I work at a very full on RAD school and we want to implement jazz exams next year - I have done CSTD and the Jazz Addict/Broken Beat hip hop syllabus but am curious as to what other Australian schools are doing

I have heard good things about adap and atod, and I know there are a range of others like sfd and idta...

Hello.

We used to do BBO for Jazz but the work was outdated and the kids got bored. We are now doing ATOD work with them and they really love it. And it's great to teach too =)

yeah another studio i work at uses it and they love it - did you have to do their teacher exam to be able to teach it? I checked on their website and it's a little unclear whether you can just transfer over from another syllabus...

We were able to transfer with no worries, as all of us teachers had a qualification through other societies. All we had to do was pretty much send in a resume with all of our qualifications and experience, and then we had a cover letter stating why we wanted to start teaching the ATOD work.

I've been around for a while and to my understanding ATOD and FATD are not very good. I've also had children come to me from other schools with these syllabai saying they have done well in exams and claim to be an excellent jazz dancer yet when I put them into the relevent age level in the CSTD Jazz they were always behind and found it difficult to do. Are you referring to the CSTD Jazz Award Syllabus or the newer CSTD Modern Syllabus? I personally think the Jazz Award offers the best grounding but the music and the dances are so outdated its ridiculous. But put some of those exercises and isolations with modern music and it works well for warm ups. The Modern Jazz is definitely more funky and expects alot in terms of age versus ability. I ditched the Jazz Award and have taught the Modern Jazz ever since it first came out. Oh and I have heard that people who go from the CSTD Jazz into another syllabus (specifically ATOD) that they have felt like they were taking a step backwards in their progress. Just what I heard. Can't really back that up cause I've only ever danced CSTD myself.

I'm a CSTD gal. I did all the old Jazz syallbus including the Jazz Award and loved the dances, though yes now they are a bit dated. I have the packs for the Modern Jazz Syllabus because I was going to put myself through some of the grades, but never had the time of a good space to practice (since I'm not currently attached to a dance school).

I taught BAL jazz (& tap) for a little while, but to be honest, I hated it - it was boring and repetitive and the demonstration videos didn't demonstrate clearly what was expected technically or stylistically.

Helen