Teacher Professional Development 2026
Puppetry and Choreography for Arts Teachers with Dead Puppet Society
Term 1, Week 5
Thomas Dixon Centre
#Program Overview
Puppetry & Choreography for Arts Teachers is a dynamic full-day professional learning workshop designed for generalist and specialist primary teachers, as well as middle-years Dance and Drama educators.
Professional Development Workshop: Puppetry & Choreography for Arts Teachers with Dead Puppet Society and Queensland Ballet
This full-day professional learning workshop invites generalist and specialist Primary teachers, as well as middle-years Dance and Drama educators, to explore the intersection of puppetry and movement in arts education. Guided by Dead Puppet Society’s Youth and Engagement Director and Queensland Ballet’s Education Manager, participants will engage in curriculum-aligned practical puppetry and movement making exercises.
Inspired by Amelia Waller’s Curious Beings, created in collaboration with Dead Puppet Society for Queensland Ballet’s 2025 Bespoke season, the workshop offers hands-on experience in puppet building and manipulation skills, movement and choreography, and real-world insights into interdisciplinary creative practice.
Learning Outcomes
- Develop foundational puppetry and movement techniques to enhance classroom storytelling.
- Explore choreographic processes that integrate body, object, and the communication of meaning.
- Create and adapt group movement tasks using puppets.
- Reflect on professional practice and its relevance to curriculum delivery.
- Connect practical activities to ACARA v9: The Arts (Dance and Drama) P–10.
- Access adaptable, classroom-ready lesson ideas and creative teaching resources.
Mapped to AITSL Standards 2.1, 3.3–3.4, 6.2–6.4 and 7.4, this session blends theory and practice to equip teachers with engaging strategies for creative learning and curriculum implementation across the Primary and lower secondary years, with explicit connections to ACARA: The Arts (Dance and Drama) Version 9.