This vision has been the driving force behind The Secret Garden of Dance and since then they
have successfully moved from a mobile dance service to a permanent location. With a team of
loyal friends and family, they spent four weeks converting a vacated office into a beautiful dance studio on Burke Road, Camberwell.

Gaye and Sanushka offers their students a large selection of dance styles, all taught with a high level of experience and knowledge. They also commit to their art of teaching, constantly fine
tuning and improving their teaching methods, to further enhance the experience at The Secret Garden of Dance.

What's Behind The Name?

The name ‘The Secret Garden of Dance' came from a few inspirations and ideas that the
founders Gaye and Sanushka shared. Firstly, they knew that their dance studio was going to be unique and would offer their students more than just dance instruction. Both Gaye and Sanushka also felt that their students should not feel like they're entering a shop or a corporate workplace, where everything must be bought. Instead it was to be a place that was welcoming and easy
going, and the primary focus was on having fun whilst learning to dance. So they felt the name itself would have to really stand out from the rest and would most likely not conform with ‘marketing standards'.

Gaye and Sanushka also felt that dancing is a natural form of art and has deep ties with culture and history. Dancing itself should be an organic thing, something that has a living and breathing rhythm. This idea compelled them to find a name close to nature or something that was more down-to-earth.

Finally, they also decided to somehow incorporate the letters ‘g' and ‘s' after Gaye and Sanushka, as it was going to be a dance studio that reflected their own personal visions and philosophies.
All of these factors culminated into creating their dance studio name and that's how ‘The Secret Garden of Dance' came into existence!

More About Gaye Harvey

Gaye has been teaching Ballroom, Latin and Rock ‘N' Roll dance styles for more than 10 years
now and she has been learning for over 15. She started out at a very young age with her brother
as her partner, who himself was a national junior champion! After a few years learning near her home town of Dorrigo in country New South Wales, she moved to Sydney where she started her professional career as a teacher.

Since then she has taught at various studios in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne and at one stage, travelled to Hawaii with one of her advanced students to participate in an international
competition! The experience she has gained, coupled with her extensive training has allowed
Gaye to become an expert in some of the most technically demanding dances such Slow Foxtrot, Samba and Bolero.

Although Gaye is an accomplished dancer, she brings a sense of laughter and energy to her
dance lessons, allowing her students to improve their skills in dancing without even knowing it!

More About Sanushka Ranasinghe

Sanushka's roots in dancing started from a very early age in his home country of Sri Lanka, where dancing was very much part of growing up.

Many years later in Melbourne, Sanushka took up both group and private lessons at various dance studios and at one stage won the best Ballroom and Latin dancer award in his category. He was soon offered a job as a teacher and it was at this point where he truly discovered his calling, as he found he had a genuine passion for teaching others and for sharing the joys of dance.

He also admits that Michael Jackson's dance and music has inspired him immensely and has helped him achieve his unique flavour of freestyle dancing. This flare for freestyle dancing is clearly seen as he has been passionately developing Salsa, Swing, Argentine Tango and Hip Hop at The Secret Garden of Dance. Sanushka has also been invited to perform at various functions and events and at one stage was invited to enter a dance competition, where he won the first 1st prize!

Besides his passion for freestyle dancing, Sanushka also has a strong musical background and he brings this experience to his lessons, developing his students timing and rhythm. He is also very passionate about the peripheral elements of dance, such as its rich diversity, culture and history.