Under the Spotlight

Dallas Holden

My name is Dallas Holden and I’m 40 years old. I have 2 older brothers and with our parents we grew up in a lovely little town called Keilor Village. Although it was quite close to the city, we were down in a beautiful gully and it felt like the country, surrounded in beautiful trees. I spent lots of summer days swinging off tree ropes in to the river at Brimbank Park.

My family come from a long line of performing artists. My Dad’s great grandad was a member of the Holden Brother’s Traveling Circus. 12 brothers and 1 sister traveled Australia, doing acrobatics, trapeze acts and entertaining in general... you could say that I come from a family of clowns 😂. My Dad has traveled the world touring with various bands, the most successful (but not his favourite) was the Mixtures who had the worldwide hit song “The Pushbike Song.” He instilled his love of music on both my brothers and I. They are both drummers like him and I sing and play piano. We all have a crack at many other instruments too so family get togethers are always fun! Dad got some mates together and started my first ever band when I was 16 and I’ve been playing in pubs, clubs and everything in between since then in lots of different bands, duos and song writing groups. I worked and wrote songs with Mark Holden (Dad’s cousin) and with that group we performed at the Tamworth Music Festival 3 years running and on my 18th birthday I performed to a crowd of 25,000 people at the Tamworth Australia Day Concert. That was pretty cool! I have 2 beautiful sons who go to OGPS and keep me busy with their many sporting commitments. My partner Benny lives with us, along with our dog Jasper and our bunny Poppy. We all love our coastal life here in Ocean Grove and feel extremely blessed to live where we do and with this community.

Kristy Dodds

Hi, my name is Kristy Dodds and this is my 2nd year teaching in the fabulous Year 1 team at OGPS. I have been teaching at OGPS for 4 years now and I have loved every moment of it. I have 4 gorgeous children who keep me very busy, 3 of them are OGPS students Chloe (Yr6), Alice (Yr4) and Max (Yr1) and my teenage son Harrison is in Year 8 at St Ignatius College.

I grew up in sunny Sydney and 11 years ago made the move south to Victoria. I am therefore spilt between 2 footy codes, I am a loyal Manly Sea Eagles fan and much to my husband and children’s delight I also follow Carlton Blues.

One of my favourite things to do is travel, I have travelled to over 35 countries and have lived in 4 different countries. I actually met my husband Mick in beautiful Turkey 17 years ago! We have recently bought a camper trailer so we are looking forward to further exploring our wonderful country.

In my spare time I like doing yoga, bike riding with my kids, walking my dog Ned, reading and binge watching Netflix series!