miss Erin

My Story

Miss Erin began dancing at the age 6 after seeing Karen Kain on TV danc- ing Swan Lake and saying "Mommy, I want to do that!". Born and raised in beautiful British Columbia, she started her training at the Maureen Saun- ders School of Dance where she was lucky enough to have teachers that trained at both The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada and danced with Le Grande Ballet Canadienne. She studied ballet, pointe, modern and jazz, started assisting classes at 12 and even had her first teaching experiences at this studio. 

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From the age of 12-17 she spent her summers dancing at the Parksville- Qualicum School of Dance summer program where she had the privilege of learning from many, many talented instructors and was introduced to tap, musical theatre and singing. She was encouraged to take formal vocal training and inspired by the talent she was surrounded by. Her last summer on Vancouver Island she took the summer program with the Victoria Arts Umbrella Collaborative and knew that she wanted to pursue dance from here on in. 

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She auditioned for the Performance Major at Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton, Alberta and spent the next two years there training under people such as David Adams (former dancer with The Royal Ballet in England), Brian Webb and Val Gow. Many guest choreographers were brought in, including one who gave her her first taste of hip hop. During this time she also began studying voice with Diane Nelson and quickly fell in love with discovering opera and singing in different languages. She has never stopped singing since, which anyone who knows her, knows. 

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While an injury put dance on hold for awhile, an opportunity to teach came up and it was a perfect fit, so she headed to Red Deer to teach at Studio Scott and discovered that she loved teaching dance. She took a group of students to perform at Disneyland, did choreography for the local theatre company, continued studying voice, performed with a local music and dance group and had her daughter, Hayley, who literally was at the studio at 3 weeks old...the ballet exams must go on! 

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Her journey then took her back to BC where she wound up in Kamloops teaching both voice and dance at the World of Music and Academy of Dance. She had 30+ voice students and just as many dance classes and this was where she really started to focus on her tap and hip hop training, attending conventions like Tremaine and Triple Threat. She also began doing the dance portion of PE classes at several of the local high schools which led to her choreographing several of the school musicals. She helped run summer camps that put on full productions of Annie and Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat, to name a few. As well, Miss Erin spent three seasons performing with Akimbo, a local contemporary company filled with many talented dancers. 

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All of this led her to Ontario, where she now resides in Paris with her husband, three children and four grand babies. She has taught at Dance'N Style, Come Dancing Ontario and spent 12 years at Jo-Ann Adams School of Dance. She is thrilled to be a part of the team at The Dance Centre KW for the past 12 seasons where she continues to do what she loves, which is teaching tap, hip hop, acro, jazz, musical theatre, lyrical and occasionally Irish and ballet. She loves being a part of the competitive team and be- ing surrounded by great people who truly love what they do and want to install a love of dance in their students! 

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Miss Erin is certified Module 2 through Acrobatic Arts, has completed the Tap Teacher Training through the Tap Dance Centre and through Tap Roots and continues to learn by attending conventions in New York and Toronto. She has been a member of the CDTA (Canadian Dance Teacher Associa- tion) and PAEC (Performing Arts Educators of Canada), certified in both tap and jazz. She has also participated in a wonderful school program called Art Soup with the Grand Erie School District which gives elementary students from rural and other schools an opportunity to try music, art, drama and dance all in one day it has been so successful that one day turned into two and the program is still running.