H.E.R Dance Day: Canberra’s newest girls’ dance community day

Posted on 20 August, 2025

A day where women can find their confidence and explore movement, where artists receive the recognition they deserve, and everyone can experience the magic of the dance community.

That’s the concept behind Canberra’s newest community day: H.E.R Dance Day.

Taking place on Saturday 23 August at IlLustrious Dance, H.E.R Dance Day is bringing together amazing female dance teachers and business owners within the Canberra community, to create a day for other women to join, experiment with different dance styles, feel confident, and find a community amongst themselves.

Created by Bobbi and Valen (who together make up Sereias do Zouk), the idea for the day was born from their own experiences and dance journeys. Currently working as Brazilian Zouk dance teachers, their passion for the dance style lies in creating a safe space for women to express themselves.

“This was the idea that began our partnership. The sense of community that we can have when we create spaces where women can feel comfortable exploring different kinds of movement and expression is incredibly powerful,” says Bobbi.

“We know that we can all achieve amazing things when we support each other, and when we can celebrate nailing a move or hitting a beat alongside our friends, we create supportive connections that last long after the final note in the song.”

Recognising that dance teachers’ work often goes unappreciated and underpaid, H.E.R. Dance Day emerged from a powerful intersection of ideas: creating a space where women can discover their confidence through movement while ensuring dance artists receive the recognition and compensation they deserve.

“Dancers are often expected to be their own marketing team, choreographers, photographers, accountants, and many, many other roles that we step into, both for ourselves and for our students, often while holding down day jobs,” says Valen.

“We would like to use a little of our influence to gradually amend this situation and to pay our artists at rates that recognise this enormous labour of love that goes into any single dance class.”

As part of the not-for-profit event, seven female dance teachers will be teaching six different dance styles across the day. Along with the opportunity to try three different types of ladies’ styling – Sensual R&B Brazilian Zouk Ladies Styling, Bachata Sensual Ladies Styling, and Salsa Ladies Style – there will also be Jazz Funk, Femme Fusion, and Heels classes.

Holding an hour-long workshop for each dance style, each artist will bring a mini choreography set for attendees to try. And if that’s not enough, there will also be stallholders selling products on the day: FENG Activewear and Artesânia, bags designed and handmade by a retired 87-year-old artisan from Brazil.

“As female professionals, we have personally experienced the importance of women supporting women in professional settings,” explains Bobbie.

“Throughout this whole organising journey, we have been completely overwhelmed by how powerful the support is from the amazing women we’re working with and from the community around us…We want every single one of them to have their work seen and recognised, and we hope we can provide a platform for this.”

Every attendee will also receive a free Pilates class pass and grip socks from Team Pilates and there will be four raffle prizes drawn on the day: a free five class pass for Dance Til Dawn, a free month class pass for MoveMe Studios, a free 45-minute private lesson from Kmotion Dance Studio, and a free five class pass from Team Pilates.

With tickets starting from $25 for one class and ranging to $110 (if you’d like to take all six), Bobbie and Valen say that the most important thing they hope people take away from H.E.R Dance Day is joy.

“Joy in movement, joy in friendships, joy in a small break from the regular nine-to-five. We hope attendees will make new friends, take the opportunity to learn different dance styles, maybe even find a new dance class they love,” says Valen.

“And of course, we hope to see all our attendees killing it on the dance floor!”

Feature image via Facebook.