Dance Teacher Assistant

**Who are we?**

Leap into Dance is a capacity building program that develops and increases social and community participation skills for participants that have a risk of social isolation due to their poor social skills. We do this through interest-based mediums of dance sessions, dance performance and mindfulness sessions. Our program builds the participants’ social skills and independence to interact with their peers to form meaningful relationships within their community.

Our program has been developed with capacity building at the forefront with ongoing consultation from an NDIS registered Occupational Therapist. It is aligned with the recommendations made by the NDIS Research and Evaluation Branch in May 2022 about “Interventions to improve social, community & civic participation of adults on the Autism Spectrum or living with Intellectual or Psychosocial Disability”.

Leap into Dance is a disability specific program, aiming to provide accessibility to all participants, by actively pre-planning through meetings prior to attendance, being in an accessible venue, providing resources and having a team approach for the needs of our participants.

**Key Responsibilities of the role**:
In our dance sessions, the ratio of participants to teachers are kept at 1:4. As the Dance Teacher assistant your responsibilities include:

- Engaging participants to follow the plan of the session; this could be through role modelling, praise, re-direction, slowing, providing communication through communication boards or social stories.
- Comfortable to break-down chorography or provide repetition of choreograph to an individual during class, without the teacher needing to re-show choreography
- Managing individual behaviours to allow the dance teacher to continue with class
- Provide consistency for the participants by being reliable and trustworthy
- You are not required to do class planning for this role, however instead there will be occasional time spent talking to the Owner for appropriate strategies for managing classes and creating the best environment for our participants

**What will you bring to the role?**

Required:

- Have tertiary level qualification in dance, preferably contemporary/jazz/ballet to be able to provide good role modelling of technique and foot placement.
- Will be able to provide consistency for the role and bring maturity and good role-modelling to the studio.
- Ability to be flexible and stay clam in pressurised situations
- Be able to create a good rapport with people of all abilities and all ages
- Be able to work with a team to be able to provide accessibility for every individual participant
- Clear communication skills

Ideally:

- Will have experience with people with disabilities preferably as a support worker, certified disability support worker, therapy assistant or personal experience.
- Knowledge or experience with the NDIS
- Have relevant qualifications and insurances as a contractor: ABN, invoicing abilities, first aid, WWCC, Police Check (valid within 3 months), COIVD-19 infection control, Insurance, NDIS worker screening (or will be willing to obtain at no cost)

**Training Provided**:
In this role, we will prioritise dance experience over disability experience.

You will be provided with training for assisting people with varied support needs, including behaviour support, sensory support, physical assistance, emotional support including strategies on how to re-engage dancers who have disengaged for various reasons.

You will shadow the current TA in class until we are at a comfortable place to work unassisted.
- Saturday availability a must. Thursday availability helpful but not essential. _

There is potential for this role to have more hours as the dance school grows. Also, this role may have extra administration hours of report writing for the ideal person.

Please provide CV, cover letter which details experience and 2 references to be considered for this role

**Job Type**: Subcontract

Pay: $28.00 - $55.00 per hour

Expected hours: 2 - 10 per week

Schedule:

- Fixed shift
- Shift work
- Weekend availability

**Education**:

- Diploma (preferred)

**Experience**:

- Dance Teaching: 1 year (preferred)

Work Authorisation:

- Australia (required)

**Location**:

- Airport West VIC 3042 (preferred)

Work Location: In person

Application Deadline: 30/11/2024
Expected Start Date: 01/11/2024