A FEW OF OUR GRADUATES
LILIANA REID
Miss Lili is an amazing performer, teacher, rehearsal coach, and choreographer. She has honed her skills in all these areas over the years and has so many accomplishments. She has guest taught dance in the school system, is finishing her ADAPT teachers program this year and taking her RAD Intermediate Ballet, making her eligible for the RAD Teachers Training program. She also took her teachers in ADTA for Acro and will be completing that in the near future. Miss Lili is much loved by our junior dancers as a kind and thoughtful instructor. She received many 1st place awards at competition as a soloist in the Contemporary and Lyrical categories. We are proud to say that Miss Lili will be staying on at Premiere as a qualified instructor in Acro, Ballet, Contemporary, Creative Dance, Jazz, and Tap and will be featured as a key instructor at our Summer Camps.
CAMDEN LEROUX
Camden was a key member of the Premiere Team for 5 years. He worked on acro teaching credentials with ADTA and became an excellent instructor and choreographer. He ran several of our summer camps, taught hip hop, aerial silks, tumbling, and taught acro from beginner to advanced. He was also a sought-after rehearsal coach. Camden won many awards as a soloist at competitions, achieving Overall Top Soloist and special Adjudicators Awards. He was very accomplished in ballet achieving his Intermediate Foundation examination with the Royal Academy of Dance. This gave him pick of several post-secondary dance programs all of which are ballet-based programs. He has decided on the challenging Metropolitan Uni program and we are so excited to see this dynamic performer follows his dreams.
RISSA JOPLING
Rissa Jopling is a stunning ballerina to watch and a wonderful contemporary dancer.
She did all her graded examinations and has achieved her Vocational Intermediate examination with the Royal Academy of Dance. This opens the door for her to take the RAD teachers program; a qualification that would allow her to teach ballet anywhere in the world. She also competed in the RAD Ballet Dance Challenge. She operated Premiere's day camps for several seasons. 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 won a full scholarship to attend Western University for Nursing. While there she participated in two different dance teams. She returns to the studio regularly to choreograph, teach, and just to see what's happening. She is now working in the medical field as a nurse.
She did all her graded examinations and has achieved her Vocational Intermediate examination with the Royal Academy of Dance. This opens the door for her to take the RAD teachers program; a qualification that would allow her to teach ballet anywhere in the world. She also competed in the RAD Ballet Dance Challenge. She operated Premiere's day camps for several seasons. 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 won a full scholarship to attend Western University for Nursing. While there she participated in two different dance teams. She returns to the studio regularly to choreograph, teach, and just to see what's happening. She is now working in the medical field as a nurse.
JOCELYN DOUGLAS
Jocelyn studied ballet with Miss Karen 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 ADTA and ADAPT Assistant Teachers Training Program. Jocelyn taught for Premiere for 3 years as a part of the recreational program, and helped coach the competitive team. She took all her RAD graded examinations and vocational levels. As well as excelling in dance, Jocelyn also excelled in her academics as do many of our dancers, receiving major scholarships. Jocelyn is graduated from Brescia University and setting her sights on becoming a teacher.
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 completed his university degree at Queens and is now a software engineer. He did ballet examinations achieving his RAD Intermediate Foundation prior to going to university. While at Queens University, he performed with and choreographed for the dance team at Queens, for Northumberland musical theatre productions like Oklahoma and our fabulous summer camps Frozen and Fairy Tales.
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. She achieved Distinction in both her RAD Vocational ballet examinations, Intermediate Foundation and Intermediate. 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, Claire Wootten, and Holly Small to name a few. She was a company member of the York Dance Ensemble 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 has been travelling the world with her dancing but currently resides in Toronto where she is working on projects of her own.
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
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 two years Victoria was a dance instructor and choreographer in both Toronto and Cobourg and is now teaching in Alberta. Her choreography has won many awards at competitions throughout southern Ontario. Victoria has choreographed many award-winning routines for the Premiere competitive team.
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.