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Our Staff Section

Our staff are the true backbone behind the Academy.  It is through their dedication and talent that the Port Perry Dance Academy has developed to be the benchmark of dance in our region.

 

Below you will learn a little about the invaluable people that make your dance experience so memorable.

Lynn Ahmad

Lynn Ahmad is an Examiner for the Royal Academy of Dance. Her career in Dance began at the age of three. Since that time, she has been fortunate enough to study with some of Canada's most renowned professional teachers and performers. Marcia Caple, ARAD and Audrey Looker, ARAD & Examiner for the Royal Academy of Dancing, both playing instrumental roles in Lynn's development as a performer and professional teacher. The late Gladys Forrester, RAD President Award Winner, coached Lynn when she studied for the RAD Advanced Exam. While pursuing her Diploma in Dance, Lynn studied under former National Ballet of Canada's Nadia Potts and was coached by Canada's foremost lead male soloist, Frank Augustyn.

 

Lynn started  her performing career with Les Grands Ballet Canadiens in The Nutcracker in Ottawa. She has continued her professional career teaching/coaching in Toronto and surrounding areas.  Her students who take the annual  RAD examinations (from Pre-Primary to and including Advanced 2) achieve a 100% pass rate with many attaining top results. In addition, Lynn has prepared students for major dance competitions both locally and abroad. Her record includes both choreographic and overall awards. As an adjudicator, Lynn most recently sat as Adjudicator (in the disciplines of Ballet, Pointe and Demi-Character) at Dance Manitoba's Annual Provincial Dance Festival.

 

Many of Lynn's students have garnered scholarships and awards moving on to further education at universities like York, Ryerson and Ottawa. Other students have gained acceptance to the National Ballet School, The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Quinte Ballet School. Still other students have become professional entertainers whose careers have taken them all over the world.

 

Lynn is a Registered Teacher and member of both the Royal Academy of Dancing and the Canadian Dance Teachers' Association. She has her Diploma in Theatre (Dance) from the Ryerson Polytechnical University; Advanced 1 Ballet (RAD); Advanced National (ISTD) and Advanced Modern (ISTD).  Lynn is also a member of the International Adjudicators' Alliance (IADA). Lynn is very excited about her tenth year in Port Perry as the Artistic Director of the Port Perry Dance Academy.

Jennifer Barton

Jennifer Barton holds her B.A. (Dance) from the University of Waterloo. She is a Full Member of the Canadian Dance Teacher Association and holds her Teacher Training Diploma from Dance Masters of America. Jennifer has taught ballet, jazz, tap and musical theatre for the past 18 years both in Ontario and in the United States. Jennifer's students have entered numerous dance competitions and have won both choreography and top mark awards. Her students have also been successful at all levels of CDTA jazz and tap exams. Jennifer's experience in jazz, tap and theatre is a great addition to the already exceptionally strong faculty at the Port Perry Dance Academy. Jennifer focuses on our tap and jazz students and anchors our Musical Theatre program and is a dance competition adjudicator.

Annete Stokes-Harris & Michael Serres

Annete and Mike are our resident Acting instructors. Annette has an Honours Specialist B.A. in Dramatic Arts from the University of Waterloo and a Specialist in Drama Education B. Ed. from the University of Toronto. She has taught drama for 21 years in the high school systems in both Toronto and Durham. She was the artistic director for Act-One Theatre in Toronto for 6 years and is an award winning actress and director. Annette has acted in and directed productions in Toronto, Whitby, Uxbridge and Port Perry.  Michael is an award winning sound designer who currently teaches acting in the Digital Animation Program at Durham College.  Michael has been involved in numerous local productions performing with theatre groups in Port Perry, Uxbridge and Pickering and has twice been nominated for Best Supporting Male Actor.

Andrew Oxenham
Andrew Oxenham became the first male to graduate from the world-renowned National Ballet School, Andrew turned his attention to the performance stage. As a soloist with the National Ballet of Canada for almost ten years, Andrew danced with such notables as Rudolph Nureyev, Veronica Tennant, and Karen Kain. His achievements at “the National” caught the attention of the renowned Stuttgart Ballet who engaged Andrew as a soloist for several years. After returning from Germany, Andrew retired from the performance circuit and turned his attention to teaching and photography. Andrew has two books to his credit, Dance Today in Canada and Puppetry Today in Canada and is now a highly sought after photographer who specializes in portraiture and dance/theatre photography.  Andrew is the Academy's Pas de Deux instructor and Boys'  coach.

Julia Ridgway
Julia is an accredited teacher through the Durham District School Board where she delivers the Dance Curriculum at Uxbridge Secondary School.  A graduate of the University of Waterloo, Miss Julia has a strong background in Ballet (RAD) and Jazz and currently focuses on our Creative Dance program.  Julia has over 27 years of experience as a dancer with sixteen of those as a dance instructor.  She has worked with David Earl and Arun Paul and attended the National Ballet School's Summer School Program.  Julia holds the RAD Advanced 1 and  ISTD Intermediate Jazz cetificates and has studied the Limon technique (Modern), Jazz, Tap and Hip Hop. Julia's choreo-graphy credits include the Uxbridge Youth Theatre teen productions of Fame and High School Musical.

Kelly Waterman

Kelly studied under the late Madam Chiriaeff who was the artistic director and founder of the Les Grandes Ballet Canadiens in Montreal Quebec. Kelly trained for seven years in the professional program, studied Vaganova and Cecchetti Ballet and performed in several productions with the company. Presently, Kelly is a fully registered teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance and is accredited with the Association of Dance Arts Professional Teachers (ADAPT). She is an accom-plished choreographer and an adjudicator for the AMAF. Kelly has served as as Vice President, President and as an active board member with Dance Manitoba since her involvement with the organization in 1994. In 1979 Kelly started the Kelly Waterman School of Dance which she operated for the past thirty years. Her students have participated in provincial and national competitions winning dance scholarships as well as gold, platinum and diamond medals. The highlight came during the 2008 Vancouver Dance World Cup when Kelly’s students won the Bronze medal in competition with schools from China, Guam, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Japan and the US. Kelly's students have gone on to study in the professional divisions at Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers, University of Arizona Dance Program and in Europe. Past students have gone on to dance in Disneyworld, Cruise lines with many becoming dance educators and professional dancers. Kelly's students have even been featured in a CBC documentary and have a 100% pass rate while participating in ADAPT and Royal Academy of Dance exams.

Sharol Cordner

Sharol holds her bachelor's degree in Physical Education from the University of Alberta and is a certified NIA instructor.  Her career includes extensive work with the disabled.  After hours, Sharol indulges her passion for dance and dance-related exercise forms.  Sharol has been a ballroom instructor at the Academy for over seven years where she focuses on ballroom dance as a recreational activity where fun and exercise  come together while her students learn the Salsa, Merengue, Swing, Jive, Foxtrot  and Waltz.

Courtney Ogle

Courtney, who is well-known to all the families who participated in the recreational programs at the YMCA here in Port Perry over the last several years has been a dancer for over 20 years. A graduate of the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts’ Triple Threat program, Courtney has had the incredible opportunity to perform in many larger-scale productions like Thoroughly Modern Millie: Toronto, ON; Miss Canada Globe Pageant: Toronto, ON; The Heidi Chronicles: Toronto, ON; Grease Ball 50’s Concert: Niagara Falls, ON; Steve Nash Charity Basketball Game: Toronto, ON and many more. Courtney has studied dance under both the R.A.D. and C.D.T.A. Her extremely successful competitive career culminated in her winning 5,6,7,8 Showtime’s Dancer of the Year title at fifteen years of age! Her dance titles and scholarships have taken her all over Canada and the United States. Courtney is thoroughly enjoying our new facilities and is looking forward to passing along her personal knowledge of, and passion for, the dance world to the students at the Port Perry Dance Academy!

Ian Marnoch

Ian is the Academy's Music Instructor.  Ian has extensive experience as a music teacher and performer in our community.  He is Director of Music at St. Andrew’s United Church in Sunderland, is a relief pianist for Pontypool United Church, Bethany United Church, Ballyduff Presbyterian Church, and the Kawartha Park Chapel.  Ian is also an avid violin player who specializes in traditional Irish, Scottish, and Cape Breton fiddle styles.  As a teacher, Ian is renowned for his patience and good humour.  A graduate in Physics from Dalhousie University, Ian is now completing his ARCT (Associate of the Royal Conservatory) certificate in piano pedagogy.  Ian is also a keen Trombone, Baritone Horn and Organ player.

Tiffany Ratz

Tiffany is a Level Two gymnastics coach and dance instructor    who focuses on the Academy's Acro program.  Her career includes over fifteen years of dance training in Tap, Jazz and Acro.  As a teacher, Tiffany has been the mainstay of the Acro program of a major gymnastics academy and dance academy in the Durham region.

Alexandra Liebich

Alexandra (Sasha) Liebich-Tait is a lyric-coloratura soprano who holds an Artist Diploma in Voice Performance from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Music Degree (Opera Performance) from the University of British Columbia as well as additional vocal studies in Austria at the Mozarteum (Salzburg), the American Institute of Musical Studies (Graz) and in Vienna.  As a professional performer, Sasha has performed both in Canada and Europe in opera, musical theatre, oratorio and as a concert recitalist.  In 2009, Sasha was awarded the Best Female Voice award for her performance of Mabel from The Pirates of Penzance at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, and the Austrian press has called her a singing actress of “great sensitivity (and)…upmost artistic perfection” (Die Kronnenzeitung, Wien). She is the recipient of awards from both the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts council, and she has been recorded and broadcast as part of the Debut Recital Series for CBC Radio. Sasha has considerable knowledge and study of vocal pedagogy and teaching techniques for beginners to pre-professional and she has taught children to university-level singers and beyond. She is married to a great baritone, and together they have three wonderful young children.

Alisha Cartwright

Alisha's career at the Academy has spanned eight years both as a competitive dancer and teacher. During her dance career of over 15 years, Alisha has won numerous awards at competition. has earned a distinction at the Intermediate Ballet (RAD) level and honours at the Elementary Acro (CDTA) level. Alisha's  primary focus is on the Academy's Acro and ballet programs.

   
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A special thank you to our sponsors who help us through their donations to our Scholarship and Student Assistance programs.
   
 

Welcome To The Port Perry Dance Academy Website...

Here you will find information about the Academy, including classes, events, camps, important dates and more. Registration fills up quickly so be sure to register soon.

 

 

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