Joanna’s Dance History

Joanna began her dance career at the ripe old age of 3 years old when her mother enrolled her in kinder ballet lessons, from there her passion for dance only grew as the years passed by. As she grew older she begged her parents to enrol her in every style of dance that her dance school offered. By the end of her high school years Joanna was preparing herself to complete her RAD Advanced 2 exam, she was doing advanced senior level Contemporary, CSTD Advanced Gold Star Tap and Jazz, Irish and whatever Hip-hop she could get to. Joanna then took a gap year in which she spent her time working at bettering her dance prospects.

2010 was the first year Joanna got a feel for what professional dance is all about when she started her first year of her two year Advanced Diploma of Art course where she chose to specialise in Classical Ballet and Contemporary Dance, with a minor in Commercial Jazz.

2013 brought a year of change when she moved her whole life and career to Bogota Colombia, where she quickly found her place in dance. She gained employment as a dancer, on a tv series called ‘Chica Vampiro’ which was later picked up by Nickelodeon, as well as a guest artist position at La Compania Colombiana de Danza.

Joanna gained multiple contractor dance, teaching and creative roles while all the while revelling in and nurturing her Latina roots and taking on the Latino-American social dance scene.

Upon moving back to Australia she went into teaching RAD Ballet, beginners pointe, stretch, strength and conditioning classes, and more, before moving to Melbourne in 2016 to complete a Bachelor of Creative Arts in Dance degree in 2018.

Joanna went on to extend her degree by a year, in order to complete an Honours research project and gain an honours degree in dance and movement research in 2019.

Covid struck and heavily impacted Joanna, who suffered a serious back injury in 2020 and spent the best part of 3 years rehabilitating her injuries.

In 2022 Joanna found herself moving again getting closer and healing through the beautiful community and movement in the Melbourne Contact Improvisation scene.

2023 has brought further healing and collaboration work for Joanna. In January she completed an artist residency with the Sincerely Survivor project and Grace Dance Company looking into and exploring movement and creative processes and mental health applications.

Creative collaborations with photographer Zee Abbas at Lifeboat Creations Photography (@lifeboatcreations on socials) have been in the works in 2023. They look forward to continue with more collaborative projects together in the not so distant future.

Joanna is currently working on some personal and collaborative dance projects, so “watch this space” for more dance content.