Profile of Penny De Kauwe

Penny De Kauwe is a Fellow & Examiner of the Federal Association of Teachers of Dancing (Australia) (FATD), a Coach and Championship Adjudicator registered with DanceSport Australia (DSA) in Standard, Latin American and New Vogue dance styles and, an International Adjudicator registered with the World Dance Council (WDC) and the International DanceSport Federation (IDSF) in Standard and Latin American dance styles. Penny has been a Director of the FATD for over fifteen years and has been Vice President of the Ballroom Faculty over the last few years. In 2007 Penny was elected as the President of the Ballroom Faculty of the FATD. Penny has been a full time dance teacher throughout her adult life working in Sri Lanka, England and Australia. For the last twenty eight years, Penny has been managing her own dance studio in Canberra. Penny is also a regular Adjudicator at the major DanceSport Championships around Australia.

Penny hails from a well known dance family in Sri Lanka and commenced her dance career at an early age in partnership with her brother, Vevil De Kauwe. Penny and Vevil won many open professional dance titles in Standard and Latin American dance styles and were extremely popular exhibition dancers and also established their own dance studio in Colombo. Penny then moved to London to further her dance career. Penny worked for over ten years as a full time dance teacher in London whilst continuing her professional dance training under the guidance of Alex Moore and Elizabeth Romain. During this period Penny continued with her exhibition dancing.

On migrating to Australia, Penny established her own dance studio in Canberra in 1980, which is now one of the leading dance studios in the Canberra region. In addition to training couples for competitive dancing, the studio has a strong social dance and medal training clientele. Whilst concentrating on teaching the mainstream dance styles, Penny is also an experienced teacher in the popular South American rhythms of Mambo, Salsa, Merengue and Argentine Tango. These dances have been taught in the studio for many years both at a social level as well as for medal examinations.

The Penny De Kauwe School of Dancing Canberra is the joint promoter and organiser, in association with the FATD, of the National Capital DanceSport Championships (NCDC) held annually in Canberra. The NCDC, now in its sixteenth year, is an Australian National Championships registered with DanceSport Australia and the second largest Championships held annually in Australia. The event attracts around 800 competitors, officials and spectators from around Australia, New Zealand and some other countries. The studio has the distinction of being the only studio in Australia promoting and organising such an event.