OUR ALUMNI
KRISSY AUSTIN
|
|
I’m currently completing my last year at UC Berkeley, where I’m double majoring in French and Molecular and Cell Biology. It might sound completely unrelated at first, but dancing at Premiere, in my senior year especially, helped me prepare for the gruelling years to come. That last year, I danced every day at the studio while completing the IB high school program. It taught me the value of passion, hard work, and family. I’m very thankful that I had the opportunity to grow up at Premiere. I wouldn’t be where I am now without the inspirational influence of my dedicated dance teachers and the relentless support of the dancers I grew up with. Thank you Premiere!
Here are a few of the projects I've created or been a part of since leaving Premiere: AFX Kriselle Training Team (2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOrxV3Zelxc Identity X Competitive Team (2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38XRNUrJ6gI AFX Lit Project Team (2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUZWwIzlwo Get Away by Kehlani video(2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEhhED0BM4M |
VICTORIA SCANLON
Victoria Scanlon began dancing at the age of 10. Growing up in Cobourg Ontario, Miss Scanlon was a student of Premiere Dance and danced competitively for several years. Victoria furthered her dance training by attending the Quinte Ballet School of Canada(Professional Division) and spending her summers training at various professional training programs in Toronto, Montreal and New York. In 2008 Victoria became a full company member with the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre and had many opportunities performing world premieres by local and international choreographers. For the past two years Victoria has been a dance instructor and choreographer in both Toronto and Cobourg. Her choreography has won many awards at competitions throughout southern Ontario. Miss Scanlon spent the last year furthering her dance education at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Victoria is very excited to be working with the Premiere Dancers and is looking forward to the upcoming competitive season!
Christian Mellows
Christian Mellows, with his "Christian Guarantee" (never dropping a dance partner!), was a fun and active member of the Premiere competitive team. He is just completing his university degree at Queens in Robotics and Biomechanical engineering. He performed with the dance team at Queens and choreographed.
ORIAH WIERSMA
Oriah Wiersma was born and raised in Cobourg Ontario. From a very early age she had an interest in the arts, playing piano, violin, singing, acting and dancing. She received her dance training at Premiere Dance Cobourg where she studied ballet, modern, lyrical, jazz, musical theatre and acro and was a part of the competitive team. Later, she went to York University for the BFA Dance Program from which she is a recent graduate. During her time there, she studied ballet, modern, contemporary, and choreography under John Ottman, Julia Sasso, Susan Lee, Claire Wootten, Helen Jones, and Holly Small to name a few. She was a company member of the York Dance Ensemle for two consecutive years with which she had many performance opportunities. In her final year she performed A Drowning; a solo remounted on her originally choreographed by Holly Small for Johanna Burgfelt. After studying ballet with John Ottman for two years, Oriah became very interested in contemporary ballet. The experience developed and honed her understanding of technique and artistic expression. She is interested in what is behind the dance; what's happening in the dancer's inner landscape. Recently, she became a certified teacher in Conditioning with Imagery for Dancers, a conditioning technique developed by Donna Krasnow. Oriah currently resides in Toronto where she is working on projects of her own and emerging into the professional dance scene.
Michelle Clark
I danced with Miss. Karen for 14 years before graduating from Premiere Dance Cobourg in 2015. Throughout the years and the many instructors, I learned invaluable lessons of dedication, focus, time management and passion, all of which have helped me throughout the years, especially my first year of university. I am currently majoring in Neuroscience at Dalhousie University in Halifax and having just completed my first year, I am able to see how I was more prepared than many of my peers thanks to my experiences at dance. Dance taught me how to listen to my body, how to support others and how it feels to be supported, all of which I am honoured to have known and experienced. I thank Miss. Karen and all the other teachers for all they have done to make me into the person I am today.
Jocelyn Douglas
Jocelyn has attended classes here since she was 5 years old. As a competitive dancer she won numerous scholarships, including "Be Discovered" in California. She also performed many duets with fellow alumni Christian Mellows. Jocelyn attended the Acrobatique and ADAPT Assistant Teachers Training Program. Jocelyn taught here for 3 years as a part of the recreational program, and helped coach the competitive team. As well as excelling in dance, Jocelyn also excelled in her academics, receiving major scholarships. Jocelyn is now a social science student at Brescia University
Rissa Jopling
Rissa Jopling is a beautiful ballerina to watch and a wonderful contemporary dancer. She has achieved Vocational Intermediate RAD examination, Grade 6 RAD examination achieving a distinction mark. She also competed in the RAD Ballet Dance Challenge. In Rissa's last year of dance she won 1st overall in both Musical Theatre and Contemporary solo's and received multiple dance scholarships. Rissa is attained a full scholarship to attend Western University for Nursing.
