About Jenny’s Dancing Jems

Jenny Tuley studied with the late Gordon Little (Examiner of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing), a gentleman held in high regard by his peers. Being fortunate enough to study with Gordon allowed for a firm grounding necessary for all future teaching work. Jenny qualified as an Associate with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in both Ballroom and Latin American Faculties in 1997/8. It was through teaching and study that she realised how much she had developed and decided to study further with Gordon to gain her Licentiate certificate in the Ballroom Faculty which she achieved in July 2000.

Jenny believes that personal development should always be on-going and before long it was time for further improvement. Under the in-depth guidance of Julie Tomkins, an Examiner with the ISTD and former Vice Chairman of the Latin American Faculty, a Licentiate certificate was awarded to Jenny in August 2004. Julie was in the front line when the Syllabi was being developed and Jenny considers herself very fortunate to have gained first-hand knowledge during her studies with Julie. Unfortunately, due to a number of changes from the original Latin American Syllabi to the newly improved version it was necessary to ‘unlearn’ some earlier knowledge gained at the Associate level, and re-train, using a different line of thought. The expression teaching ‘old dogs to learn new tricks’ springs to mind but Jenny did it!

Jenny’s development continues in dance education by attending, where possible, the Spring and Summer Congresses held by the ISTD, thus enabling her to keep up-to-date with teaching ideas/methods and in particular the technical development of the Latin Faculty Syllabi. The ISTD are further developing their education system to become the leaders in dance by introducing the following certification: Foundation in Dance Instruction (FDI) and Certificate in Dance Education (CDE). Jenny constantly uses her knowledge through her Dance School Jenny’s Dancing Jems where class are held in Warley, Brentwood and West Horndon.

Enjoy life – Enjoy dance !