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.
When: Term 1, week 5 - Wednesday 25th of February
Where: Thomas Dixon Centre
Cost: $330.00 incl. GST
If you would prefer to pay by Invoice, please register and provide details at the link below.
Dead Puppet Society
The brainchild of David Morton and Nicholas Paine, Dead Puppet Society is an international design-led theatre company established in 2009. Widely considered one of Australia's most ground-breaking production houses, Dead Puppet Society is known for combining timeless craftsmanship with cutting-edge technologies and collaborating with world class arts companies and creatives to produce large-scale design-led theatre works that shake up genres, incorporate contemporary forms of puppetry, and push the boundaries of live performance. Recent box office hits include Peter and the Starcatcher, The Wider Earth, Ishmael, Laser Beak Man and Storm Boy.
Off stage, Dead Puppet Society creates visually compelling experiences and activations for events and public spaces, from one-of-a-kind laser-cut artefacts and open-air performances to large-scale installations, unique training and professional development for young people and artists, as well as creating exquisite, custom-made sculptures.
Now in its 17th year of operation, Dead Puppet Society’s Education program has grown and evolved to include every part of our theatre making practice, offering scaffolded workshop experiences and training across multiple facets of our artform. Our workshops and residencies are designed to give participants hands-on practical skills, and build confidence to apply them instantly and with great success. Whether you need a one off injection of puppetry and visual theatre learning, a longer residency engagement, or even a set of training puppets for the classroom, we are delighted to be able to be a part of your theatre making journey.