South London Dance School Teachers

Miss Zoe began teaching at her local dance school aged 15 and trained as a dancer / dance teacher in ISTD, RAD and IDTA. She later trained as an actress at LAMDA.

Her first performing job was in the Royal National Theatre’s production of ‘Oklahoma!’ with Hugh Jackman and Maureen Lipman, directed by Sir Trevor Nunn and choreographed by Susan Stroman. The show was a great success going into the West End and being made into a film.  Her next job was ‘Of Thee I Sing’ at the Bridewell Theatre, choreographed by Stephen Mear.  She then went on to perform in other London based and touring musicals as well as working as an actress in TV and film.

In 2002 Miss Zoe decided she wanted to teach dance again and founded Grafton Dance Academy in Dulwich with the aim of creating a dance school that catered for all abilities; ensuring that those children talented enough to consider a career as a dancer would have an excellent technical and artistic foundation training and those students attending classes purely as a hobby could achieve their personal best in a supportive and fun environment. This ethos has been successful and the school – becoming South London Dance School and securing its own premises in 2009 – now has over 750 happy and successful students.

Miss Emma graduated from The Centre Performing Arts College in 2008, achieving 3 years of professional performing and ISTD dance teacher training under the direction of Karen King.

She went on to dance on The Celebrity Constellation cruise ship with The Gary Musick Company enjoying several months travelling the Caribbean and the Baltic.

Miss Emma then started her teaching career at her local dance school in her home town Beverley, East Yorkshire. After a few years she felt it was time to venture back to London where she is very happy teaching at South London Dance School.

From 2019 Miss Emma will be taking on the exciting challenge of Acting Principal with full responsibility for dance training quality, care of the students and management of the business.

Miss Helen trained at Bird College and after graduating she spent 4 months training at Broadway Dance Centre in New York, where her choreography was selected for the professional showcase at the Alvin Ailey Theatre.

On returning to the UK, Helen performed with tap dance company Sole Rebel Tap, touring arts festivals and corporate events across the UK before being asked by Avalon Rathgeb to join tap company Old Kent Road.

In 2016 Helen won a scholarship to further her tap training at Escola Luthier in Barcelona. During this time, she met German choreographer Sebastian Weber, who invited her to join his dance company in Leipzig.

As a teacher Helen has trained and qualified with the ISTD and also teaches free classes at studios throughout London including Pineapple Dance Studios, internationally she has taught at Stockholm Tap Festival, Dusseldorf Tap Dance Days and Blue Tap Berlin. Helen loves to dance and aims to bring everything she learns back to her students.

Avalon was born in South Devon, England where she trained at her mothers dancing school. At the age of 18 she was awarded a 3 year full-time Scholarship to train at the renowned dance college Bird College, London. At the end of her 3rd year Avalon was invited to complete an internship with the American Tap Dance Foundation, NYC. From there she was accepted into Grant Swifts Tap company TeAyPe, Melbourne, Australia.

Since arriving back in London in 2010 Avalon has taken the tap scene by force, teaching, performing and mentoring many students and performers throughout the UK. Avalon has been part of The Pulse Collective, Managed by Kimberly Wyatt’s Beautiful Movements, Grounded, Mellifluous_Feat, Juggling on tap and Michele Drees: Jazz Tap Project.

Her most gratifying moment was performing in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 OLYMPICS as a tap dancing dementor!

Avalon was part of the faculty at Stockholm Tap Festival in easter 2013 and 2014, faculty for the Prague City Tap Festival, creating an Intermediate/Advanced level repertoire piece and also faculty for The Australian Tap Dance Festival, creating an Intermediate residency and performing a solo at the Gala in the summer of 2013, she was also the joint winner of  Stockholm Tap Festival ‘The Cutting Contest 2013’. Avalon performed with Ryan Campbell-Birch for the 1st Chinese-British International Film awards, Great Hall, Westminster, London.

Since the Beginning of 2014 Avalon has taken on two separate Research and Development Dance projects with Grounded and Kitch&Sync, taught and performed at Move-It.

Avalon was invited to accept one of the 25 places reserved for outstanding dancers in the 2014 Tap programme at the school at Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts.

Avalon was asked to join Tapestry Dance Company. North America’s only full time and paid Tap dance company In summer 2014. Avalon Recently created her own company Old Kent Road, which will premiere their new work ‘Fall out’ at Resolution! in 2015.

Mr Tony trained as a professional dancer at The Royal Academy of Dancing and Bush Davies School where he won The Dancing Times Award for Choreography.

Mr Tony went on to have a successful career as a professional ballet, jazz, musical theatre and commercial dancer.  His credits are extensive as a dancer, dance captain and choreographer, including ‘Miss Saigon’, ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Theme and Variations’ and Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’.

After retiring as a performer, Mr Tony qualified as a teacher with the ISTD gaining his Licentiate in Imperial Classical Ballet with Distinction. Mr Tony has taught boys and girls of all ages and abilities and strives for his students to be the very best dancers they can. He is delighted to be joining the faculty of South London Dance School and looks forward to passing on his love for classical ballet to the students.

Miss Helen studied all styles of dance from a young age, and as a teenager she was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre and the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain.   She was also a competitive Irish dancer, and performed at the World Championships in Belfast, 2008 and London, 2014.   At 18 she went to study for a BA Hons in Anthropology at Exeter University but couldn’t keep away from dancing!  After university, she trained for a year at Bird College of Dance before deciding to take a Masters in Musical Theatre Performance at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.  She then went on to study for her DDE qualifications with the ISTD in tap and modern, and began her teaching career in several dance schools across London.  She is delighted to be a part of the SLDS team, and is very happy to be adding teaching National dance to her skill set.

Miss Kirsty is a contemporary teacher and dancer. She received her 1st class honours degree at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance before completing an international tour with London Contemporary Dance School’s post-graduate company EDge, continuing to receive an MA in Performance.

She has performed professionally for a range of choreographers including Seke Chimuntengwende, Chilean company Jose Vidal and Co, has worked in The Place Prize and the English National Opera. She has been involved in independent projects with the BBC Symphony Orchestra Outreach at the Barbican in the UK, and Places to Dance, a series of short films shown on BBC2. Most recently Miss Kirsty was involved in the creation and performance of The Drowned man, co-produced by Punchdrunk and The National Theatre. She has received Arts Council funding for her own choreographic work.

Miss Kirsty has taught and toured internationally, and is pleased to now be London-based and introducing Contemporary dance to the senior students at South London Dance School.

Dan trained at Dolphin Dance Studios in Liverpool. After graduating he went on to work professionally worldwide, on television shows, trade shows and with various artists, at prestigious venues such as The Royal Albert Hall and Cannes Film Festival. Other dance credits include: Rihanna (CH5), Will.I.Am (Cannes Film Festival), We Are Fashion (Westfield Shopping Mall), Sunflower Jam with Bill Bailey (Royal ALbert Hall), Mel B Dance (XBOX)(Wii), Resident dancer on Justin Lee Collins – Good Times (Tiger Aspect), Iceland (TV Commercial) and Across the Universe (Film).

Dan has Choreographed for various stage productions, television shows and corporate events, highlights include:

For The New Vic Theatre, Oliver!, Wizard Of Oz, Laurel and Hardy UK Tour and Don Giovanni. For The Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, Our Day Out The Musical.

For television: Jane MacDonald for Loose Women (ITV).

Corporate Events Include: The Bridging and Communication Awards, Debenham’s, Alton Towers Resort, Selfridges&co, Royston Blythe Hair Salon, Paramount, OK! Magazine, Hilton Hotel, SkyTV, Vogue and The Isle Of Wight Music Festival.

Dan has a huge passion for teaching, and has taught all over the U.K. for the last 8 years. Dan is happy to be part of the South London Dance Studio team.

Miss Steph started dancing at the age of 6, at Sarah Goffe Theatre School (now Leanne Hughes Theatre School) and competed in local festivals for ten years, culminating in going to All England National Finals three times. At the age of 16, Miss Steph won a DADA to Bird College in Sidcup, and in 2010 graduated with a diploma in Musical Theatre.

After graduation Miss Steph worked professionally including commercials and the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games with Dame Darcey Bussell.

It was in 2012 that Miss Steph discovered her for teaching, and so she completed her ISTD teaching qualifications in ballet, tap and modern.  She now she teaches in various schools, including Tring Park on the Associate course.  Miss Steph knew she wanted to get back into festivals, as she loved them as a child, so she is thrilled to be a part of the SLDS festival team.

Miss Leah is a qualified modern teacher and she is about to complete her ISTD ballet teaching qualifications at Italia Conti in Guildford.  She trained in all genres of dance at her local dance school in Kingston Upon Hull and then went on to train full-time at Laine Theatre Arts.  She has very recently finished dancing on board P&O’s cruise ship Oriana. Leah is very excited to be joining the teaching team at SLDS so that she can pass on her passion and knowledge to the students.

Miss Jennifer trained in RAD classical ballet, Matt Mattox jazz and Graham contemporary at Lewisham College from 2000-2003. On completion of this, she continued to further her skills in commercial and street dance.

In 2010, Miss Jennifer embarked on her ISTD teacher training qualifications at the Dance College in Royston where she completed her Diploma in Dance Education in Imperial Ballet and Modern Theatre Dance.

Over the last six years, Miss Jennifer has worked at several dance schools, training children for their ISTD graded and major examinations and choreographing for school shows. She has also developed a real passion for teaching dance to very young children who may have never before been in a structured class environment.

Miss Jennifer looks forward to joining the team at South London Dance school and to nurturing the students through her own skill and understanding of educating children in the art of dance.

Miss Pippa trained on a full scholarship at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Since graduating she has performed all over the world as a dancer in both Television and Theatre.

Miss Pippa appeared as Dance Captain in the German tour of Break Every Rule – Tina Das Musical and in the European Arena Tour of GREASE the Musical. Dream Clarice in ‘Silence The Musical’ for Tony Award winning Broadway choreographer Christopher Gattelli.  Two contracts as a dancer for P&O cruises where Miss Pippa also got the chance to work with and workshop a new show for Kylie Minogue’s Choreographer William A Forsythe, La Traviata for the Ukrainian National Opera, UK tour for Illusionist Guy Barrett and regularly performs around the UK and Europe in Shows, Award Ceremonies, and Events for Blue Fish Entertainment.

Television credits include: Let’s Dance for Comic Relief (BBC) Rock and Chips (BBC) the Kylie show (ITV) The Friday Night Project (Channel 4) and Adverts for Britain’s Got Talent, Hotel Chocolat, Sainsbury’s and Siemen’s.

As a teacher she has over 10 years experience and has worked all over London teaching Ballet, Tap, Jazz and Contemporary at several London schools and colleges and has also coached children for West End Musicals and for Vocational Schools auditions.

Miss Ellie performed as a child in many professional productions including pantomimes at the Hackney Empire and several TV adverts.  At the age of 16, she began full-time dance and musical theatre training at Performers College, graduating with a Level 6 National Trinity Diploma.

Miss Ellie has performed professionally for Dreamworks ‘Penguin of Madagascar Live!’, the London 2012 Olympic Games and in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Pantomime at the Shaw Theatre where she was also given the responsibility of Dance Captain. Within this role when she looked after and taught the Juvenile dancers, Miss Ellie discovered her enjoyment and passion for teaching young people and so she decided to take her ISTD teaching qualifications in modern and tap. Miss Ellie is very excited to be joining the South London Dance School team and hopes to inspire the next generation of young dancers and performers to follow their passion just as she has.

Miss Chloe started dancing at the age of five at Deborah Capon School of Dance, giving her the chance to compete and perform, both locally and nationally.  After studying for her A-levels, she was offered a place on the one year course at Bird College, where she trained in various styles of dance and theatre performance.  Miss Chloe then returned to Deborah Capon School Dance College to complete her ISTD Teaching qualifications and now teaches at dance various schools around Kent.  Miss Chloe was awarded a ‘Premiere Special Commendation’ at the 2015 ISTD Star Tap Awards and is now part of Tap Attack.  Miss Chloe is excited to be teaching various styles of dance both children, baby ballet, Melody Movement and adult students at South London Dance School.

Adrià has extensive experience in practicing and teaching dance and acrobatics in Barcelona and also competing in many European competitions.  He is very happy to bring to South London Dance School his passion and enthusiasm for progressing technique and skills.

Lorraine gained the LGSM Teaching at the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama and a BA (Hons) in Community Theatre at Portsmouth University.  From 1990 to 2000 she held the post of training director at South London Theatre.  She then taught drama in Singapore for two years. Since returning to England she has worked on a number of teaching, acting and directing projects. Acting roles include Kath – “Entertaining Mr Sloan” and Lizzie Jackson – “Roofing the County of Surrey with Crystal”.  In 2013 she performed at the Camden Festival and Edinburgh Festival in “Very Still And Hard To See”.  Directing credits include “Skellig”, “Brandy” and “Experiment With An Airpump”

Lewis is an experienced teacher and director, having worked at drama schools around the UK including the BA course at Italia Conti and Fourth Monkey Theatre Company. He is also a partner in www.auditioncoachlondon.co.uk.

As an actor, he has toured in several Shakespeare plays with Propeller Theatre Company, and performed in ‘Dunsinane’ with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Scotland. Also, ‘Hedda Gabler’ and ‘Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off’ at the Lyceum, Edinburgh and Dundee Rep.

Lewis is very happy to be teaching the Acting (II) and (III) classes at South London Dance School.