Principal Dancer & Guest Choreographer

Rani has been dancing for an impressive 25 years. She completed her training at various leading performing arts schools in Sydney and grew up studying and competing in RAD ballet, jazz, tap and contemporary, specialising in Pole Fitness® for the past five years. During her dance career she has taught and choreographed various styles of dance and is currently a Senior Instructor at Studio Verve Dance Fitness®. Rani’s love for performance was cemented when she took to the stage in her first professional musical at the age of 10, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at Her Majesty’s Theatre. She continued to perform throughout her childhood and adolescence and has danced for Studio Verve® since 2007, representing the studio at the Australian Fitness Expo, Promotional Dance Video and Carriage works show in 2008. Most recently, Rani was on the judging panel for the heats of the Australian Pole Dancing Championship 2010.

Rani was thrilled to be a part of Pole Evolution™ at its inaugural show in 2009, where the fusion of pole fitness with other forms of dance was introduced to a large audience.

Her passion for dance and desire to be creatively involved in all aspects of the production has seen Rani join the creative team for the 2010 show. She hopes the team can bring even more diversity to this year’s show by using different shapes, layers, textures and dimensions in the choreography to create a harmonious performance piece.

Rani believes a performance should be more than just dance, and she hopes this year’s audience will be caught up in the costuming, energy and spectacle that is Spiral Rhythms.

Principal Dancer

Always looking for new challenges, Twee has never been one to sit still!  With a background in Woman’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG), she has 17 years experience in the sport. Her training as a gymnast began at Canberra City Gymnastics Club (CCGC), where she was fortunate to be trained by some of Australia’s best Chinese and Australian coaches.

Putting her best assets to work, Twee’s flexibility and powerful legs gained her many titles including State Champion and Apparatus Champion for Vault, Beam and Floor. Unfortunately, earlier in her career, her lack of upper body strength let her down on the Bars! After retiring from gymnastics due to a back injury, Twee gained coaching accreditations in Kindergym, WAG and Trampolining.

During her time at CCGC, Twee was the Coach/Judge representative for Club, State Levels co-ordinator and helped to run the Tiny Tots, State Levels, Development Level and National Levels programs. She also gained her National Accreditation as a WAG Level 1Judge and has been an official at many State competitions and Australian National Championships, representing the ACT and NSW, CCGC, PLC Sydney and Five Dock Gymnastics Club. 13 years after her last Floor routine, Twee took herself out of retirement in 2008 and began pole dancing where she began to develop the upper body strength which she always lacked. A naturally energetic and encouraging person, Twee’s passion for acrobatics and teaching has been revived by Studio Verve Dance Fitness®. A full- time team member at Studio Verve®, Twee is the Marketing Manager and a senior instructor. Twee possesses a degree in Graphic Design and also works as a freelance designer doing all sorts of graphic design work, illustraion and high end photo-retouching. Many of Twee’s dinnerware designs are on show in the homewares department of Myer and David Jones, as well as Crete & Barrel in the USA. Twee’s involvement in the behind-the-scenes aspects of her work has seen her design posters, logos, sets and costumes for many productions. For the first time in her career, not only did she work on the preparations for a show, but Twee also appeared on stage as a dancer, making her performance debut at Pole Evolution™ 2009. Being part of Pole Evolution™ 2010 allows Twee to explore her creative side both as a dancer and designer, as well as giving her the opportunity to work with a talented and inspiring group of dancers for this year’s production of ‘Spiral Rhythms’.

Dancer

Gillian joined Studio Verve Dance Fitness® in 2008. She performed in both the 2008 and 2009 annual performances and is currently studying as an advanced student.

As a child, Gillian studied Jazz Ballet and showcased her skills in many local productions, gaining the major role of Raja in Aladdin . During her college years, Gillian’s love of performing continued in school theatre productions.

Gillian adores performing and she believes Spiral Rhythms 2010 will be a wonderful opportunity to express creativity and is excited about incorporating traditional forms of dance with pole and acrobatics. Gillian believes it is rewarding to share the journey with her fellow company artists; creating, training and working hard to put together a performance which she believes will leave the audience thoroughly entertained.