The artistic faculty at CSD comes from many diverse, professional backgrounds such as the National Ballet School's Teacher Training program, Quinte Ballet School, London College of Dance (England), the University of Waterloo and other recognized dance institutions. The aim of our teachers is to provide a positive and caring atmosphere as a background for learning the discipline of dance. Every student will feel welcome and will be encouraged to explore the magic of dance. In addition to our teachers, many of our younger students' classes have student assistants who aid the teacher in demonstrating steps and technique as well as correcting the students.
OWNER/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Christine Parker-Reid, B.A. Hons (Dance), RAD Teaching Dip. AISTD

Christine is the owner and Artistic Director of Contemporary School of Dance Ltd. She is a Registered Teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance and holds her RAD Teaching Diploma, with written papers in Anatomy and Dance History, as well as the Elementary Executant exam in Benesh notation. She is also a Registered Teacher with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) and has attained Associate status in the Modern Theatre Dance branch. She is also a licensed Kindermusik educator.

Christine has studied dance for almost 30 years, including professional training at the Quinte Ballet School. She has attended many teachers' workshops and seminars, including the National Ballet School and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School teachers' summer schools and courses and continues to pursue her dance education through professional development. Christine graduated from the University of Waterloo with a B.A. Honours (Dance) and the Departmental Award for Academic Achievement. Throughout university, she taught for the Carousel Dance Centre and eventually was the school's Director for a number of years. In September of 1997, Christine opened her own school, Contemporary School of Dance. The school started with two teachers and approximately 75 students. Through love, dedication, hard work and with the help of her excellent faculty, Christine has built one of the most reputable schools in the K-W area. CSD has been voted K-W's Best Dance Studio numerous times and was the winner again in the Waterloo Chronicle's 2010 Reader's Choice Awards. Christine was also honoured to be voted K-W's favourite teacher in The Record's 2007 Reader's Select Awards! Today, CSD provides approximately 400 dancers with superb training in an energetic, nurturing environment.

Outside of the studio, Christine loves spending time with her husband, and partner in all things, Michael and their two wonderful children, Madison and Jackson, who inspire her every day! Christine is very excited about beginning the fourteenth year of Contemporary School of Dance in our NEW location and will be teaching students in the ballet program.

FACULTY
Sandra Clarke, B.A. (Dance)

Sandra is a member of Toronto based dance company, As the Spirit Moves Dance (ASM Dance), and will be performing in the upcoming season; Dance Works CoWorks at Dancemakers Centre for Creation in June and Project Dance Toronto. Sandra has performed and/or choreographed for the Toronto International Dance Festival, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Nuit Blanche 08 and 09, Cambridge Arts Festival, Royal City Musicals - Kiss Me Kate, Choreographer's Ball, Toronto City Mission’s One City One Hope, Women's Crisis Services awareness event. Also, Sandra danced at Habourfront Centre in Fandango by JACKert Desrosiers.

Upon receiving a Waterloo Arts Fund grant, Sandra and a partner successfully produced and choreographed a professional holiday themed dance show at the Registry Theatre, Kitchener 2009. Sandra collaborates with other dance and visual artists to combine dance and installation art. Their work has been performed at Toronto's DeLeon Gallery, Headbones Gallery, Artscapes Barn's and Harcourt Gallery in Edmonton Alberta. Sandra has a degree in dance from Ryerson University and has trained with many professional dance artists. She looks forward to her first year teaching at CSD!

Linda DePass, B.A. Hons (Dance), B.Ed., NBS TTP - Dip., RAD Teaching Dip., ARAD, AISTD

Linda is a Registered teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance and holds the R.A.D. Teaching Diploma with written papers in Anatomy and Dance History. She is a Registered teacher with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing and has attained Associate status in both the Cecchetti Ballet branch and Modern Theatre dance branch. She also achieved the Elementary Executant exam in benesh notation.

Linda has studied dance for over 30 years. She graduated from the University of Waterloo Dance Program in 1994 with a B.A. Honours. Concurrently, she was awarded her Teacher Training Diploma with Distinction from The National Ballet School as part of the joint degree program. In 1997, Linda graduated from Brock University with a Bachelor of Education and is currently a teacher with the Waterloo Region District School Board.

For several years, she owned and directed a successful ballet school in Guelph. She continues her professional development attending seminars and workshops at the National Ballet School as well as the professional organizations with which she is affiliated. Linda is thrilled to be on staff for a seventh year and will be teaching senior levels of the ballet program.

Robyn Ellis, AISTD, RMT

Robyn has over 20 years of dance training in hip hop, jazz, tap, ballet, and contemporary. She is a Registered Teacher with the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing and holds Associate status in the Modern Theatre (Jazz) faculty. She has taken numerous workshops in jazz and hip hop and more recently in salsa and lindy hop. Robyn has also participated in courses specifically focussed on early child development in dance.

As a former student at CSD, Robyn attained Advanced 2 levels in ISTD jazz and tap with Honours as well as her Intermediate & Grade 8 RAD ballet. Robyn was a member of CDT and CSD Ballet Co. for many years and was a head teacher of CSD's summer program for 3 years.

Robyn's earlier training involved competitive dance, which gave her the opportunity to perform in the U.S. and Canada. She has taught and choreographed locally with City of Waterloo and JM Drama. Hand in hand with her career in teaching dance, Robyn is also a Registered Massage Therapist.

This is Robyn's eleventh year teaching at CSD and she looks forward to another great year teaching hip hop, jazz, and junior school programs.

Natasha King, B.F.A. Hons, BSc. Hons

Natasha began studying dance under the RAD syllabus in the United Arab Emirates, and later moved to Barbados where she successfully completed her Intermediate and Grade 8 exams. Here, she expanded her repertoire to include Vaganova and Balanchine ballet techniques, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, Latin, ballroom and Afro-Caribbean dance.

Natasha attended Towson University (Baltimore, USA), and obtained Honours in both her BFA in Dance Performance & Choreography, and BSc in Psychology. As a dancer with the Towson Dance Company, she performed in works by Doris Humphrey, Kiki Lucas, Stephen Greenston and Stephanie Powell, as well as the classical ballets!

Natasha spent a year teaching in Vancouver. She danced with CollabArt Creations, a new modern dance company, and expanded her knowledge of jazz through workshops with Broadway choreographers and members of the original cast of 'Fosse'. Her travels also took her to New York City, where she spent time in the Masters of Dance program at Sarah Lawrence College to focus on her choreography. During her studies, she had the opportunity to perform in a re-staging of 'Line Up' by Trisha Brown.

Natasha is currently furthering her certifications in teaching through the Royal Academy of Dance Certification in Ballet Teaching Studies (graduating 2011). Also, she will be attending a month-long Registered Yoga Teacher Training Intensive Course in Vancouver over the summer, and is excited to integrate the practice of yoga into CSD's class schedule next year! She is excited to be a member of CSD faculty for a third year, and is looking forward to a great year teaching in the ballet, ballroom, yoga and Junior School programs.

Georgina Rombough, B.A. Hons (Dance), AISTD

Georgina has been dancing since the age of four, training in jazz, tap, ballet and contemporary. She is a Registered Teacher with the ISTD and holds Associate Diploma status in the Modern Theatre Jazz dance faculty and her Associate in the Tap faculty. Georgina graduated from De Montfort University in 1998 with a B.A. Honours in Contemporary Dance and Performing Arts. Following her university education, Georgina was co-founder, choreographer and dancer with UK based contemporary dance company, 'Fervent Defacto'. She has also danced professionally in the Bahamas and Mexico. It was during her time in Mexico that she was choreographer and Evening Entertainment Co-coordinator for Robinson Club hotel.

Fitness and well-being play a key part in Georgina's life. She is a certified Pilates instructor with the international Physical Mind Institute and the Ontario Fitness Council. She continues her professional development in pilates training with Body Harmonics in Toronto, and has completed the following courses: The foot and ankle, Theraband and Weighted Balls, Stability Ball and Foam Roller, and Pilates for Pregnancy. Further certifications and training include YMCA Exercise to Music, Resistance training, Cardiovascular training, Body Flow, Step Aerobics, Stability Ball and Strength Training for Women. She is also a certified Salsa Babies instructor and teaches Salsa Babies in Waterloo.

Georgina is really excited to be at CSD for a seventh year and she looks forward to teaching in the jazz, tap, Pilates and Junior School programs

Heather Roy-Kleihauer, H.BSc., M.H.Sc., S-Ip (C), Reg. CASLPO

Heather is a dance teacher and speech-language pathologist living with her husband, in Waterloo, Ontario. As a dance artist, she has worked with choreographers Linda Baker, Sarah Jane Burton, Robert Desrosiers, Janet Johnson, Meagan O'Shea, and Lincoln Shand, in addition to performing with Dancetheatre David Earle, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Hamilton Dance Company, Kaeja D'Dance2, Parahumans Dancetheatre and INERTIA. Heather has taught many different dance forms to all age levels.

Heather holds an H.BSc. degree in Health Studies from the University of Waterloo and an M.H.Sc. degree in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Toronto. She is looking forward to her seventh year of teaching at Contemporary School of Dance and will be teaching all of the contemporary programs.

Lynn Stone, Dip. LCD, AISTD

Lynn has been studying dance for over 25 years and has taught, performed and attended courses in Europe, and Canada. She holds Associate Diploma status with the ISTD in Tap and Associate status in Cecchetti ballet, National dance, and Modern Theatre (Jazz). She also has R.S.A Applied anatomy and physiology and History of Western dance Certificates. She has achieved Advanced 2 level exams in Cecchetti ballet, RAD ballet, ISTD National, ISTD Modern (Jazz), and ISTD Tap. Lynn is also a licensed Kindermusik educator.

Lynn attended an intense Arts Educational School, in the UK for 9 years, where she truly developed her love of dance. She graduated from the London College of Dance (The ISTD Teaching College) in 1991, and travelled to Norway to teach and perform in a dance group. She then travelled to Newfoundland to continue teaching and performing. With the addition of a husband, Lynn continued to teach and attend courses, and travelled to Toronto, and then to Kitchener, teaching along the way. Now, many years and two beautiful sons later, she feels she has a happy balance of the perfect job, and a great family.

She is REALLY looking forward to her ninth year at Contemporary School of Dance and is excited to continue teaching in the tap programs.

* Other Guest instructors to be announced


PREVIOUS GUEST TEACHERS/CHOREOGRAPHERS

Jonathan Arsenault
Tara Butler
Shawn Byfield
Michelle DeBrouwer
Pamela Eddleston, FISTD, and ISTD examiner
Stephanie Graham
Danny Grossman
Evelyn Hart
D.A. Hoskins
Gabby Kamino
Sylvanus Klotz
Michael Moore
Malgorzata Nowacka
Samantha Radley
Meredith Thompson
Michael Trent

 

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

CAROL ROY

Carol was an elementary teacher for five years before she chose to be a stay-at-home mom. As her son and daughter were growing up, she volunteered in their schools and in the community with Girl Guides, UNICEF, the Kidney Foundation, the Cancer Society and their church. Later, Carol attended Conestoga College and graduated with a General Business Diploma. She also worked as an office assistant for a number of years. Carol has been associated with dance for over twenty-five years. Her first exposure to the dance world was as a parent supporting her young daughter in her pursuit of dance. She became a studio manager and held the position for fourteen years. She was responsible for much of the day-to-day operation of a dance studio as well as organizing year-end shows.

Carol has been Administrative Assistant for Contemporary School of Dance for 1 year, but has been involved with the school for the last six years as a volunteer sewer and as a participant in Adult Pilates courses.Carol and her husband love to garden around their home in Waterloo. Her hobbies also include knitting and sewing. She is enjoying her position at the Contemporary School of Dance and looks forward to meeting all of the dancers and their parents.

ACCOMPANISTS/PERCUSSIONISTS

CSD uses an accompanist for ballet exams and exam preparation as well as for some senior ballet classes.

Arun Pal

Arun is the percussionist for contemporary classes at CSD. He is a multiinstrumentalist performer, composer, producer and recording studio engineer having worked as a professional live and a professional session drummer for dozens of established artists, being an accompanist/composer for many of the major modern dance companies in Canada (The Toronto Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre David Earle, The Danny Grossman Company, Robert Desrosiers, The Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre and Coleman/Lemieux Company to mention a few), working on a weekly basis with Order of Canada recipient and modern dance icon David Earle (as well as being privileged to dance in his epic work "Miserere") and recording and producing over 30 full-length released albums.

As a lead vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist or drummer/percussionist Arun has performed thousands of shows with the likes of people such as the late Matthew Osborne, snack!, Eccodek, Rebecca Campbell, Pat Skinner, Luke Doucet and Jackie Washington all the while frequenting venues such as CTV's Canada Am, Ontario Place, Center in the Square, Festival of Friends, Hillside Festival, The River Run Center, Nashville, Hugh's Room (ranked in the top 10 folk rooms in North America), The Canada Summer Games and performing at the Prime Minister's National Campaign to mention a few. He has had the privilege of opening up for acts such as Moist, The Skydiggers, The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, The Mahones and Fred Eaglesmith.

Arun was honoured with the 2005 KW Arts Award in the music category and has received rave reviews in response to his diverse artistic contributions. Above all Arun feels his most comfortable place as an artist is as a songwriter. His second solo (full band arranged) project, which is in fact, a double disc entitled "It's Time, Once Again" has received rave reviews. He is currently working on many projects including another double (maybe triple!!) CD of his latest material, which will be launched in the year 2007.