Our Director, Emma Irvine together with, Event Manager Sian Gavros have worked alongside each other in the industry for the last 7 years.

This is WHAT WE DO BEST!

Our company has built a 25 + location wide network for performing arts in South Australia.
We have also worked in many other performing arts events and programmes delivering vocal, dance and theatre.

Our core values and purpose has led us to the Schools Challenge event, being ‘inspiring people through the performing arts’.

In talking to many teachers who haven’t yet found the right program to be involved in, we have listened, and WE ARE HERE!

In being a part of the Schools Challenge, you will be cared for with the biggest hearts in the biz!

Emma Irvine

Director

Emma began her performing arts journey in 1991 at the age of six, enrolling at a local dance school on the Fleurieu Peninsula where she learnt dance for the next 11 years and in 2000 became an assistant dance teacher at the school.

She was a co-ordinator of many dance programmes through secondary school years choreographing Eisteddfods, dance productions and concerts. Emma was also a youth leader for a government programme, Active8. Through this group she travelled interstate to conferences working with youth and leadership. She also had the opportunity to work with various arts organisations such as Carclew Youth Arts, Country Arts SA and AIT Arts while with the Active8 programme.

In October of 2003 at 18 years of age, Emma registered her own business known as DanceSA. Our company DanceAUS Group, has built a 30 + location wide network for performing arts in South Australia with a national network plan on the horizon.

Emma also founded and directed the Adelaide Festival Centre’s On Stage holiday performing arts programme in its first three years.

"Creating an opportunity for thousands of students, who are able to experience the benefits of performing arts is aligned with my purpose and amongst my greatest achievements. I continuously strive to further my knowledge in the performing arts, events and business management through courses and specialised coaching."

Sian Gavros

Event Manager

Sian was first introduced to dance at age 3. She started with ballet, then added jazz, tap, contemporary, hip hop, musical theatre and Brazilian samba to her repertoire.

Sian successfully completed SACE dance and gained a Certificate IV in Dance in 2012. She has worked with international choreographers and was invited to audition for Cirque Du Soleil in Montreal and the Australian Ballet School. Sian has completed and passed all Cecchetti exams up to Advanced 1 and is currently studying to undertake the Cecchetti teachers exam. You can see Sian dancing with Brazilian Dance Fusion, performing in floor shows and at events across the state.

2019 marks 10 years of teaching for Sian and she loves working with students of all ages to make their dreams a reality. She teaches at multiple dance schools and in primary schools as well as teaching dance programmes at the Adelaide Festival Centre. Sian cannot wait to see stories come alive with the Schools Challenge!

Josh Smart

Technical Consultant

Josh is qualified in Live Production and Technical Services, Business Management and Leadership through Adelaide College of the Arts, UniSA and Scouts Australia. Josh is trained in First Aid, Mental Health First Aid, Responding to Abuse and Neglect, Rigging, Work Health and Safety and Training and Assessment.

Josh is currently Production Manager for Central Audio Visual, based at Adelaide Oval. Josh has experience working at Country Arts SA, AJ Sound, Tatachilla Lutheran College, and Brighton Secondary School.

Josh operates Smart Event Management, an event consulting, audio visual production and live streaming business which operates Australia-wide for clients such as the Department of Defence, Westpac, and Scouts Australia.

Josh is a member of Business SA and the Professional Conference Organisers Association, and volunteers with Scouts SA as Assistant Chief Commissioner (Events) and the National Training Team.

Joshsmart.au | smarteventmanagement.com.au

Jess Wolfendale

Stage Manager

Jess Wolfendale is a stage manager based in South Australia. They graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Performing Arts) from UniSA in 2020, working in the theatre industry in a variety of roles, with companies such as the Adelaide Festival Centre, Disney Theatrical, and touring internationally with Slingsby Theatre Co. 

Sean Riley

Appraiser

Sean Riley is an award-winning playwright & director, and is considered one of Australia's leading creators of theatre for and by young people.  His most recent work, This Bloody House, premiered in 2018. Grave Child, premiered at the 2017 DreamBig Festival by SAYarts in association with S.A History Trust.  His play, Aftershocks toured metropolitan schools in 2016, and  Warren, was premiered by SAYarts in September 2014.

Prior to this, The Visitors and One by One; Urban Myth Theatre Company for Come Out 2013.  His plays Skip Miller’s Hit Songs, and Also a Mirror, were premiered by Brink Productions and Urban Myth Theatre Company respectively, for the 2011 Adelaide Fringe Festival.  In 2008, his play The Angel and the Red Priest premiered at the 2008 Adelaide Festival of the Arts.

His play for young audiences, Beautiful Words was premiered by Oddbodies Theatre Company to enormous critical acclaim in May 2006, winning the Adelaide Theatre Guide’s Award for Best Dramatic Production of the 2005/06  season and the Adelaide Theatre Critic’s Award for Best New Play. Prior to its opening, Beautiful Words won the Jill Blewett Playwrights Award in 2004 and was short-listed for the Patrick White Playwrights Award. The play was  published by Currency Press in May 2008, and is on the SACE reading list.

Sarah Williams

Appraiser

Sarah Williams is a qualified performing arts teacher, who has lived and breathed the theatre life since she could talk. She has a Bachelor of  Arts Honours (majoring in Drama and Dance) and a Graduate Diploma in Teaching, as well as her Associate Diploma in Classical Ballet with the Australian Institute of Classical Dance.

Sarah has worked in many Adelaide schools including Wilderness, Scotch and Westminster, as well as performing arts schools Theatre Bugs, Mighty Good Talent and TIDC Performing Arts Studio. She has also taught at the Adelaide University Elder Conservatorium in the Musical Theatre faculty, and Drama for Education students at both Uni SA and Flinders University, as well as teaching Dance and Drama at St Mary’s College.

In 2022 she started the company Gemini Creative: Arts & Education, providing the Arts @ Home curriculum for online arts learning and teacher resources. Sarah is a freelance choreographer and is a dance tutor in the Adelaide Festival Theatre's OnStage program. She loves choreographing for the G&S Society, as well as being on stage as a dancer, with the most recent shows being “Evita”, “Kinky Boots”, “A Chorus Line”, and “Priscilla Queen of the Desert”.