Terri Charlesworth joined the WA Ballet for its inaugural season in 1953 and remained until 1967 (as first ballerina and artistic director from 1960). She embarked on a professional teaching career, establishing the Terri Charlesworth Ballet School in Perth in 1960. This school is now operating as the Charlesworth Ballet Institute. Ms Charlesworth (or Terri) has taught in companies and schools throughout the world and has produced many notable professional dancers. She introduced classical dance by various means into several high schools and colleges in WA and co-founded WA’s first three-year tertiary dance course. She founded WA’s first professional contemporary dance company, Kinetikos and in 2004 she was the founding artistic director of Youth Ballet WA. Terri was awarded the Order of Australia for her contribution to dance in 1994 and was the 2006 WA Citizen of the Year for Arts and Culture.
Terri’s daughter Sonya Shephard Shepherd is the long term director of the Charlesworth Ballet Institute and WA Youth Ballet WA. Terri’s granddaughter, Briana Shepherd, was the first Australian to be accepted into the New York City Ballet company. She is a guest teacher at the Charlesworth Ballet Institute and a reporter and presenter at the ABC. She still dons her pointe shoes every once in a while to perform outstanding shows in WA.