Buzz No 3, 2026
Inside this edition:
Eisteddfod Adjudicator Announcement
Message from the President
New Prizes
Entries Waitlist
Adjudicator Announcement!
It is our pleasure to introduce our 2026 SASDS Eisteddfod Adjudicator…
Susan Sargison
Susan Sargison’s dance career began early, starring as Clara in the Tasmanian Ballet Company’s Nutcracker production. After graduating from the Australian Ballet School and performing with the Company, her professional stage appearances included Coppelia, Carmen, Giselle, The Three Musketeers, Poems and City Dances. She led roles with the Heidelberg Ballet Ensemble, Rex Reid Ballet Company and The Victorian State Opera. Continuing her dance journey, Susan proved herself a reliable Australian dancer by transitioning into musical theatre. She worked regularly in the West End’s Commercial and Musical Theatre industries, performing in London, Portugal and Vienna. Her Australian performances include the original cast of Seven Little Australians and Countdown. For 25 years, Ms Sargison operated her own dance school in metropolitan Melbourne as Artistic Director. More recently, she served as Associate Director of the National Theatre Ballet School from 2018 to 2023. During this time, she also taught at tertiary level from Certificate IV to Advanced Diploma.
Since 1991, Ms Sargison has been an active adjudicator at numerous dance competitions and Eisteddfod’s across Australia and overseas. She has extensive experience adjudicating Classical Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Musical Theatre, Lyrical, Contemporary, Song and Dance and National Character. In addition, Ms Sargison is an examiner for The Royal Academy of Dance.
Hip Hop Night Adjudicator to be announced very soon!
- Keep an eye out on our socials
Message from the President…
Some of you may have noticed that instead of Co-Presidents this year, we have just one President, Sarah Croston-Melling, who will be continuing to hold the torch. This year Carolyn Tsakalos has stepped down from the committee and from her long running position as President due to her personal commitments. It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside Carolyn. She is an exuberant, tireless and dynamic leader. She has demonstrated strength, creativity and persistence and we are so thankful for the energy that she has put into helping SASDS Eisteddfod. During her presidency she has re-focused the Eisteddfod to a community-centred event, catering to our very broad dance community. She has brought in new ideas such as the ‘We See You Awards’ which have become a treasured part of our awards. She has endeavoured to make our Eisteddfod more inclusive and more accessible to more studios and dancers. She and her husband Lukas were instrumental in setting up Lukas’ Kiosk which continues to be a much loved and important service for our community. Carolyn’s family have been incredibly supportive of SASDS and have gone above and beyond, volunteering and helping us to keep the Eisteddfod running smoothly - thank you so much Tsakalos family!
Also leaving the committee is Andrea Jacob who has been a valued member of the committee with key contributions to updating our website and communication tools. We thank Andrea for her commitment, and wish her well for her future endeavours.
Both Carolyn and Andrea will continue to support SASDS when they can, so you may see them around at the Eisteddfod…a huge thanks to both of you!
Thank you Andrea and Carolyn!
New Prizes 2026
As previously announced our prizes are changing a little this year. We are extending our Adjudicator’s Choice Most Outstanding Solo Awards and retiring the Aggregate Awards. You may be wondering why we have done this. We value the history and traditions of the Eisteddfod, so it was not an easy decision to make. However, we have noticed over the years that the way dancers are learning these days has changed. There is more of a push for dancers to choose their favoured genres and to specialise in those earlier, rather than try to master all the genres. We know that young people these days have so many opportunities available to them and less and less time, so one way they can focus their energy and time is to choose a smaller number of genres of dance to focus on. We noticed that the Aggregate Awards were no longer catering to our wider community. Therefore, we have extended the Adjudicator’s Choice Most Outstanding Solo Awards by breaking them into groups of related genres. We hope this gives more dancers their moment to shine as we recognise outstanding performances. The Championships (Little Stars, Future Stars, Classical, Modern, Theatrical and Tap) allow dancers to further challenge themselves with performing amongst other high achieving dancers in their selected fields. There is more prestige and more generous prizes (thanks to our sponsors!) for the Championship sections due to the extra effort it takes and the high level at which they are competing. The Championships are a showcase of talent and I would encourage you all to come along and watch these sections, to learn, to be inspired and to be entertained.
Adjudicator’s Choice Most Outstanding Awards 2026
(For each age group except for Under 6)
Classical Ballet, Character/Demi-Character, National Character
Lyrical, Contemporary, Acro
Jazz, Musical Theatre/Broadway Jazz
Tap, Song & Tap, Song & Dance
Entries Waitlist
Every year there are a number of dancers who have to cancel their plans to attend SASDS due to unforeseen circumstances. We encourage you to join the Waitlist by entering at the link below and we will endeavour to fit you in if we can. To join the waitlist just enter as normal and the entry system will automatically wailist your entries.
*Please note entries are still available for the School Showcase sections.