Tring Park School Dance Department Lorraine Jones Interim Co-Director of Dance LISTD (MTH, TAP) AISTD (CB, NB) Lorraine trained at Doreen Bird College where she gained her teaching qualifications. She danced professionally for many years in the UK and abroad until joining Tring Park in 1990. She is a well-known choreographer and has worked on many productions including Moby Dick, Chicago, Half a Sixpence and Sweet Charity. Lorraine has worked alongside many professional choreographers and is in much demand by the industry. In 2006 she became Head of Modern Dance and in 2017 became Deputy Director of Dance. Lorraine is currently Interim Co-Director of Dance. A prolific choreographer and innovative teacher, Lorraine is also part of the team of Senior Assessors in Lesson Observations. Antony Dowson Interim Co-Director of Dance Antony Dowson trained at The Royal Ballet School and graduated into The Royal Ballet Company. He was promoted to Principal dancer in 1984 and danced most of the leading roles of the repertoire. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance Professional Dancers Teaching Course with distinction. He taught at English National Ballet School and then became Ballet Master for the English National Ballet Company. Since 2012 he has been at Tring Park School for the performing Arts and he is also Artistic Director of the schools Encore Dance Company. He works internationally as Guest Ballet Master where he Reproduces the work of Sir Kenneth MacMillan amongst others. He has choreographed several short Ballets for schools as well as for the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet Company’s end of year performances. Sarah McIlroy Head of Classical Ballet Sarah McIlroy trained at the Royal Ballet School and graduated in to the English National Ballet in 1992. She worked her way through the ranks and was promoted to Principal in 2002. As well as performing a wide variety of roles in the classical repertoire from corps de ballet through to principal, she has also created roles for Christopher Hampson, Cathy Marston and Mauro Bigonzetti After her 18 year career with English National Ballet Sarah went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dance, gaining the Professional Dancers Teaching Diploma and joined the teaching staff at English National Ballet School. In 2017 she became a freelance teacher and has worked with Scottish Ballet and Ballet Black. In September 2017 Sarah joined Tring Park as Encore Ballet Mistress and is now Head of Classical Ballet. 1 | Page Eva Blanco, Dance Teacher Eva is a graduate of The Arts Educational School and Licentiate member of the ISTD. She worked as a professional dancer upon graduating, specialising in Musical Theatre and commercial dance in the UK and Internationally. Performing in Tommy Steele's What a Show!, Gaudi das Musical, Boogie Nights, The Millennium Dome and the closing ceremony of London 2012 Olympics. She joined Tring Park in September 2013 as a Modern, Jazz and Tap teacher, choreographer and mentor. Tim Blowfield M.A. Curriculum Leader in Contemporary Dance. Tim trained at Bird College and London Contemporary Dance School. He performed in Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake" and “The Car-Man”. He danced with National Dance Company Wales and for choreographers including Ben Wright, Kerry Nicholls, Lisa Torun & Jia-Yu Chang. Tim also teaches Contemporary Dance at Performers College, GSA/University of Surrey and has been a regular teacher of company class for New Adventures. Tim presented his own choreography independently, including “Left”, “Traces” and "Unfolding Layers" on tour, supported by grants from Arts Council England. He recently choreographed “Much Ado About Nothing” for Bedouin Shakespeare Company, performed at The Globe Theatre in Rome and in London. He is an A Level Dance Examiner. Tim completed his MA at LCDS in December 2016. Melanie Booth Melanie graduated from The Arts Educational School, Tring Park, she holds IDTA fellowship ballet, IDTA licentiate Modern and Jazz, ISTD DDI Tap. She danced with English Bach Festival Trust in both Athens and Whitehall under the direction of Chris Tudor, September 2007, she joined Vienna Festival Ballet and performed soloist and principal roles touring the UK, Dubai and Kenya. Melanie has danced principal roles with Kent Youth Dance Company since 2008. She currently dances with Let’s All Dance in their Alice in Wonderland production and also all over the world in productions with Divine Company. Helen Catton Helen graduated from The Arts Educational School, Tring Park where she completed her Teaching Associates in Modern and Cecchetti Ballet. She performed with JazzXChange, Ballet Ireland UK and Ireland tours, Holly Noble Dance, Too Far - European tours and York Dancers Austria as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. Returning to London she continued to work as a freelance commercial dancer. Helen holds her Diploma in Dance Education in Imperial Ballet, Cecchetti Ballet, ISTD Modern and ISTD Tap. She is currently training to be a Pilates Instructor with Body Control Pilates. 2 | Page Deidre Chapman She grew up and trained in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She danced professionally with San Francisco Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, and as a First Soloist with the The Royal Ballet. Her performing career included works by Ashton, Balanchine, Bintley, Bruce, Canaparoli, Cunningham, DeValois, Ek, Flindt, Kylian, Marston, McGregor, Morris, MacMillan, Naharin, Nijinsky, Petipa, Taylor, Tetley, Tharp, Tomasson, Robbins, and Wheeldon among others. Her staging credits at the Royal Ballet include assisting and re-staging works by Kim Brandstrup, Fleming Flindt, Aakash Odedra, and Hofesh Schecter. She most recently restaged Flight Pattern, by Crystal Pite. She has also assisted and staged works for Cathy Marston. She has a teaching diploma from the Royal Ballet School, and an MA in Dance Anthropology from Roehampton University. She teaches and coaches for the Royal Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, Ballet Black, Northern Ballet, Tring School for the Performing Arts, The Royal Ballet upper and lower schools, and Central School of Ballet. She is co-chair of the Board of Governors of Granard Primary School, and a trustee at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. Morgan Cloud Morgan Cloud holds a Master of Arts from London Contemporary Dance School and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Theatre from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. He has performed across the UK, USA, and Europe in contemporary and dance-theatre works by companies including Made by Katie Green, Troika Ranch, Nigel Charnock + Company, Smallpetitklein, and the Rosie Kay Dance Company. Morgan has also held teaching and lecturing posts at University Campus Suffolk, the Royal Academy of Dance, and Performers College. Morgan has been teaching at Tring Park since 2014. Adam Cooper Trained at the Arts Educational School and the Royal Ballet School, Adam was a Principal with the Royal Ballet before becoming freelance. His recent choreography includes: Drei Männer im Schnee (Munich), On The Town (Theater St Gallen and Munich),The Merry Widow (Munich), Sunny Afternoon the 5 time Olivier Award Winning Show including Best New Musical (Hampstead Theatre, West End and U.K Tour), Recent performances include The Merry Widow, Singin’ in the Rain and Soldiers Tale. He also won numerous awards as a performer, mainly for the role of The Swan/ Stranger in Matthew Bourne‘s Swan Lake. He also appeared in the film Billy Elliot. Linda Crocker Linda qualified as a Physiotherapist in 1988 and after some years in the NHS she moved into the private sector. She under took postgraduate study in Musculoskeletal therapy to Maters level and has a special interest in sport and dance Physiotherapy. She has worked at Tring Park School for over 10 years, initially providing cover and now permanently. 3 | Page Jenny Hale Miss Hale completed her vocational training at the College of the Royal Academy of Dance, London. She has worked as a ballet teacher for many schools in the greater London area and has been coaching the RAD vocational syllabus at Tring Park since 2009. She has tutored for the RAD on various teacher training programmes and has worked with teachers internationally through her role as a CPD tutor. Miss Hale was appointed to the RAD Panel of Examiners in 2006 and became a Solo Seal Examiner and Standardisation Examiner in 2016. In September 2017 she was appointed as Chief Examiner. Leah Holdroyd Physiotherapist Specializing in musculoskeletal and sports injuries with extensive experience in the Performing Arts. She has been at Tring Park since 2000 and spent 12 years as the physiotherapist on The Chance to Dance Project (The Royal Opera House). Leah is also a clinical supervisor on the MSc Advanced Physiotherapy at The University of Hertfordshire. She is a member of the Musculoskeletal Association of Physiotherapists (MACP) and a member of The Acupuncture Association of Physiotherapists (MMACP). She also has an interest in Pilates having trained with Dance Medicine Australia. She is focused on providing individual treatment and rehabilitation to help students achieve their goal. Valerie Jonikic Valerie graduated from Saint Petersburg State Conservatory (Music Academy) as a composer and pianist with a Masters in 2009 and afterwards completed her studies in Sweden. During her studies she was granted the Shostakovich Scholarship. Since 2008 she worked professionally as a choir accompanist, opera pianist and ensemble pianist. As well as performing with various opera singers and playing for opera productions on stage as pianist-kapellmeister, she has been a freelance composer and has composed more than 60 works in different genres, such as choir music, song cycles, chamber, vocal, instrumental and large scale symphonic works as well as arrangements and orchestrations of classical and popular music. After she gained a full-time dance pianist position at The Northern Department of The Swedish Ballet School, playing for ballet, contemporary and character dance, she devoted all her time and passion to playing for dance.