History of City Dance Centre
Established in 1997 by Adrian Fryer and Mary Renouf, City Dance Centre found its beginnings in Prahran and the classes were delivered inside Chapel off Chapel.
In 2003, City Dance Centre moved to the hall adjacent to Armadale Baptist Church, where it remained for 15 years. Veteran dancer and ballet master, Paul DeMasson, together with his wife, Sakura Shimizu, took over City Dance Centre in 2011. In 2012, Paul passed leaving City Dance Centre under the full-time direction of Sakura Shimizu.
January 2019 saw the temporary relocation of City Dance Centre to South Yarra until December 2021. During this period additional repertoire classes were added to the weekly schedule.
City Dance Centre is now based at the studio of Australian Conservatoire of Ballet, one of the best ballet schools in Australia. This beautiful studio features separate dressing rooms, showers, waiting areas, climate control, and three individual dance spaces.
Paul DeMasson 1953 – 2012: a life lived through dance!
Paul started his career at the age of 14 with the West Australian Ballet and then moved to Europe to dance with the Ballet de Marseilles performing Roland Petit’s repertoire, including Petit’s ‘Pink Floyd Ballet’ with Pink Floyd playing live.
Moving to London he danced with the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet) working with many icons of dance including Massine, Tudor, Nureyev, Skeaping and Markova. In 1976 he joined the Australian Ballet at the invitation of Sir Robert Helpmann and performed all the major classical repertoire as well as new ballets by Kylian, Tetley, Murphy, Moreland, Prokovsky, Welch and others.
Paul was a guest dancer and teacher for numerous companies and schools including Queensland Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Philippine Ballet Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Singapore Dance Theatre, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Hong Kong Ballet, Suzuki Ballet Yokohama and principal dancer with Bern Staatsoper, Switzerland.
Paul held ballet master position at the Australian Ballet, The Royal Danish Ballet, The Hamburg Ballet and Singapore Dance Theatre. Returning permanently to Australia he taught regularly at the Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet while performing as a guest character dancer with the Australian Ballet.
It was Paul’s love of performance and the art of dance that he sought to pass on to the many dancers, both young and old, he mentored and encouraged during his time at City Dance Centre, prior to passing away in January 2012.