After DDYT '77 my family moved to Canada for a year - not a bad move for a 16 year old Australian girl the year Grease came out! Yes I had such a wonderful time there that I didn't want to come back, but sense, my parents and a couple of governeménts' views prevailed over mine! I then attended St Margaret's Girls School in Bribane before landing in Armidale NSW for four years at the Unviersity of New England, where I studied Drama and English as well as being involved in student politics, the student radio station and mobile disco and working as a life saver at the sports union.After a brief move to Sydney post-university, I ended up in Wellington NSW as an Engish/PE teacher (there was no such thing as a Drama teacher when I first started in education) As my teaching career continued, I moved to Dubbo, back to Armidale then Sydney and finally Canberra. I have taught everything from PE to French, History and Computer Studies (that was a farce!!) When I arrived in Canberra 15 years ago, there was acutally a subject in high schools called Drama, so I spent about 6 yeasr being a Drama teacher with all the school plays, musicals and dance fesivals to either director or at least co-ordiate.I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to work with some fantastic students and facilitate their development as people through thier invlovement in productions. Unfortunately, this type of work on top of a normal teahcing load has its toll so when an opportunity to go into the teachers' union as an organsier arose, I took it. (probably form the frying pan and inot the fire). Again this was interesting work with a capacity to help others in a very meaningful way. I spent nearly 6 years in the Austrlain Education Union, working on both a local and national level before moving on to the Community and Public Sector Union. I lasted 18 months there. It was a different set up with a different view of organisers to the AEU. So I went looking for another job and landed in the employment policy section of the Chief Minister's Department. From there I moved back to the ACT Department of Education where I worked both as a policy officer on legilslative business (oh, yes, I have part of a law degree I started soemwhere along the way - never finished) and as a liaison officerin intergovernmental and external relations. Currently I am reposed in a job at the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Water Resources in the Government Partnerships area, I job I have held for five months. I am still deciding whether I would like to stay here as it is a far cry from the drama graduate I was. The lack of contact with people or ability to help others bothers me.I have continued a life-long interest in dancing, mostly as an extra-curricula activity. I currently co-own a small (we call it 'boutique') ballroom dance studio in Canberra. I work a lot with children and beginner adult dancers. I have done the competition circuit in a number of different dance styles but my body doesn't like it so much these days. I train others and was supposed to go to Newcaslte this weekend for a comp until the devestating floods occurred.Lovelife??? Well I was invloved with someone for about 12 years, but we didn't end up married. I have had a couple of other head-on collisions with love and am currently engaged to Mark, a contrator who works for Fuji-Xerox in Canberra and is also a ballroom dancer. I have no children of my own but seem to have spent copious amonuts of time looking after other poeple's children as they drifted in and out of my life. I have two dogs, Kashya (goldren retriever/labrador cross) and Zoe (goldren retriever) and a house I am proud to say I have a mortgage on all by myself!That's it in a nutshell! I am looking forward to the reuion. Genesis was such a fantastic experience to have had and to see where we all ended up after this many years and the influnence our experience has had on our lives will indeed be interesting!Naomi (the dancer)
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