Constance Cooke, Artistic Director

Constance is the artistic director of the Victoria School of Contemporary Dance. In Victoria Constance has taught for Lynda Raino Dance, the University of Victoria Fine Arts Program, Kidco Dance School, Island Dance, Camosun College, and Ballet Victoria. She was Artistic Director of Victoria Dance Connection from 2005 to 2008, and co-founder of the Victoria Arts Connection.

Constance is an invited guest choreographer and teacher for some of Canada’s leading training Centres in Dance. She is a nationally recognized award-winning educator and choreographer of contemporary dance. Her work has been presented across Canada by various companies, theatres, and festivals. Over the years she has amassed a large body of work including a number of full-length pieces. Constance has also worked on dance for camera films, including "Anarchists Footwear" which had its American debut in New York earlier this year. She is an eager participant and movement teacher for the International Dance for Camera intensive, with Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Ellen Bromberg. This summer Constance had the honour to teach alongside renowned award-winning dance film director David Hinton at the Can Asian Dance Festival In Toronto.

Her professional work is considered by many to be provoking, challenging and innovative. Her physically vigorous and artistically challenging contemporary classes combine release work, body alignment and technique. Constance also loves to incorporate elements of improvisation and creative process into class.

Many of Constance's students are currently dancing with professional companies throughout Canada, the United States and Europe, and have gone on to establish their own companies and independent careers. Constance has sent numerous students into some of Canada's finest professional training programs including Toronto Dance Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada, and Contemporary Dancers (where she taught in their professional program before moving to BC).

Constance has been the recipient of numerous awards, scholarships and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council and the Vancouver Foundation. She is the artistic director of the company Constance Cooke Dance. She has been chosen as Victoria’s favourite choreographer by Monday Magazine.


Leticia Pang

A Victoria native, Leticia’s training took place at Pacific Dance Centre. She was also fortunate to receive training from the National Ballet School of Canada, the Banff Centre for Performing Arts, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School.

Her professional dance career includes numerous summers at the Banff Festival Ballet and 10 years with Ballet Jörgen Canada. She has performed ballets such as Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Coppélia, and works by Balanchine. She has also been privileged to work with and to perform the new works of great choreographers such as Crystal Pite, Wen Wei Wang, Mark Godden, Roberto Campanella, and many other talented Canadian choreographers.

Leticia began her teaching career here in Victoria upon retiring from her professional dance career in 2002 and has taught at many schools both on Vancouver Island and on the mainland. She also attained the Royal Academy of Dance Teaching Certificate in the spring.


Kelly Tyerman

Kelly is a 1998 graduate of Vancouver’s Main Dance professional dance program where she studied many forms of modern dance including Graham, Labon Notation, Contact Improvisation and Bhuto. She was privileged to train with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Canada’s National Ballet and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Kelly has embraced her ballet training and applied it to a variety of modern dance techniques while working with acclaimed educators and performers such as Helen Walkley, Sylvain Brochu, and Margie Gillis. Massimo Agostinelli, Tedd Senmon Robinson, and Barbara Bourget are a just a few renowned choreographers who have influenced her career. The culmination of her training with Toronto Dance Theatre found Kelly working with noted choreographers such as Christopher House, David Earl, and Rosemary James.

Kelly has performed professionally throughout Vancouver with Tantrum Dance Collective. Her choreography has been commissioned by local artists such as Farley Johansson (co-artistic director of Science Friction Dance Company) and Victoria’s Kerry Krich. After moving to Scotland in 2002, Kelly sought training at Edinburgh’s Dance Base with Steinvor Palsson. She subsequently returned to the West Coast of BC in 2005 where she continued to teach, choreograph, and perform independently, finally settling in Victoria in 2007. It is here that she performed with Constance Cooke in a 2008 film by Tracey Houser entitled Truth.

In 2009, Kelly created and performed her own production, both at The Metro Theatre for Light On Our Feet and in BOUNCE. Currently Kelly is creating a full-length contemporary work entitled Stript: Back to Bare that will debut in October 2009. She continues to enjoy choreographing and performing with local artists, sharing her experiences, teaching dance throughout the west coast of BC, and freelancing her talents for programs such as the Penticton / Kiwanis Dance Festival.


Kerry Krich
Kerry L. Krich, Director of Victoria High School Dance Department
BFA (Theatre/Dance)
Diploma in Secondary Education (English/Drama)
RAD, Registered Teacher
TESL Certification, Oxford

Kerry was an alumna of Victoria's renowned Wynne Shaw Dance Studio after which she trained in Vancouver, Toronto, and London England. She founded one of the first four children's dance companies in Canada — KIDCO Theatre Dance Company and its school KIDCO — from 1981-2004. She is currently the Director of the Dance Department at Victoria High School having earned a diploma in Secondary Education in 2003 (English and Drama).

Her sources of technical training and academic inspiration are exceptionally broad. Ross McKim (London Contemporary) Danny Grossman, Mary-Elizabeth Manley, Selma Odom, and Sandra Caverly of York University, Lynette Kelly (Royal Academy of Dance), Irene Dowd (Canadian National Ballet School), and Kaz Piesowoski of UVic provided early, profound, technical orientation. As well, professional development includes Teacher Training programs at both the Royal Winnipeg and National Ballet Schools, and most recently a newly discovered passion with Flamenco.

Kerry’s extensive theatre and dance performance "career" was rooted in main stage productions of Victoria Operatic Society, Bastion Theatre, Pacific Opera, Phoenix Summer Theatre (UVic) which later extended itself into theatre dance performances with Spectrum Dance Company(Constantine Darling, Director) and the 200 pieces in the repertory of KIDCO Theatre Dance Company.

Choreographers Coralee Maclaren (Toronto Dance Theatre), Holly Small (York University), Constantine Darling, Lynda Raino, Donna Ball-Watson, Constance Cooke, Sky Fairchild-Waller, Ella Jotie, and Ross Wirtanen have been sources of brilliant movement creations.

Kerry has a passionate appreciation for process and production combined with a special interest in the pedagogy and methodology of teaching dance to children and young adults. She is an inspired creator of curriculum and performance-based programming.


Dawn Hartshorne

Prior to graduation from the professional dance training program at Grant MacEwan College in 1994, Dawn was a company member of New West Dance Company based out of Saskatoon. She has been a part of the dance communities of Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver and danced and performed with the Dirty Feet project, Spring Board, (Edmonton, Calgary), Start Dance, and Continuum Dance (Vancouver).

Performing is one of Dawn’s passions. Her goal is to find new and interesting ways to create work in a space that fuses together various art mediums. Dawn has had the opportunity to choreograph and perform in a variety of works throughout her dance career. She presented numerous works while studying at Grant MacEwan. She performed and choreographed work in Calgary’s 2000 and 2001 Dance Explosions festival. She also presented a multi-media duet piece with Continuum Dance in 2005 in Vancouver. Most recently Dawn has become more involved in the Victoria dance community and has recently performed in various pieces. She has been involved in either master classes, work shops, or dance pieces with the following choreographers and companies: Dance Makers, Montreal Dance, Hose Navas, Brian Webb, Yvonne Coutts, and Andrew Harwood, to name a few.

Teaching has also been a large part of Dawn’s career. She has taught a variety of dance techniques from creative play and learn, primary and grade 3 ballet, jazz and hiphop/modern fusion to students from three years to adults at a number of dance schools and centres over the past 20 years in Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver.

Dawn has been a part of the fitness industry for over 17 years and currently instructs a variety of group fitness classes and individual personal training sessions, both through her own fitness and danced based company called NewBodyWorX , as well as other fitness centres in Vancouver. Dawn was a fitness presenter at the 2005 BCRPA Fitness conference at Simon Fraser where she had the opportunity to present an advanced dance-style step choreography workshop to fitness professionals. Dawn loves teaching. She knows how rewarding it can be to see students and participants become better aware of their bodies in space. A large part of her teaching concepts are focused on body awareness. Whether the movement comes from a place of dance or fitness, it is still movement that demands close attention, rewarding us on both an emotional and kinesthetic level.


Jung-Ah Chung

Jung-Ah graduated from the Ewha Women's University in Seoul, Korea. Appearing in Empty Space at the 4th Recontres Choreographiques Internationales De Seine-Saint Denis, she was awarded a Best Dancer's Prize. She also performed for Ae-Soon Ahn in 1998 in the Grand Prize of the Centre Internationales De Bagnolet in Paris.
Her own choreography has included Shape, A Shout of Joy, Woman in the House, Skin, Beginning and Being, Duet, Four Swallows, Full Bloom ....

Since she moved to BC and has worked with Constance Cooke , Ballet Victoria, TriPOD Dance Collective, Out of the Box Productions, Suddenly Dance Theatre, Wen Wei Dance, and Battery Opera, recently Jung-Ah’s solo Connection was invited to Tangente 08 in Montreal, CanAsian Festival 09, and Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival 09 which she created for Pulse at the Dance Centre and Dancing on the Edge, ROMP 2006. She also participated in Suddenly Dance Theatre’s film Nature Ecstasy and Opium and Aisling for Bravo and directed, choreographed, and performed in her first film drive in 2005.

Jung-Ah toured with Suddenly Dance Theatre in three cities in Korea in summer 2008 and was invited for The 10th Next Wave Dance Festival. With her nonstop versatile performances, she was chosen as Victoria’s Favourite Choreographer in 2006 and the favourite dancer in 2004 by M-Awards, Monday Magazine.

She will continue to dance in gratitude with the mind of infinite possibility.

GUEST FACULTY AND CHOREOGRAPHERS

Ron Stewart (more information to come)



Shay Kuebler

Shay Kuebler began his performing career at the age of four with Stage Polaris Theatre Academy in Edmonton, Alberta. He soon after commenced an eight-year study in Genbukai karate which led to his training in dance. With a knowledge of many artistic forms, he has performed across the world, from contemporary dance in Brazil to tapping and hoofing in Lebanon. His training has led him to learn from tap greats such as Henry Letang and Dr. Jeni Legon, and from hip-hop giants the Groovaloos and Beat Freaks in Los Angeles.

With his unique background in the arts, Shay has become a very versatile, physical, and dynamic performer. Since moving to Vancouver in 2003, Shay's background in tap, hip-hop, and contemporary dance has led him to perform for Naughty By Nature, Science Friction, MmHop with Martha Carter, Battery Opera, Mascall Dance, Animals of Distinction directed by Dana Gingras, MovEnt, and Neil Young. He has choreographed and been a soloist for the tap company Ruckus, directed by Brock Jellison. Shay has also been a soloist for the Rythmatix where he tap danced with Edmonton and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras. His choreography has seen him create for the 25th anniversary West Beach Fashion show, International Dance Day in Vancouver, Dancing on the Edge Festival, "Romp" Festival in Victoria, International Dance Festival of Brazil, New Works' "Arts on the Street" for BC Day, BC Scene in Ottawa at the N.A.C., and for Music week in Toronto. He has had the honour to choreograph an original work on Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, under direction of Gradimir Pankov, as a recipient of the inaugural National Choreographic Competition.

Shay is currently part of the Vancouver based 605 collective, a hip-hop/contemporary company that recently headlined the Hip Hop 360 festival at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Some of his commercial and film highlights include Nickelodeon's "Spectacular", "Another Cinderella Story", "Like Mike 2", "The L Word", "The Cleaner", "Psych" season 2, "Reefer Madness" the musical, Travelodge, and Kyocera phones.


Sasha Kozak

Since graduation in his hometown of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Sasha’s exceptional dance skills have taken him to New York, Las Vegas, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. His exceptional versatility comes from having trained in jazz, lyrical, contemporary, tap, ballet, street jazz, hip-hop, and Ukrainian. Sasha's onstage performance and choreography credits include the Neil Young Greendale Tour, Freeform Tribe, Over The Influence, Source Dance Company, The 605 Collective, For the Luv of It, Kickin’ it Old Skool Fashion Show, Vancouver International Dance Day, Vancouver International Dance Festival, Children’s Miracle Network, Dancing on the Edge, Dances for a Small Stage, and numerous others. As an original member of Ruckus Company Productions, he has been featured in three full-length productions entitled Brock Jellisons 77 minutes, Ricochet, and Blue.

Sasha's film and TV credits include Romeo, Blade, City TV Breakfast Television, the films Spectacular, Another Cinderella Story, The Goodbye Girl, and Reefer Madness, as well as commercials for Cingular Wireless cell phones and Clearasil Clean and Clear Facewash. Sasha can be seen in the instructional hip hop video Straight Bumpin’. He has also worked with recording artists lil’ Romeo and Cory Lee. He has taught at countless studios including Vancouver's professional drop-in studios, Harbour Dance Centre and Drive Dance Centre. As a member of The 605 Collective, a contemporary based company that draws from multiple styles such as contemporary, martial arts, hip hop, and improvisation, he was able to be a part of 605’s first full-length production, Audible. The 605 Collective is currently working on another piece with Dana Gingras of Holy Body Tattoo, which premieres October ’09 as part of the Dance In Vancouver Festival.


Kimberly Tuson

Native to Vancouver Island, Kimberly has been dancing for 40 years. After intensive study in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, and Musical Theatre, she found herself performing and choreographing in the Yukon for 10 seasons. Kimberly is an honors dance graduate from Simon Fraser University.

She has performed and toured professionally with several of Canada’s leading choreographers such as Jumpstart, Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers, Kinesis Dance, Joe Ink, Wild Excursions, and DanStaBat. She has been recognized and supported by the Canada Council for her work with Raven Spirit Dance for the co-creation of Songs, a multimedia, storytelling/dance production that has been touring for five years.

Kimberly was one of the original board members and educators of the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists (CADA BC), a dancers' union formed for the support and well-being of BC’s professional dance artists. She was also a proud nominee of Vancouver’s 3rd annual Isadora award for best performance.

Calling Victoria home, Kimberly is on faculty at the Canadian College of Performing Arts. She also teaches GYROTONIC and GYROKINESIS (yoga for dancers, a therapeutic application to movement) at her studio Island Grace and is thrilled to be sharing GYROKINESIS at VSC Dance.