The idea of developing a syllabus for jazz dance started for Celeste Theunissen (the founder), when as a professional jazz dancer people would often ask her where she received her training from. Celeste being a classical ballet dancer would refer them to the various schools and teachers who trained her. (refer to founders bio-data).What Celeste did not realize is that people were not only referring to her technical prowess as a dancer, but also to her particular dance style. Because she was trained in classical ballet since the age of two when her sister who was eleven years old took her along to her ballet class as there was no-one on that day to baby-sit her, she was schooled for the next twenty-one years in the ballet technique. While pursuing a diploma in ballet at the prestige’s University of Cape Town Ballet School in South Africa (refer to bio data), she took a semester of jazz dance classes and found that she had an inborn talent for the style. So this inborn style, combined with the ballet technique, gave her a distinct and unique way of moving which appealed to many choreographers and aspiring dancers. It is only after some time that she realized that people did not just want to learn how to dance ballet or jazz, but that people wanted to learn how to dance like Celeste Theunissen.  

The other events that led up to the idea of developing a jazz dance syllabus came about when Celeste started attending open jazz dance classes with various teachers and in various countries. What she found was that there were not many, if not any classes for beginners, you had to have some form of dance training, whether it be ballet, social dance, tap, modern or even cultural. If you had no training whatsoever, it was not easy to follow the class.  It was also best to have ballet training as the teachers used ballet vocabulary (French terms) for the steps. This was a problem for Celeste because being a ballet dancer for so many years, it was not easy to have a step called out in the French term but instead of executing it as you have being trained in ballet, you now have a different step altogether.  

When Celeste became the artistic director and choreographer of dance companies (refer to bio data), it also became more apparent that a system should be established to grade the levels of the jazz dance. It was often a great task to hold auditions when one could not exactly specify what level of dancer you were looking for. When using the ballet levels, (e.g. Elementary), only ballet dancers would turn up for the auditions and often enough these were not the type of dancer that was required as they did not have the style and isolated movements of jazz dancers. On the other hand, when it was advertised that jazz dancers were wanted, you would get all types of “dancers” turning up, from people who “learnt a few steps from watching Michael Jackson’s video”, who have learnt “jazz” from their ballet teacher when they had to do one item for their school concert, to those who attended Alvin Ailey jazz dance workshops and have been dancing some form of jazz for ten years. It is very obvious why this would create a problem.

Also when choreographing, there was no common vocabulary or terms which could be used and which everybody could understand to make things easier and speedier. There was also no way of writing down the routines in order for the next choreographer to follow without having to memorize it physically.

The most important reason why Celeste developed a syllabus is because unlike ballet, jazz dance does not enjoy the high regard and respect among the society and arts world wide.

Because of all the above factors, Celeste decided to develop a jazz dance technique which would:

é     Have specific aims and objectives (refer to Forward and Introduction)

é    Have a vocabulary of its own

é   train the body in a systematic progression - as in the structure of a ballet  class-from the beginners level up to the   professional level  

é    Hone into the mind and spirit.

é     conduct assessment and examinations as to gauge the progress of the student, to grade  the student and also to be affiliated with the headquarters  

é    certify graduates

It took seven years to finally work out the class structure and format for the syllabus and another three years to test it on students and to finalize the paperwork. As expected, there were mixed opinions. The syllabus was accepted by some as something which was long overdue. This group felt that the syllabus was highly beneficial as now there was a systematic way of reaching a specific goal and that every person had the opportunity to learn and excel.  Others felt that jazz should be a free style thing and that asking students to sit for assessments and examinations were much too stressful and that jazz dance is more of a recreational dance and by setting it to a syllabus would take the fun out of it.

The other issues that arose from this is that most were concerned with whether the syllabus has recognition and needed some affirmation and proof  from a body or  an organization of its credibility. This (getting it recognized) in itself would be a real feat to accomplish without a solid number of students who are learning the syllabus and sitting for the assessments and examinations, a fair amount of students who have completed the courses, a number of qualified teachers and lectures, at least two assessors and examiners and presence in at least three countries. Celeste personally feels that if the syllabus had been developed in America, the UK or Australia, then it would be more acceptable worldwide as these three countries are known for being innovative and all other countries are very susceptible to anything from these countries. On the other hand, she also feels that dance speaks all languages and cultures and the country of origin should not be an issue.  

In Malaysia efforts have been made to bring jazz dance to the Malaysian society by means of performances and seminars. As of now (December 2007), the syllabus has reached other countries such as the UK, Indonesia, India and Switzerland, although these countries are notaffiliated to the headquarters by means of the assessments and examinations.

On the bright side, the headquarters weekly receives between two to five emails from students abroad who are interested in the syllabus, mainly from the UK, USA and India. This proves that there is an interest at the student level but without teachers who are teaching the syllabus in their country-they have nowhere else to turn expect to come to Malaysia. 

The soft launch for the headquarters was held on the 10 th November 2001. The address of the headquarters is No. 24, Jalan Mamanda 4, Ampang Point, Ampang.

The board of directors consists of:

é Celeste Theunissen (Artistic and managing director)

é  Zainal Baharudin (Director)

The lecturers were:

é Celeste Theunissen (jazz, ballet, history of jazz dance, Celestar knowledge, stage terms and vocabulary, musical knowledge, pas de deux, repertory, read and write)  

é  Jessica Chua Yuen Fun (stretching, jazz)

é  Vincent Benjamin (Indian dance)

é  Cain (Social dance)

The first batch of students to come in were:

é  Jessica Chua Yuen Fun (Sabah)

é  Sonia Quah (Klang)

é  Janet Tan Fong Lin (Batu Pahat)

é  Sianne Halim (Indonesia)

They were the first full-time students to take the Teachers training course (Introductory syllabus). They graduated in  November 2001 and the graduation ceremony was held at the headquarters. The recipient of the teachers award form this batch was Sianne Halim.

There was also a group of part-time students who were taking the Teachers training course (Introductory syllabus) and they were:

é  Loh Pooi Moon (Kuala Lumpur)

é  Liew Yen –Shan (Kuala Lumpur)

é  Joanne Cheng Lai-Yoong (Kuala Lumpur

All these students started their course the first week of September 2001 and because the headquarters was not ready , classes were conducted at Benjamin Arts studio which is just one floor below the headquarters. We officially moved into the headquarters on October the 1^st and things were very rough as the renovations were still on going. Nevertheless, the students graduated. The graduation was well attended by parents, teachers and friends of the graduates.  (refer to www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk.p1000htm  to view pictures of the evening).

During the higher level examinations, a student from the headquarters-Tillashiyni Tharmalingam was awarded with a RM10 000 scholarships. Tilla at the time was 12 years old and had just completed her Beginners level course(Introductory syllabus).

In December of 2001, the headquarters ran a two week workshop in order to expose Malaysians to the jazz dance scene. The workshop was mainly attended by current students with only three new faces. The teachers for the workshop were: Celeste Theunissen, Jessica Chua and Janet Tan. It was observed that the open classes were the most popular.

2002

The new term started in the second week of January with only:-

é        one full-time student for the teachers course Introductory syllabus (Yvonne  Garcia-Switzerland),  

é         five part-time students for the teachers Introductory syllabus, two of the five being new students-(Caryne Gan-Kuantan and Rachael Lee-Ipoh)  

é      and six casual students (3 Introductory level students and three higher level student).

The third term saw a sudden increase of students after students from the headquarters participated in a performance “Dengar tangisan ku” (Hear my cry) for the Jazz dance Society. This performance dealt with child abuse issues.

In  June 2002, the second batch of teachers graduated:

é        Yvonne Garcia (Switzerland)

é        Loh Pooi Moon (Kuala Lumpur)

é       Liew Yen-Shan (Kuala Lumpur)

é        Joanne Cheng Lai-Yoong (Kual;a Lumpur)

Three students also received their Beginners level (Introductory syllabus) Jazz dance certificate:

é      Tilashyni Tharmalingam

é      Salbiah Shuib

é       Amanda Michael

Two of our students also participated in the Boulder Jazz dance workshop which was held in July/August at The University of Colorado in Boulder USA. They were:

é   Gareth Albanese

é Mariah Sulaiman

 (refer to www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk.p1000htm to view pictures of the evening)

On the 30^th November 2002, one teacher graduated:

é  Caryne Gan

On this day it was also the first time that a student graduated with an Intensive Performers course certificate for the Higher levels:-

é  Amanda Teh En Ling

Other awards at this event went to:

é  Gareth Albanese (Certificate-Performers course plus the Jazz level 5)

é  Miki Kitasako (Certificate-Introductory course)

é  Dayang Diana Moggie Arriega (Certificate-Introductory course)

é Aritz Zainal (Celestar Scholarship)

At the time of the scholarship, Aritz was eight years old and he is also the son of the Directors.

At the end of the year Celeste Theunissen conducted a workshop at the Luisa’s Danceworld studio to promote jazz dance and the syllabus with the intention of starting up jazz dance classes at the studio. The workshop was successful.

2003

This year started with one new full-time teachers course student from Switzerland-Raphaela Zurkinden, one part-time ballet course student from South Africa-Refilwe, three new casual students as well as the existing part-time and casual students. This term two of the teachers had their teachers’ license revoked as they did not fulfil the assessment quotas for the year. Celeste Theunissen also conducted  a jazz dance workshop at Danceconexions studio to promote jazz dance and the syllabus with the intention of starting up jazz dance classes at the studio. The workshop was successful .

The second term, started on a bad note. Due to  SARS  (a highly contagious virus which was sweeping through Asia), the first full-time British student for the performance course and a full-time student for the teachers course had to at the last minute cancel their courses. There was an increase of four casual students, two full time performers course students and some of the existing casual students have changed over to full-time.  Two students have also dropped out.

Staff

é   Director- Zainal Baharudin

é   Artistic Director-Celeste Theunissen

Lecturers-

é        Celeste Theunissen (jazz dance, ballet, Aerobics, History of jazz dance, jazz dance, jazz dance  vocabulary, teaching method, musical knowledge, stage terms and  directions, stage grooming, costume making, read and write)

é        Jessica Chua (jazz dance, stretching, Social dance)

é        Carine Gan (relief Jazz dance teacher)

é       Vincent Benjamin (Indian classical, Mime, Catwalk )

é       Soosan Ho (drama)

é       Dhoria Antonio Sam (Aerobics)

Scholarship students

é Tillashiyini Tharmalingam

é   Aritz Zainal (8 yrs old)

2004

The CSOPA has established an affiliation ;with the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop in Boulder Colorado under the directorship of Lara Branan, who is also now the examiner of jazz dance level 5.

2006

The Celestar jazz dance syllabus made its way to Singapore through Danzstudio Production.

2007

Currently the syllabus is doing very well with over 200 students per year participating in the assessments and examinations. There are also now 11 qualified teachers in Malaysia, 2 in Switzerland and 1 in Indonesia.
The syllabus is also affiliated with the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, which is held annually at the University of Colorado in Boulder Colorado USA. Here students attend the 2 week workshop as well as take the Jazz level 5 examination which is conducted by Lara Branen (please refer to Lara’s Biodata on the profile page) and Celeste.

In October 2006, the syllabus was introduced in Singapore and is currently being taught at one studio.