Dual Adjudicators

Dual Adjudicators were first appointed in 2016 for both the Tap Dance and Ballet sections.  This continued in 2017 with dual Adjudicators for the Modern Dance section. The Dual Adjudicator system has worked so well that the decision was made to continue offering dual Adjudicators for the ever growing dance genres of Modern, Ballet and Tap Dance sections.
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The Troupe/Group section was re-introduced in 2016 as part of the 40th Anniversary Celebrations. This section was so popular that it was decided to continue offering this award for the foreseeable future. The 2 Ballet & 2 Tap Dance Adjudicators will form the base of the Troupe/Group judging panel and will be joined by up to 2 additional Adjudicators to cover all the necessary dance genres.

Lucinda Dunn
Ballet Dance Co-Adjudicator

Lucinda Dunn received her early training in Sydney with Janece Graham and Tanya Pearson before going on to win a Prix de Lausanne scholarship to study at The Royal Ballet School, London. While in London she also performed with Birmingham Royal Ballet and in 1991 Lucinda joined The Australian Ballet and was promoted to principal artist in 2002. She has also been awarded several scholarships to study overseas and has been partnered by many international guests of The Australian Ballet. A diverse and musical dancer, with a strong technique, Lucinda exceled in the pure classical ballets and enjoyed portraying characters in story ballets, as well as the physicality of contemporary pieces.

In addition to the ballerina roles in all of the major classical ballets such as Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake and Coppélia, a particular career highlight for Lucinda was dancing the world premiere of Stanton Welch’s The Sleeping Beauty in 2005 and more recently, dancing Firebird and Nutcracker-The Story of Clara by Graeme Murphy. Other highlights include her performances on The Australian Ballet’s tours to London, Tokyo, Italy, Shanghai and New York, as well as dancing lead roles in contemporary works by Christopher Wheeldon, Jiří Kylián. Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Nicolo Fonte and Stephen Baynes.

Lucinda has won numerous awards including Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance 2008, Helpmann Award nomination for Dance performer of the Year 2204 & 2007, Mo Award nomination for Dance Performer of the Year 2001, 2005 & 2006, Green Room Award for Best Female Dancer 2005 and Helpmann award nomination for Best Female Dancer 2010 & 2011. In 2015, Lucinda won an Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer for the performance in The Australian Ballet’s Manon.

As Australia’s longest serving ballerina, Lucinda announced her retirement in 2014 and received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), for her service or the performing arts through ballet.

Lucinda was appointed as the Artistic Director of the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy and the Sydney Youth Ballet.
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In early 2016, Lucinda attended the Prix de Lausanne ballet competition in Switzerland as one of the members of the jury.

Christian Tátchev
Ballet Dance Co-Adjudicator

Christian Tátchev trained at the National School of Choreography in Sofia, Bulgaria. He began his professional career at age 16, dancing his first leading roles shortly after and reaching the rank of Principal Artist in 2000. He has danced all major classical roles, as well as works by celebrated choreographers of modern times.

Christian has worked with The Sofia Opera and Ballet and the Bulgarian contemporary dance company Ballet Arabesque, as well as with the South African ballet companies PACT Ballet, Cape Town City Ballet and The South African Ballet Theatre (SABT). While with SABT, Christian was appointed Company Coach in addition to his rank as a Principal Artist and worked extensively with the company’s ballet academy.
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Christian joined Queensland Ballet in 2008 after participating in the Company’s International Gala. He was appointed the Company’s Ballet Master in January 2012 after retiring from the stage in September 2011. He took up the position of Director of Training in 2013 and was named Academy Director in 2016.  Since his departure from stage, Christian has performed with the Company in a number of productions as a Character Artist.

Tellina Lee
Tap Dance Co-Adjudicator

Tellina Lee is an international creative artist that was born and raised in Newcastle, Australia. Born with dance and music in her blood, she started tap dancing at 3, followed by every other style soon there after. As well as dance, Tellina is an accomplished actress, singer, V/O artist, choreographer, artistic director and producer.

Tellina has won many scholarships and championships, as well as receiving awards for the top 5% in Australia for Performing Arts.

She completed the LGTDA syllabus under the instruction of her amazing tap teacher Donna Michalitsis School of Dance, achieving honors with distinction (the highest bracket) through all of her exams. Tellina is a fully qualified tap teacher of the LGTDA syllabus  and from 16 years old has been teaching tap dance and putting students through their exams.
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She has performed in an abundance of professional musicals, in both USA and Australia, such as Grease, High School Musical, West Side Story, Music Man, Annie Get your Gun, Piano Man, and the list goes on. With some of her many highlights including; Opening for Busta Rhymes in  Las Vegas, performing at the Superbowl, Sydney 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony, writing top 5 song for Bejing Olympics and choreographing dance groups for international fashion shows, studios and artists. She also travels internationally to teach workshops, choreograph routines, and judge international competitions.
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Tellina is the creator and choreographer of “Tap That” and is excited to use her passions and visions to bring tap to another medium incorporating film, videos and the live stage. ​

Dale Pengelly
Tap Dance Co-Adjudicator

Dale’s passion for Tap Dancing began at the age of 9 when watching his Sister at Irish dance and thinking he could do better and started shuffling away and it continues to this day. He has successfully  sat up to Bronze Star level in Tap Exams in the FATD Syllabus (Highest in Syllabus).

Dale has been a leading light in the Australian and International Theatre, spanning the past three decades. He has performed extensively throughout the world in some of the biggest shows in Musical Theatre history. 

His career started brilliantly with the young Dale being accepted to the prestigious Australian Ballet School in Melbourne. Dale went on to the Queensland Ballet where he became, not only a featured soloist, but partnered with Rosetta Cook, one of the most celebrated, and enduring partnerships Australian Ballet has ever seen. Dale was also Senior Soloist at New Zealand Royal Ballet in Wellington. Upon returning to Australia he took Sydney Dance Company by storm, lead by Graeme Murphy and working with such artistic genius as Garth Welch, Ohad Naharin, Roger Woodward;. and Bradley Chatfield. 

Dale’s passion for Theatre not just restricted to Dance, he then stepped into Musical Theatre in the biggest way Australia had ever seen in the phenomenon that was Hot Shoe Shuffle, a production that took him all the way to London’s’ West End, the birthplace of Musical Theatre. As the World Goes Round, was Dale’s Choreographic Debut, with Todd McKenney, Maria Mercedes and Jodie Gillies performed at the Sydney Opera House. Crazy For You, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity, Boy From Oz, and Chicago in their original Australian and Sth Asian Productions, to name but a few productions. Run away successes like Saturday Night Fever saw him featured as the Audience favourite DJ Monty. The David Atkins produced and Directed ‘Singin in the Rain’ showcased Dale’s myriad of talents as no other role could as the charming Don Lockwood, a character synonymous with Gene Kelly. 

In Between his Musical Theatre Performances Dale has taught Tap and Choreographed for numerous solo dancers competing in the Australian Competitions Scene for various dance studios throughout Sydney, and Brisbane.
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Most recently Dale has performed the role of Enoch Snow in Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, the Lead role of Johnny O’Keefe in Shout! Stepped back, into The Boy from Oz, this time as Peter Allen, and Don Lockwood in Singin In the Rain.

Cheryl Barker AO
Vocal Adjudicator

Cheryl Barker AO has established a distinguished Operatic Career throughout the UK, Europe, USA and Australasia.
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She has performed for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Paris Opera, Nederlandse Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, National Opera du Rhin, De Vlaamse Opera, La Monnaie, Opera Holland Park, Reis Opera, Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Minnesota Opera, Vancouver Opera, Taipei Opera, Opera Queensland, Opera Australia, State Opera of South Australia, Opera New Zealand, Victoria State Opera and Western Australian Opera.

Her many roles have included the title roles in Jenufa, Tosca, Suor Angelica, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Rusalka, Arabella, Salome (both for which she won green room and Helpmann awards), Adrianna Lecouvreur, Francesca di Rimmini, Hanna Glawari in Die Lustige Witwe, Katya Kabanova.

Other roles include Countess/Le Nozze di Figaro, Adina/L’elisir d’amore, Mimi in the award winning Baz Luhrmann production of La boheme, Violetta/La Traviata, Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni, Tatyana/Eugene Onegin, Nedda/I Pagliacci, Antonia/The Tales of Hoffmann, Giorgetta/Il Tabarro, Lauretta/Gianni Schicchi, Marschellin/Der Rosenkavalier, Madeleine/Capriccio, Chrysothemis/ Elektra, The Governess and Miss Jessel/The Turn of the Screw, Desdemona/Otello, Musetta/La Boheme, Marie/Die Tote Stadt, Salud/La Vida Breve, Jenifer/A Midsummer Marriage, Micaela/ Carmen, Emilia Marty/Vec Makropoulos, Marzelline/Fidelio, Oksana/Christmas Eve, Kate/Kiss me Kate. She created the role of Sarah in Jake Heggies Opera The end of the Affair for Houston Grand Opera.

She has appeared in concert at Londons Wigmore Hall, The Barbican Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Konzerthaus Wien, Koningin Elisabethzaal Belgium, at the Brisbane, Melbourne, Spoletto Festivals, The Australian Festival of Chamber Music and with the SSO, QSO, MSO, WASO.

Most recently she performed the role of Gertrude in Brett Deans Hamlet for the Adelaide Festival.
Recordings include Puccini Passion, Pure Diva (Melba Recordings), Seduction & Persuasion, Don John of Austria, Beethoven 9 (ABC Classics), La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier OA (CD & DVD) Madama Butterfly, CD of Great Operatic Arias with the LPO, Katya Kabanova, Quo Vadis, Rusalka, Makropoulos Case (Chandos), Madama Butterfly (Belgium and Netherlands Television)
Cheryl was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours and also holds an Honorary doctorate of Music conferred by the Victoria College of the Arts.​

Tamara Somolyar
Pianoforte Adjudicator

Tamara Smolyar represents the finest traditions of the famous Russian Piano School and comes from a family with a musical background, which spans over four generations. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Tamara began her formal piano lessons at the age of four and gave her first public performance at age of seven. By age of seventeen she won a number of national competitions and selections for prestigious Gala concerts for the Soviet Government. In former USSR, she studied with renowned Russian pianists and pedagogues such as  О.Orlova (pupil of  K.Mikhailov), I.Ryabov (pupil of Y.Zak),  E.Rzhanov  (pupil of Y.Flier) and Y.Lotakov (pupil of V.Topilin).Tamara graduated from the Kiev State College of Music and the Kiev State Conservatorium of Music with First Class Honours. She participated in masterclasses with world famous pianists  E. Malinin, A. Nasedkin, L. Berman,T. Nikolaeva, T. Kravchenko, V. Topilin, V. Sechkin, V.Neilson , E.List just to name a few. Tamara immigrated to Australia in 1990, and  in 1994 she  gained her Master in Music (Performance) from the University of Melbourne, where she studied with A.Semetsky (pupil of E. Gilels) and Professor R. Farren-Price (pupil of C.Arrau). 
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Tamara  is a winner of National Chamber Music Competition (USSR) and was awarded the title of Best Accompanist and Chamber Musician of Ukraine and USSR.  Tamara has numerous Radio and TV recordings for national and international broadcasters, commercial CD’s on Move, Vox Australis , Cantor Productions and Schimmel International Artists Collection.  With her recitals, concerto and chamber music performances as well as masterclasses and adjudication activities, she graced many prominent venues across three continents. Tamara played with internationally renowned musicians and conductors from Australia, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Israel, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, UK, USA, Japan , Switzerland, Russia and Romania.

The critiques emphasize her performances as “an interpreter of great virtuosity, the suppleness, elegance of tone and flexibility of Tamara Smolyar’s playing …, ”Smolyar brought everything imaginatively possible from the score to light…”  as well as “….technically brilliant and the interpretations truly convincing…”.Tamara’s wide repertoire comprises pieces of many styles and this has led to a number of composers writing music for her as a soloist and a chamber music performer. Tamara is a Founding member of Duo Chamber Melange  (since 1999) with the internationally renowned violinist Ivana Tomaskova. 

 As a highly thought after pedagogue, Tamara has been fostering and developing the talents of the musicians under her tutelage to a high level of music performance. The success of her approach is evidenced by the fact that a number of Tamara’s former students now hold positions as pianists and teachers both nationally and internationally. 

Tamara is  Senior Lecturer in Music Performance , Coordinator of Piano and Coordinator of Ensemble Studies at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Rosemary Barnes
Official Accompanist for Vocal

Rosemary is known throughout New Zealand as a pianist, vocal coach, music director, opera translator, concerto soloist, chamber music collaborator and adjudicator. After studies at the Royal Academy of Music, she spent 25 years based in London, working mainly in opera at English National Opera (music staff 1980-88), Musica nel Chiostro (Italy), Opera Northern Ireland, Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Opera Rara (assistant conductor on many recordings), whilst coaching singers from all over the world at her private studio.  Back home she directed the postgraduate Diploma in Opera at the University of Auckland from 1993-99. She has been repetiteuse for Der Fliegender Holländer (NZ Opera); Die Meistersinger, Der Rosenkavalier and Parsifal (Wellington NZIFA); Salome, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre (APO/NZSO concert performances); Alan Smythe’s stadium operas Carmen and La Traviata (chorus director), and coached singers for the first Adelaide Ring cycle.
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Concert performances have included the Wigmore Hall, South Bank and BBC Radio 3; Usher Hall in Belfast; New Caledonia with French counter-tenor Robert Expert; the Aotea Centre with Lesley Garrett; Auckland Town Hall with Pene Pati; Invercargill with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa;  and southern Germany plus a cruise across the Pacific with Trio Australasia (Alisa Willis, flute and Ann Blackburn, oboe). Her recording work includes three CDs for Continuum. Rosemary plays regularly with Peter Scholes’s Auckland Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 she performed Chopin’s F minor Concerto with the Aorangi Symphony Orchestra at St Matthews in the City. She has been an official accompanist at the Gisborne International Music Competition since 1994.

Rosemary has always enjoyed teaching; in London she taught at Morley College and the Royal College of Music. She has worked with singers at all our North Island universities and at NZ Opera, and for many years has been music director for Opera Factory, the Auckland-based training company for young singers. Rosemary was awarded an MNZM in the 2000 Queens Birthday Honours for her services to music.

Contact Rosemary
(09) 528 7756
021 183 9734
rosiejbarnes@gmail.com

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