ABOUT
Welcome to Lachlan Valley United Physie Club Condoboin - Forbes, a nurturing place where children flourish, teens transform and ladies thrive. We are a welcoming community with passionate teachers who care about every member becoming the best they can be.
Lachlan Valley United Physie Club Condoboin - Forbes is affiliated with Bjelke-Petersen School of Physical Culture known as BJP. Our club is run by dedicated teachers who provide classes for all ages and abilities from pre-schoolers to ladies.
With no expensive costumes or recital fees, Physie is an affordable way to learn to dance and keep fit with a touch of glamour and a lot of fun!
Physie is a sport for life. Mothers, daughters, grand-daughters and grandmothers can all be members and share in this unique sport. Our club caters for all ages and abilities so Physie is an experience you can share right throughout your life.
Our club is passionate about nurturing students' total wellbeing, both mind and body. Physie is an accepting and encouraging team sport where every member is supported to set goals and work towards them.
CLUB HISTORY
The Condobolin Physical Culture Club was founded in 1976 by Christine Mortimer. Christine had moved to Condobolin from the central coast area and had been involved in Physie as young girl herself and had family still involved within a club at the coast. Christine was a mother of 3 girls and found very little dance opportunity for girls in the community. So a simple advertisement in the local paper asking if anyone would be interested in enrolling in a dance sport “Physical Culture” was the start of Condobolin Physical Culture Club Inc. The club officially registered with BJP in 1977 and became a part of the Physie phenomenon.
The Condobolin Club continued to run long after Christine and her family left, with local members loving the dance sport and what it offered for girls within the country community. Many dedicated students and mums have volunteered their time over the years in many forms from teaching classes, running the administration side, fundraising money, organising competitions, community displays and much much more.
In the Early 1990’s Miss Louise, who was already a constant figure and member of the club, started teaching and became an Associate with Condobolin Physie, in the late 1990’s Louise became the Senior Associate and Chair person of the club and has continued in this role until this day.
At the end of 2013 Louise saw an opportunity to expand the club when the existing Forbes club announced it would be folding at the end of the year. With many of our senior students leaving Condobolin for boarding school and many going to Forbes, the opportunity was there to extend and keep our student. So in 2014 Lachlan Valley Physie United was formed, and lessons have continued to run for both Condobolin and Forbes students.
WHAT IS PHYSIE?
Physie (pronounced 'fizzy'), is a sport for girls and women from 3 years and up which builds confidence, good posture, strength, fitness and fiexibiIity through exercise and dance.
The choreography is age appropriately designed to teach the relationship of music to movement, rhythm, coordination, balance and interpretation. Physie also improves memory, focus, teamwork and motor skills.
The syllabus, updated annually, is performed to modern music and includes standing and floor exercises, aerobic warm-ups, jazz, hip hop, basic ballet and contemporary dance.
Members are taught a syllabus provided by our national organisation at weekly classes. All teachers at our club are trained by BJP. The Physie year culminates in a series of friendly competitions for both teams and individuals. These are not compulsory but they do foster a club spirit, a sense of belonging and club loyalty.
The Junior and Ladies National Finals are held at Quaycentre in Sydney Olympic Park. The prestigious Seniors Finals are held in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House.
ASSOCIATE PROFILE
SENIOR ASSOCIATE TEACHER WITH LACHLAN VALLEY UNITED PHYSIE
LOUISE DONNELLY
Miss Louise joined Condobolin Physical Culture club at the very young age of 2 years old. Her family was in the original group of mums and daughters who helped establish Physie in the Condobolin community over 40 years ago.
As a junior member of Condobolin Physical Culture club, Miss Louise competed as a member in many of our junior zone representative teams from 5 years to Senior, with great success across the years. Miss Louise was a member of our first ever winning team at Zone Level when she was just 7. Louise has been a club representative at all levels of Physie competitions from local, interclub, zone and national competitions. Her highest individual achievement is making the Semi Finals in champion lady over 40’s division.
Miss Louise started teaching preschoolers as a young junior member of the club when she was just 13 years old. From these early beginnings her love of Physie grew and Miss Louise became a registered associate teacher in 1991 and now teaches every age group from preschoolers to ladies. Condobolin had many associate teachers over the years and in the late 1990’s Louise became the head teacher and associate with Condobolin Physie which has been running our club for over 30 years. In 2004, Louise saved the closing BJP club in Forbes and now teaches a range of students from preschoolers to ladies in Forbes. Amalgamating the Condobolin and Forbes clubs under one banner, Lachlan Valley United was born.
As a level 3 accredited associate teacher with BJP Physie, Louise has experience in all aspects of Physie life from teaching, competing individually, within teams, judging and has been involved in the organisation and presentation of large group displays, locally and nationally with BJP.
Her love of Physie and dance has been continuous all her life and which has seen her involved in a number of dance groups and artistic organisations within our community and district over the years. Louise has also been involved in a number of BJP displays and events over the years. Louise was part of our associate team for the central western zone working extensively alongside her peers on the design and orchestration of the opening number of the 125 year BJP spectacular, including backstage with our members at the performance. This major event showcased Physie and how it has evolved over the past 125 years to an audience of over 3000 people.
Our club has experienced great success under Louise’s guidance. LVU has seen great success at Zone level, with multiple national representative in every age group yearly. Our ladies and senior teams have also had excellent success at national level on multiple occasions.
TEACHER PROFILES
ASHLEIGH DONNELLY
Ashleigh, has been a member of Lachlan Valley Physie since she was just 18months old. Ashleigh is the youngest daughter of our Senior associate Miss Louise, and has spent her entire life dancing and being part of our LVU Physie family.
PHYSIE: Ashleigh has been a very successful junior zone and Senior national representative. Qualifying as Zone finalist at the age of 5 and for over 8 years placing in the top 2 for her age division and qualifying as a Zone representative for Junior National championships 8 years running. In 2021 Ashleigh competed at Olympic Park Home Bush in the Senior champion girl national section, where she was the first ever of our senior girls to be selected to the Senior National Finals level. From over 100 competitors, Ash made it to the National top 15 and went on to compete at the ICC Darling harbour in the Senior National Championships, the most exclusive physie event possible. An amazing and prestigious achievement. Ash has also been an active member of many of our champion junior and senior champion teams at Zone and National levels.
Ashleigh has also represented us and our Zone at a number of BJP organised displays and events, the most recent being the 125 year Spectacular held in 2017.
DANCE: Ashleigh has also trained and successfully competed for over 10 years in both individual and troupe competitions on the eisteddfod circuit in the styles of Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Contemporary and Hip Hop. One of her troupe highlights would be when they travelled to the USA with “World dance tours”, whilst there they danced and attended workshops at Disney Land, Universal Studios and on Carnival Cruises. Ashleigh has also represented us and our Zone at a number of BJP organised displays and events.
TRAINING: Ashleigh has completed a number of dance skills workshops and dance exams - She has successfully completed the Junior assistant teacher 3 day intensive training with BJP, and Major 2 Ballet exams with RAD.
Ashleigh has been teaching with LVU since the age of 14 and is a registered Associate with BJP.
Ashleigh brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in performance, flexibility training, dance, technique and team work.
KIM ORR
Kim is a Physie girl through and through. Having been involved with Physie for 45 years, if Kim wasn’t competing, she was teaching, if she wasn’t teaching, Kim was off to watch Physie.
Kim started Physie at age 5 after her mother decided she needed help with posture. She hasn’t looked back since.
Kim has been a member of many different clubs in her time, including both country and city clubs such as Mudgee, Parkes and North Ryde just to name a few. Kim has competed as a champion girl and champion lady and has been part of numerous teams. Some of her success over the years included competing at the Opera House as a junior girl and at nationals as a lady.
Kim’s most memorable moment was as an over-40 lady making the final at zone after not being able to make it for the past 5 years. She then placed, proving that lots of hard work and practice could pay off.
Kim’s love for Physie has extended to her daughters. They now have an activity they can do together.
SYLLABUS AND LEARNING TOOLS
The BJP syllabus consists of six routines performed to music, designed to teach dance skills and develop fitness, strength and flexibility. Every age group has its own routine and music with choreography designed to be achievable by all skill-levels.
. MARCHING
Teaches good posture, body alignment, toe points, strength and stretch in the legs and body.
. WARM UP
A cardiac work out targeting correct positions, strength and control in aerobic dance. Fitness and stamina are improved.
. FLOOR DRILL
An exercise performed on the floor that develops flexibility, strength and control.
. RELAXED / CONTEMPORARY
A pretty routine involving basis classical ballet or contemporary moves teaching musicality, grace and turnout.
. EXERCISES
A standing routine requiring balance, control, strength, accurate positions and flexibility.
. DANCE
A modern jazz style dance that everyone loves to learn. It is performed to the latest music and teaches musicality & expression. The dance improves stamina, strength and presentation with a big smile!
