSD and danced with Alex Dellaportas’ company, Spark Youth Dance Company, including a lead role as the female pirate, Grace O’Malley. She also got into the Dance Italia Summer School, a professional contemporary dance training program held in Lucca, Italy,
in 2023, Chess successfully auditioned for the full-time program at Transit Dance. She started there in 2024 and is currently in her third year. It’s going wonderfully and she’s an exceptionally beautiful dancer. She’s on the arty, edgy, exploratory end of dance (the most unemployable end of dance!). She’d really love to get into a company like the Sydney Dance Company.
Now, all three kids have left PSD but you’re still there…?
That’s right. After all the years of being a sibling or parent at PSD, these days, I totally wear my staff hat.
When my kids were little, I retrained for early childhood music education, including the Kodály method. The short version of this period of my life is that I did a lot of choral work, ensembles and musicals, as well as instrumental teaching. For five years, I worked as the music specialist at Narranga Special School in Frankston, which as the best job I ever had.
Francesca enjoyed many expereinces during her time at PSD.
I started work for PSD in 2014 but then, in 2022, I got sick. I’m fine now but had a year of chemo for cancer.
Once I was ready for work again, I started doing CRT (Casual Relief Teaching) covering music teachers when they’re away. And, I returned to working for PSD!
I teach the Musical Theatre course, which is a year-round program covering singing, drama and dance. I’m obviously not a dancer, so I share the teaching with Caris Richmond. The kids learn monologues and develop drama skills, including vocal, physical and facial expression. They also do group singing and a solo song.
“Dancing while singing is a bit like patting your head while rubbing your stomach!”
I’m also the Musical Director for the PSD musicals. I focus on singing and work in a team with Alex Dellaportas, the Director and Karis, who is the choreographer. We discuss how to balance dancing and singing, which is a bit like patting your head while rubbing your stomach!
I’ve loved being part of Cindarella & Rockerfella in 2024, Peter Pan in 2025 and Finding Nemo Junior in 2026.
The musicals involve auditions but they’re very mindful auditions, which is totally in keeping with the character of PSD as a school. Kids are prepped with their audition piece but we also show the process of auditioning, including how we all know that feeling of everyone wanting a part but knowing that only one person can get it.
With a combination of your sibling, parent and teacher hats on, what do you love about PSD?
I have a deep sense of gratitude that a place such PSD exists; that there is an alternative place of learning for kids who are smart in a creative way. All three of my kids say the school was such an important anchor in their lives.
Running a dance school is an exquisitely human thing to do and PSD is an exquisitely human place to be.
It reminds me of Winston Churchill debating with the British Parliament during World War II (my grandparents were both in the Blitz) when they were saying: ‘We are at war now, we’ve got to get rid of Saddlers Wells ballet and the opera’ but Churchill responded by saying ‘What are we fighting for then?’.
PSD is such a gem of a place for our community. It is such a high-quality school and grows really healthy, well-rounded and connected children.
Running a dance school is an exquisitely human thing to do and PSD is an exquisitely human place to be.
Marshall in a classical ballet
Chess with mates Skyla, Lachie and Tess
Chess with classmates in their costumes for the Nutcracker
Chess with good mate Pippa
Chess in a Transit production
Marshall and Addis
Marshall bottom left
Thanks so much, Liza, for showing us all your PSD hats, including sister, mother, teacher and Musical Director.