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.

While Miss Zoe was on maternity leave in 2019-20, Miss Emma was our Acting Principal with full responsibility for dance training quality, care of the students and management of the business. Following this, she has returned to her home town and is our ‘remote working’ but highly involved, Deputy Principal.

As a child, Miss Tilly performed in many professional touring productions in Nottingham’s Theatre Royal and her Christmases were spent dancing in pantomimes at Newark Palace Theatre.  She was also a teaching assistant for her own dance teacher at Tozer Studios and this is where she discovered her love of teaching dance.

After A-levels, Miss Tilly began professional training in dance and musical theatre at Performers College and during this time she obtained her ISTD teaching qualifications.
Since graduating from Performers College, Miss Tilly has been teaching ballet, tap and modern back where her own dancing journey began, at Tozer Studios. Miss Tilly loves being a part of the teaching faculty and administration team at South London Dance School, inspiring a new generation of young dancers with her passion for teaching and choreography.

Katarina has recently finished her MA in Dance, Politics & Sociology at Roehampton University, and before this she graduated from Canterbury Christ Church University with a BA in Dance and International Relations.

Katarina is very excited to be joining South London Dance School as an administrator. She has previously worked on projects such as the Tate Exchange and as a dance teaching assistant at Hips Dance studios in Denmark.  Katarina grew up in Denmark and moved to the UK when she was 19 and has a background in dance starting at the age of 7.  She has trained in various dance styles, however throughout her university education she has been more focused on the administrative side of the arts.

Miss Ellie trained at Bright Sparks Performers and with them 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.

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.

Michelle Campbell began her dance training from the age of 3 at various dance schools around London. At the age of 14, Michelle studied at The BRIT School of Performing Arts, gaining her GCSE’s and went onto sixth form to complete her A levels and achieve her Diploma in Dance. She took her professional vocational training at Bird College, gaining a Diploma in Musical Theatre, which she recently upgraded to BA Hons in Performance Studies at Arts Educational Schools London.

Michelle has performed in UK Tours, TV, and has had various opportunities in performing abroad. After an extensive and successful professional career working in the industry, she is now dedicated to her teaching and is currently working towards taking her ISTD Licentiate teachers exams in Tap and Modern. She plans to then go on to complete her Fellowship exam, which will open up opportunities with the ISTD and in the near future hopes to qualify as an examiner.

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.

Miss Lucy attended the Brit School for performing arts and technology and completed a three-year Musical Theatre degree course at London Studio Centre. As a performer, Miss Lucy has played various characters in a production of Legally Blonde at the Pleasance Theatre and danced in a number of commercial events in London. However, Miss Lucy’s passion is teaching and choreography and since graduating, she has taught children and adults at various dance schools in London, including The Brit School. She has also choreographed many routines that have been gained high marks and places in All England Dance Festivals.

Alanna began her training at the Betty Wivell Academy, furthering her dance education on the Laban CAT scheme & graduating from London Studio Centre with a BA Hons in Theatre Dance. She joined BirdGang in 2012 and has performed with the company in many projects including Breakin’ Convention (Sadlers Wells), “Flying Home” for BBC Arts & most recently as part of the Freedom of Movement Festival in “White Girl Black Girl & Everything In Between” (2021). Her professional dance career spans a rich variety of work, across many art forms, in venues around the world. She is currently faculty overseeing Commercial & Contemporary Fusion at RPA college and is in the process of gaining her Level 5 diploma in education and learning. She also teaches for BirdGang at Base Dance Studios, while continuing her professional dance career.

Joshua was born in Leeds and trained at the Northern Ballet Academy and then Elmhurst, School of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. He has danced with several high profile ballet and contemporary companies including Northern Ballet, New English Ballet Theatre, Rambert and Wayne McGregor.

Amongst his numerous career highlights are being part of the creative process of David Nixon’s ‘Cleopatra’ at Northern Ballet, creating and dancing in Kenneth Tindall’s ‘The Ultimate Form’ in Paris, creating the role of the Violinist in Andrew McNicol’s ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’ for New English Ballet Theatre’s Gala performance at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, joining Company Wayne McGregor, creating and working with Wayne in the studio and touring internationally and dancing the central duet from Wayne McGregor’s ‘Outlier’ alongside Alessandra Ferri.

Joshua is a freelance dancer but also a freelance teacher having taught at many vocational schools, companies and masterclasses. He has been a rehearsal director for various companies and schools and has a huge passion for helping and coaching the next generation of dancers.

Leah started dancing age 3 years old at the Northern Academy of Performing Arts in Hull, Yorkshire and between 13-17 years, she attended The Yorkshire Ballet Scholarship Centre in York. At age 18, Leah was accepted to study Musical Theatre at Laine Theatre Arts in London from where she graduated in 2017 with a Level 6 Diploma in Professional Dance and also her teaching qualification in ISTD Modern.

Leah made her professional debut on P&O’s Oriana cruise ship followed by a contract on Aurora. Although she loved performing, Leah’s passion was teaching. She decided to train for her ISTD Classical Ballet teaching qualification which she completed in 2019.

As a child Leah took part in lots of local festivals and also the All England Regional and National Finals. She believes they’re a great experience and so she is very excited to be coaching the Festival Team at SLDS.

Miss Grace began dancing at the age of 5 in her home town of Swansea. While training at her dance school Mellin Theatre Arts, Miss Grace took her ISTD tap and modern exams up to a high level and completed both graded and vocational exams under the RAD ballet syllabus.

At age 18, Miss Grace gained a place at Tiffany Theatre College where she trained professionally in dance and musical theatre for 3 years. During her training, Miss Grace was lucky enough to gain professional experience, including dancing at the BRIT Awards twice!

Miss Grace absolutely loves teaching at SLDS and aims to educate and inspire her students with her passion for dance!

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.