dance teachers in oakville - oakville dance instructors

teachers

Laura Dacyshyn

Founder, Artistic Director & Principal Instructor

CDTA, ACTRA, EQUITY Laura discovered her passion for dance at age 7 when she began studying ballet in Ancaster, ON. By 9 years old she was accepted into the prestigious National Ballet School where she trained under the direction of Betty Oliphant and Mavis Staines. Laura continued her professional development with NBS and was invited to spend her summers working with Melissa Adamnova at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow and in New York City, training with a number of reputable teachers including David Howard, Gelsey Kirkland and Vladamir Dokudofsky. After graduating, Laura began dancing with The National Ballet of Canada and performed various roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, La Sylphide, Don Quixote, Manon, Cinderella, The Merry Widow, Romeo & Juliet and The Concert. Eager to pursue her career in classical ballet, Laura then travelled extensively throughout Europe, studying with The Royal Danish Ballet and The Frankfurt Ballet. In 2001, Laura started teaching and immediately realized her passion was in the studio working with children. She founded The Allegro School of Dance in 2002 and is presently the director and principal instructor. Her success as a teacher is proven year after year by the progress of her refined and motivated dancers. Several of her students have been accepted into professional dance schools and intensive Summer programs including The National Ballet School, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and Quinte Ballet. Laura has been instrumental in guiding her students’ success and fostering a deep sense of accomplishment and dedication to the artistry of dance. Indeed she is an award winning choreographer and several of her pieces have been acknowledged by reputable adjudicators and have received overall awards at festivals and competitions. Laura is also a supporter of giving back to our community. She has been very generous of her time and through recital ticket sales, donates yearly to a charitable organization which enhances our environment and provides much needed resources to ensure the precious artistry of dance is always appreciated.

Melissa Moore

PAEC – Comp. Jazz & Lyrical – Tap – Creative Movement Melissa began dancing at age 4 in Burlington, ON, where she studied Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical and Tap. After graduating from high school, Melissa continued her education in dance at Ryerson University and recently graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree majoring in Dance Performance. During her 4 years at Ryerson, Melissa was fortunate to work with many of Canada’s most accomplished artists and choreographers including Christopher House, Nadia Potts, Robert Glumbek, Vicky St Denys, Johanna Bergfelt, Allen Kaeja, D.A. Hoskins and Derek Sangster. Now as a profession dancer, Melissa’s television credits include “Impulse”, “Women in Dance”, “True Review”, “New Voices”, Disney’s “Molly”, Kidomo shows; “Buster and Billy” and “The Clifford Show”, “Tartan Terrors” and “Ceilidh”. When Melissa is not working in front of the camera she continues to be cast in various dinner theatre shows, dance industrials, community celebrations, fundraisers and commercial work. Melissa is also an assistant to “So You Think You Can Dance Canada” choreographer Amy Wright. As an instructor, Melissa strives to challenge her students both technically and artistically. She is always encouraging and positive in her approach to teaching and her dedication to dance is evident in the progress of her students. This will be Miss Melissa’s second year at the Allegro School of Dance where will continue to teach Jazz, Lyrical, Tap and Creative Movement to dancers of all levels.

Rebecca Hewlett

Pre-Acro & Acro – Musical Theater Rebecca began dancing at age 4 in Stouffville, ON, where she studied jazz, tap, ballet, musical theatre, hip hop and acro. At a young age she began competing and travelled extensively throughout Canada and the United States as well as England, Paris and Australia, winning numerous special awards. As a teen Rebecca began to focus on acting as well as dance and she was cast in musicals such as Rent, Bye Bye Birdie, The Wizard of Oz and Oliver. She continued her training abroad, studying with the Alberta Ballet School, New York City Rockettes and Cirque du Soleil. Rebecca also worked as a professional dancer with Carnival Cruise Lines and BC’s Burlesque Beauties. More recently, Rebecca discovered a great passion for teaching dance in the classroom. It has been her main focus for the past few years. She continues to hone her skills and enhance her personal development by training with reputable dancers and choreographers such as Annie Wood, Stacey Tookey, Kendra Hughes, Gillian Clarke, Sonya Malaya, Kelby Brown and Blake McGrath. Allegro School of Dance is happy to have Miss Rebecca back for her third year. She will be launching the studio’s first Musical Theatre class and continuing to teach Acro to students of all levels.

Annie Wood – Guest Choreographer

Annie Wood is a pro-active member of the Canadian dance community, Ms. Wood is the founder and Artistic Director of DanceFuzion. A Canadian dance convention that is committed to providing excellence in dance education and artistic training through workshops and master classes with world- wide esteemed master teachers and choreographers who are working in the arts and entertainment industry today.Included in her Concert and Stage work is the critically acclaimed Toronto based dance company, Company Verve for which she is the founder, artistic director and choreographer. She has created work for the Toronto International Fringe Festival, Dance Ontario’s Premiere DanceWeekend, the Junction Arts Festival (Toronto), ArtsWeek Toronto, the Jackson Dance Network (Toronto), Tin Pan Alley Dance Project (Toronto), Just Jazz 2000 (Toronto) and Dancers for Life 2000, featuring Gregory Hines and Rex Harrington. Annie has also been commissioned to create concert work for numerous educational institutions in Canada including Etobicoke School for the Arts, Cawthra School for the Arts, Unionville Secondary School, Rosedale Heights, George Brown College Dance and Sheridan College-Musical Theatre Department.Recently Annie choreographed Musical Productions, Urinetown- The Musical and Anne of Green Gables for Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto. She worked as a Guest Choreographer on the production of Across the Universe for Toronto Young Company- Dancesation. Miss Wood was commissioned as Artistic Director of the Provincial Dance Project -Dare to Dance in 2007 and 2008. In addition, she created numerous choreographic works for this production. Her work on this project was deemed as “some of the best work Saskatchewan has ever seen!”She created commercial stage work for the Fosse Cabaret presented at Buddies n BadTimes in Toronto: Don’t Tell Mama, Deerhurst Resort- Sing 2002 Revue, Regent Cruise Lines, Carnival Cruise Lines and the musical comedy, BollyWood or Bust which premiered in Toronto at the Ford Centre for Performing Arts. Some of her Industrial work includes: The Toronto NBA Raptors Dance Pak, The Art of Fashion Benefit for Breast Cancer, The Toronto International Teen Movie Festival, LCBO, Hyundai, Bell Mobility, Pfizer, Rogers, AT & T, CIBC, Grinnell Fire Protection, Career Edge, The Ontario Gymnastics Federation, Military Tours to the middle east and the Alert Army base, Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises and the Frank Sinatra Tribute-The Kings of Swing at the Wintergarden Theatre in Toronto.Annie has worked with numerous recording artists including: Jon Secada, M2M, Nelly Furtado, Jack Soul, Shawn Desman, Amanda Marshall, Alanis Morisette, David Micheal Anthony, Zoe Skylar, Acapella Band-The Essentials and Jon Cougar Concentration Camp. Ms. Wood has also appeared in films: Blues Brothers 2000, Superstar, Year of the Pheonix and the independent-No Tomorrow.Annie is a passionate and accomplished teacher and dance adjudicator. She has been on faculty at many respected educational institutions including: George Brown College Dance, Sheridan College, Ryerson University, The Randolph Academy for Performing Arts, Quinte Ballet School, The Alberta Ballet School and currently at Etobicoke School for the Arts. In addition, She has taught Master Classes throughout North America alongside dance icon: Mia Micheals and other notables such as Chet Walker, Michelle Assaf, Jeffrey Amsden and Terry Beeman to name a few. She has worked at many local dance studios in Canada and The United States. Annie is an award winning choreographer with her competitive work and many of her students have won regional and national titles.Miss Wood is constantly striving for new inspirations in her work. Her students and peers around the world have noted her as a memorable influence. She encourages exploration of the heart and soul and she continues to push boundaries. Annie has a special way of touching people’s lives with her contagious passion and energy along with her motivating nature and her emotional expression.

Kristen Dennis

I.S.T.D, EQUITY, Competitive Technique & Conditioning At 10 years of age, Kristen’s potential as a classical ballerina was very apparent when she was accepted into the professional program of Canada’s National Ballet School. While at NBS, Kristen was cast as “Clara” in The National Ballet’s Nutcracker and also danced various principal roles in ballets such as Paquita, Sleeping Beauty and Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco. She was chosen by the Queen of Denmark to attend a summer school at the prestigious Royal Danish Ballet School on full scholarship and was also awarded the “Peter Dwyer” scholarship to attend a summer at The San Francisco Ballet School. After graduating from NBS, Kristen was employed by Canada’s National Ballet where she worked with a plethora of talented dancers and choreographers, including Reid Anderson, James Kudelka, Karen Kain, Rex Harrington and Chan Hon Goh. As her career progressed, Kristen went on to dance with the The Alberta Ballet and Ballet BC. Her most notable roles include the lead in Balanchine’s Rubies, the “Sugar Plum Fairy” in the Nutcracker and the principle role in John Alleyne’s “Fairy Queen” which was also filmed and aired on Bravo. In 2004, Kristen retired from classical ballet but quickly found herself back in the studio. She accepted the position of Artistic Director to R&B Dance and Theatre Arts School in Vancouver, BC, training semi-professional dancers of all ages and several of her students were accepted into professional programs such as the National Ballet and Royal Winnipeg Ballet schools. Kristen’s accomplishments as a dancer are only achieved by a select few and her experience is comparable to the world’s top ballerinas. We welcome her back to Oakville and are very excited to have her working with Allegro’s Competitive dancers.

Kaitlyn Kowalyk

Jazz, Tap, Lyrical & Hip Hop Kaitlyn began dancing at the age of 3 in Etobicoke, ON. she started with ballet and jazz and grew into tap, lyrical and hip hop as she advanced her skills. By age 6 Kaitlyn had her first year of dancing competitively behind her and had the “dance fever”! She continued with her competitive dance throughout her high school years and attended Cawthra Park Secondary School, a high school with a fine arts program where she majored in dance. Kaitlyn went on to The School of Toronto Dance Theatre for another three years of study which focused on further dance techniques in modern and contemporary and expanded her love of choreography. Kaitlyn is in her final year at York University studying for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance. She also has been a dedicated volunteer at Camp Oochigeas, a camp dedicated to helping children affected by childhood cancer, for the past three years. This summer she worked as their in-hospital intern at the Hospital for Sick Children. Kaitlyn is thrilled to combine her two passions of working with children and her love of dance.

Tara Wilson~Administrative Director

Tara discovered her love of dance in Burlington when she started dancing at age 4. The studio was her second home as her Mother not only made costumes, but also played the piano for all the ballet classes. From there Tara continued her training at Ryerson University in the Theatre Dance program where she studied with some of the most respected teachers such as Nadia Potts, Karen Duplisea, Vicky St.Denys and many others. After graduation Tara immediately started her career in teaching dance and worked for several schools in the GTA instructing the disciplines of Ballet, Jazz and Tap. Still dedicated to teaching Tara discovered her love for Latin dancing and soon became an instructor on the ballroom floor, taking her students to international competitions. During that time Tara and her dance partner opened up for Colin James with a swing number at Copps Coliseum and hosted Latin & Swing nights at the Tonic Lounge. Eventually Tara hung up her dancing shoes and gave the corporate world a try in Administration. After 6 years in an office, Tara is very excited to be once again working in a studio environment with budding young dancers. Tara has 2 girls that dance at Allegro and hopes to bring a unique mixture of dance, admin, and mommy skills to the school.