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The challenge of unlearning (from the archives)

New students at our elite training institutions often have to undo the damage of bad amateur training before they can progress to professional level.

22 Jan 2021 12:00

Richard Watts

Writing and Publishing

Image: Shutterstock

First-year students arrive at The Australian Ballet School, the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) and other institutions full of passion, excitement and talent.

But sometimes they also come with a suitcase full of bad habits that have to be unlearn before they can really come to grips with their new training regimes.

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Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts