Antonia Barron
It’s not often the opportunity arises to buy a business that’s also a lifestyle encompassing positive ideologies – but here it is.
For more than 30 years, in the heart of Castlemaine, Over the Moon Dance and Yoga Studio has been an expressive and artistic centre for all ages.
Toddlers come with parents to explore movement and music, feel rhythms, and pick stars from the sky. School-age kids love the energy, the freedom, the dynamism of finding their feet, literally, to new rhythms and challenges.
Teenagers have a different perspective again, enjoying the creativity and camaraderie in a place where everyone is accepted, and no one is judged.
“Sometimes you need a space that’s not family or social,” one student said. In the calm, welcoming ambience of Over the Moon studios, these students find it.
So do the many adults who come each week to this safe haven for yoga or adult ballet, where they can decompress and leave the world outside for an hour or two.
Over the Moon director Edna Reinhardt believes that the appreciation of beauty, movement and music, inherent in every human being, is a powerful combatant to daily stress.
“We approach each class as a work of art – an interplay of music, dance and visual stimuli,” she says.
A team of experienced and talented staff members guide students through each class, encouraging interplay and collaboration wherever possible.
“It’s not just a place where you go to dance – it’s a family,” a student said.
While the focus is on personal growth and enjoyment at each student’s own level, anyone who chooses to move into the professional sphere is given every encouragement.
Past students have found places at the Victorian College of the Arts, Deakin University, and Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts.
One student continued her contemporary dance training in the Netherlands while another, now a full-time ballet student at Tanya Pearson Academy in Sydney, has just completed a summer intensive at the School of American Ballet in New York.
Edna Reinhard now feels the time has come for her to step aside. She hopes to pass the baton to someone else who feels equally passionate about bringing dance, movement and music into the heart of the community.
