SUMMER INTENSIVE FACULTY WEEK ONE: AUG 17-21 WEEK TWO: AUG 22-26
Jocelyn Wozencroft – Week 1 After having the honor of dancing professionally in Europe and Canada; Jocelyn Wozencroft's passion turned to the teaching and mentorship of future dancers. Jocelyn holds four accreditation's: ARAD, BA(hons), RAD RTS, PBT cert. and looks forward to completing her Masters. She has won numerous teaching awards in ballet and contemporary ballet including 'Best teacher' and 'Best Choreographer' at various international competitions. As a professional dancer Jocelyn had the honour of working with such choreographers as Wen Wei Wang, Crystal Pite, Shawn Hounsell, Joe Laughlin, Cathy Marston and Antonio Castilla to name a few. As a trainee, she completed all of the Royal Academy of Dance exams up to and including the Solo Seal and was a finalist at the Adeline Genee Awards in London England. Jocelyn had the privileged to train on scholarship at The National Ballet School, Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Banff Festival of the Arts and Boston Ballet School. Jocelyn has trained extensively in Modern dance focusing on the Graham, Limon and Cunningham techniques. Jocelyn is a mentor, educator, adjudicator and teacher and finds passing on the art of dance to younger generations a very rewarding and prestigious opportunity. - "Its the best job in the world."
Breanna English – Week 2 Breanna is a multi-talented performer & choreographer and she has intensively trained in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Tokyo in a variety of art forms such as Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Hip Hop, Contemporary, Modern, Lyrical and Musical Theatre. As a performer, Breanna's long list of Television and Film appearances includes Warner Bros. featured film "The Fantastic Four" with Jessica Alba, "The Sixth Man" featuring Marlon Wayans, the Disney production "So Weird" also the one hour live TV special with recording artist Love Inc and General Motors Grand Opening featuring guests such as Shania Twain and Blue Rodeo. Although you might not recognize her, Breanna also appeared as the principal role in the movie "Scooby Too Monsters Unleashed" as the dancing Scooby Doo where she worked alongside Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. Seth Green and Breanna's ultimate favorite the late Peter Boyle. She also has danced in commercials as well as performed with Charo, Ben Vereen, Boys 2 Men, TV series "Instant Star" Alexz Johnson, Base is Base, the Country Music Awards, the Las Vegas Legends, BMG Germany recording artist Sarah Connors and the Vancouver Grizzlies Extreme Dance Team. Her enthusiasm for entertaining has given her the opportunity to also perform for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and as a lead at Disneyland in Tokyo, Japan.
With her passion, creativity and unique style, Breanna's award-winning choreography has led her the opportunity to choreograph for some of our National Sports Leagues such as NLL Vancouver Ravens Fly Girls where she was also played the role of Entertainment Coordinator for the team and CFL B.C Lions Dance Team. Breanna's talents carried her to teach in numerous dance studios and has special guest to public and private schools across Vancouver lower mainland. She also has spread her love for dance at the well-known Broadway Dance Centre in Tokyo, Japan and was hired by the Texas school board to create a dance company to showcase and celebrate the art form throughout the United States. Breanna's positivity and extensive career in dance has also currently gained her a position for choreographing for Disney Seas and Shanghai Disneyland audition tours. Her list of accomplishments also includes modeling for Miss Sixty, New Balance, Tommy Hilfiger, Westbeach, Killah, Polo, Revlon, Mac and Joico.
Breanna hopes everyone can benefit from her diverse experience in the industry and will absorb her fun upbeat attitude for dance.
Justine Fraser – Week 1 and 2 Justine Fraser is a professional performer, choreographer, and dance educator. Originally from Vancouver BC, she began her professional training at Pacific Dance Arts, under the direction of Beijing Dance Academy’s: Li Yaming. Here, Justine trained in all styles of dance, with a pre-professional focus on both classical ballet and contemporary dance styles.
As a student, Justine spent her summers training at a variety of ballet schools on scholarship. Some of these included Boston Ballet School, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Alonzo King Lines, and the Banff Centre for Performing Arts. In 2009, Justine represented Canada as a finalist dancer in both the Youth America Grand Prix (NYC), and as a semi- finalist soloist in the 2008 Beijing Invitational Ballet Competition.
Upon graduation, Justine received a scholarship to begin her B.F.A. at the Alonzo King Lines Dance Centre, in San Francisco, CA. Here, her training broadened to include Modern Dance Technique, Commercial Jazz, Percussion, Gyrokinesis work, Choreographic Process, and Neo-classical Ballet. As an emerging artist, she has had the pleasure of performing contemporary dance works, originally created on dancers of Alonzo King Lines, Toronto Dance Theatre, Dawson Dance, MOVE: the company, and Ballet X, to name a few. Since completing her studies, Justine has gone on to perform with multiple contemporary and classical ballet companies, throughout North America. In 2012, she became a soloist dancer with Ballet Jörgen Canada and has had the pleasure of performing soloist roles on both international and national stages.
Currently, Justine has found a passion for both choreography and dance education. She is an accredited ballet teacher, with the American Academy of Ballet, and has been a full-time Ballet and Contemporary dance instructor for the past 8 years. In addition to teaching, she is also a reputable dance adjudicator. As a member of the Professional Adjudicator’s Alliance, Justine enjoys sitting on panels for both dance organizations and festivals throughout Western Canada.
As a commissioned choreographer, she has had her work performed on professional stages throughout North America. Most recently, she had the pleasure of setting original choreography for the dancers of both Coastal City Ballet (BC) and Ballet Concierto Cancún (Mexico).
In 2016, Justine founded Reforming Art Productions – a Contemporary Dance company that provides innovative training, networking, scholarship, and performance opportunities, to Canadian dance students. Justine has had a wonderful year working with Deas Island Dance students and looks forward to sharing her passions for ballet and contemporary dance with this year’s summer dance intensive students.
Maddie Burnett – Week 1 and 2
Miss Maddie began her dance training at Deas Island Dance before moving to New York City to study on scholarship for three years at the Ailey School.
She later joined Martha Graham’s second company, Graham 2, and has most recently performed lead roles in Diversion of Angels, Chronicle, The Owl and the Pussycat and Satyric Festival Song.
Miss Maddie is currently completing her Graham technique teacher certification and she is the Martha Graham School’s Armgard Von Bardeleben award recipient of 2019. Alongside her training in Horton, Graham and Taylor contemporary techniques, Miss Maddie has also completed her Royal Academy of Dance teacher training in classical training.
We are so pleased to have Maddie join us for both weeks of our summer intensive!
Ashley Sweett – Week 2 ASHLEY SWEETT is a versatile and independent dance artist from Vancouver, BC. She grew up training and performing as a competitive dancer while also attending the Langley Fine Arts School as a dance and drama major. A lot of her training came from immersing herself into the arts and entertainment communities that exist in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and at home in Vancouver. However, she did study various forms of dance and theatre with companies such as Modus Operandi and The Second City ‘Conservatory’. She has since thrived locally and abroad, as a dance teacher, choreographer and adjudicator and has educated countless dancers of all ages throughout the Pacific NorthWest and Australia over the past 16+ years. She has workshoped and choreographed for training programs and performance groups such as for the House Of Jazz (UK), Team Canada (2019 IDO World Championships) Lamon Dance Company, Source Dance Company, Helix Dance Company, Harbour Dance Centre, Boston Dance Collective and The Cecchetti Society of Canada and worked as a rehearsal director for both Heather Dotto and Warehaus Dance Collective. In 2013, Ashley founded her Vancouver based contemporary company, Sweett Moves. She has had her work as a choreographer, producer and artistic director presented throughout Vancouver, including a residency with Small Stage 2018 for Dancing On The Edge, Small Stage Summer Series and the Robson Street Business Association, Sweett Moves Summer Jam, Bated Breath and multiple productions with The Lovers Cabaret. In recent years she has had the opportunity to set on-camera choreography which has led her to help create music videos for Little India (‘Sleep” and ‘Oola’) and assist choreographers such as Kelly Konno on FOXTV’s ‘Lucifer’, Jen Oleksiuk for Netflix’s ‘Adventures of Sabrina’, Geneen Georgiev for Hey Ocean’s music video, ‘Song About California’ and worked on set as a dancer for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Other notable credits include dancing for film/tv networks such as NBC, Netflix, Disney, Nickelodeon and Alliance Films, recording artists: Michael Buble, Sarah Mclachlan, and Hey Ocean and renowned choreographers such as: Mandy Moore, Jillian Myers, Jeff Mortenson (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist), Heather Dotto (Small Stage), Liz Tookey (Times of India Awards), Jocelyn Peden (PRP Productions, 2010 Olympics), Vanessa Young (The Lovers Cabaret) Paul Becker, Kelly Konno, Rosero Moccoy, Jen Olesiuk. Movement, expression and diverse entertainment are some of Ashley’s favourite parts of the human experience. She is grateful that her passion for the performing arts turned into her ever-evolving career.