Vaughan & Alison Liddicoat are the Principals of The International Dance Studio. For over a decade they have studied, trained and compete in DanceSport both nationally and internationally being coached by the world’s top DanceSport coaches. As Amateurs their final placings were 3rd in Australia in Amateur 10 Dance before turning Professional.
They are the current Australian & World Professional 10 Dance Representatives, one of only two couples in Australia.
Alison and Vaughan have been dancing together for 9 years and both “took their first steps together” when Vaughan was 17 and Alison was 16, under the guidance of Penny de Kauwe. Penny privately taught them for over 5 hours each week and instilled the importance of quality in dance technique and passed on over 30 years of her dance wisdom.
In just 5 short years, after they began dancing, Vaughan and Alison went from absolute beginner at Level 1 to level 5 Open Grade (highest level) in each style of Ballroom, Latin American and New Vogue. They then received the “B.B.M Ballroom Dance Scholarship” which gave them a large portion of money to live and train in the UK where they competed in their first Blackpool Dance Festival, the world’s largest dance competition, as well as build lasting relationships with their current coaches, Former World Champions Anne and Richard Gleave and Michael Stylianos and Lorna Lee.
They then set their sights on moving to London and soon after they moved to the United Kingdom to continue training, competing and studying dance at it’s highest level for a couple of years, before returning to Australia to begin running “The International Dance Studio” (Formerly Penny De Kauwe School of Dancing) when Penny retired.
With a passion to teach and still compete in Australia and overseas, they are both very enthusiastic to continue bringing quality dancing to Canberra and believe that anyone with legs can dance.
Our dance studio is largely catered for Social Dancing but offers pathways for anyone to be involved in Medal Tests, Performance Groups, Competitive DanceSport or even become a Teacher one day, as they did!
Vaughan and Alison look forward to seeing you in the studio and want you to remember that “anyone can dance!”