Alida Segal is regarded as one of Australia’s most respected dance lecturers and choreographers specialising in National and Character Dance. Graduating from the Moiseyev School of National and Character dance in Moscow, Russia, she has worked with professional companies and leading training institutions as an advisor, teacher and choreographer for more than 35 years.
Her early dance training includes studying classical ballet under Kathleen Gorham, Eileen Tasker, Madame J. Ciunovas and Laurel Marten OBE and Character dance under Madame Marina Berezowsky. Being offered a place at the Victorian College of The Arts, she decided to further her dance training overseas and travelled to Moscow where she graduated with honours from the Moiseyev School of National and Character Dance. She went on to study Teaching Methodology and Choreography and was awarded a Diploma in National and Character Stage Dance from the USSR’s Ministry of Culture.
She was later offered a position in Doctorate studies in Choreography at Moscow’s State institute for Performing Arts and was the sole Australian delegate at UNESCO Symposium “Preservation and Development of Folk Dance” held in Russia.
She has performed across Australia with Kolobok Dance Company and at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow, with the Moiseyev School.
Her many teaching and choreographic engagements include The Australian Ballet school (lecturer and member of assessment panel), The Australian Conservatoire of Ballet, Shalom Australia Dance Company, the Queensland University of Technology (Dance Department), The Victorian College of the Arts and The National Theatre Ballet School. Also being fluent in both English and Russian she is often called upon to translate and assist visiting Russian teachers and choreographers working in companies and elite training institutions.
While Head of Character Dance studies at the VCA & VCASS, her choreography was performed for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and on the schools international tours to Scotland & Singapore.
Other engagements include directing, producing and presenting “From Folk Dance to Footlights” for Multicultural Arts Victoria; Assistant Ballet Mistress for VIC Arts Dance Company; Dance Consultant for Monash University (Drama) & VCA (Drama); and her expertise in dance training was sought by Olympic Gold Medal winning skaters Christopher Dean & Jane Torvill.
Over the past several years she has been writing her six-level syllabus which launched in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane in 2013 with her workshop program “An Introduction to Character Dance”. Teacher training seminars and lectures for the International Character Dance Syllabus now take place Australia wide and are a major feature in her calendar.