A FEW OF OUR GRADUATES

Blythe Burchart

R.A.D. Advanced
Foundations

University of Guelph
​​Chemistry & Physics

UOFG Genesis Competitive Dance Team

Lauren Wilson

R.A.D. Advanced
Foundations
​
Toronto Metropolitan University
​Performance Dance Program

TMU Competitive Dance Pak

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.

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.

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, finished her ADAPT teachers program this year and completed her RAD Intermediate Ballet, making her eligible for the RAD Teachers Training program.  She also took her teachers in ADTA for Acro.  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 has stayed on at Premiere as a qualified instructor in Acro, Ballet, Contemporary, Creative Dance, Jazz, and Tap and currently runs our Brighton Studio.

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. 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.​

Jasmine Dickson

R.A.D. Teacher

Completed the George Brown College Dance Program

Toronto Dance Theatre Choreographer
​
​Premiere Dance Cobourg Competitive Teacher & Choreographer

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.

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, known for his "Christian Guarantee" (never dropping a dance partner) was a fun and active member of the Premiere competitive team. He has 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. 

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)
​Identity X Competitive Team (2015)
AFX Lit Project Team (2016)
Get Away by Kehlani (2016)​