projects

DANCE ACADEMY (Series One)

Co-created by Samantha Strauss, Dance Academy is an exhilarating new drama series for children and teenagers... as well as anyone, anywhere, of any age, who's ever had a dream. The fifty-two part, half hour series is produced by Joanna Werner and Werner Film Productions in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and ZDF in Germany. The Australian Children's Television Foundation is the executive producer and the series is distributed by ZDF Enterprises.

Dance Academy tells the story of fifteen-year-old Tara Webster who has grown up on a farm in outback Australia and has dreamt of being a dancer ever since she was a little girl. When she makes it into the National Academy of Dance — the best school in the country — she is sure her life is about to be spectacular. What Tara doesn’t realise is how far behind she is in her training, and that there’s a whole lot more to surviving the Academy than just dancing...

Praise for Dance Academy: “Dance Academy: series final. Not, we hope, the final episode ever. Because this terrific teen drama is just warming up. Other shows are going to get more press this year but Dance Academy has been one of the real standouts for local drama in 2010, getting pretty much everything right… Best of all, it’s taken a pretty tired idea – “I want to be a ballerina!” – and given it life, and teeth. All manner of genuine teen issues from who-likes-whom to controlling or absent parents, are dealt with in a sophisticated and believable manner.”
(The Age, Green Guide, 5th July 2010)

DANCE ACADEMY (Series Two)

Filming has just been completed in Sydney with broadcast scheduled for early 2012.

Synopsis: In Second Year there are no second chances...

Tara returns to the National Academy of Dance with the goal of representing Australia in the world’s most prestigious ballet competition. But perhaps she should be more focused on just surviving Second Year where having climbed to the top in her first year Academy – in dance, in life, in love – she now has a very long way to fall.