POSTCARDS are the prerogative of the traveller and Canberra Dance Development Centre’s young performers are experts.

They’re just back from the Shanghai International Children’s Cultural and Art Festival, where they performed in the Grand Theatre in a show televised to millions.

CDDC’s impressive record has seen its graduates join the Australian Ballet, Bangarra, the WA Ballet, Chunky Move, the English National Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Director Jackie Hallahan, who founded the centre in 1985, encourages her students to study singing and acting, while through the annual concert at the Canberra Theatre, they learn production and stagecraft.

Now it’s time for the 2011 concert, “26 Postcards,” a night of “amazing, ordinary, frightening and exciting” experiences. Especially exciting is the return of the centre’s star graduate, Paul Knobloch, in his self-created solo work, “Facets of Light”.

Home visiting family from Lausanne, Switzerland, where he performs in the Bejart Ballet, he’s moving towards a mature, international stage of his career as a choreographer – he’s even created a new work for Ballet Victoria in Canada.

“26 Postcards”, Canberra Theatre, 7.30pm, August 27. Bookings to 6275 2700.