Teacher Biographies
Abigail Cova RAD Registered Teacher
Classical Ballet(Dip. Classical Ballet & Related Subjects, RAD Teaching Cert)
Abigail started dancing in Glasgow at the age of 7 with Bernadette Sloane, she successfully auditioned for the Scottish Ballet's Junior Associate programme. She went on to full time training at Scotland's premier dance school, The Dance School of Scotland where she performed in many school shows. In 1992 Abigail became one of the first students to attend The Royal Ballet's new senior associate programme in Birmingham.
Abigail furthered her dance training in London from the age of 16 where she attended Central School of Ballet. During her time here Abigail won scholarships to the Vaganova Summer School and Gloucester Seminars and danced in many choreographies by Christopher Gable, Michael Barret Pink and Didi Veldman and perfomed with the touring company British Gas Ballet Central.
Abigail went on to dance with The Ben Love Dance Company, The Scottish Ballet performing La Fille Mal Gardee and in Aida with Harvey Goldsmith at Earls court. Abigail completed her teacher training with the Royal Academy of Dance in 2005 and continues her professional development with the Royal Ballet School and the Royal Academy of Dance teacher training courses.
Deborah Swain BA Honours FDI ISTD/CDE ISTD
Modern/Tap/Street DanceDeborah obtained her teaching qualifications at The Centre for Performing Arts and Kingston Teachers Training College and obtained a BA Honours Degree in Dance at Hertfordshire University. Previously Deborah had attended Laine Theatre Arts and London Studio for theatre studies and musical theatre. Deborah has been performing professionally in theatres for many years and has built her career performing in musicals, plays and pantomimes, on cruise ships, television, and even sang in a girl group.
Some of her theatre credits include, As You Like it, Tommy, Forbidden Planet, Musical Memories, Aladdin, The Record Collection, Cinderella, Sleeping beauty. She performed many roles for Disney Cruise Line these include, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Disney Dreams. 3 Divine was the name of girl group Deborah sang in and toured west end venues. Television credits include Daziel and Pascoe.
Throughout Deborah’s career she has always taught dance and has worked as a choreographer for various companies. She has worked for large holiday companies choreographing their in house productions and worked as an assistant choreographer for Tommy and Forbidden Planet.
Deborah has worked for various dance schools for the last 4 years Teaching Modern, Tap, Ballet, Hip Hop, Contemporary and Musical Theatre.
Agata Zajaczkowska
MA Composition & Theory of Music major: EurhythmicsAggie as she likes to be known, was born in Poland, she started her musical education playing the piano at the age of five. In 2001 she graduated in Eurhythmics and Dance from music school in Łodz, and in 2006 she graduated from the Academy of Music in Łodz with a Masters in Composition and Theory of Music, majoring in eurhythmics.
To perfect her skills, Aggie has attended many conferences around Poland and Europe including Stockholm, Moscow, Manchester as well as the Dlacroze Institute in Hellerau which was founded by Emile-Jacques Dalcroze in 1915.
In June 2009 she co-operated with English Pocket Opera by helping children become a part of G.Rossini’s ‘Cinderella’ which was performed in the Unicorn Theatre in London.
Currently she is a member of the Dalcroze Society UK and teaches Eurhythmics in Active Learning Nursery Schools. Aggie runs her own eurhythmics company, The Musical Rainbow and teaches classes introducing the Dalcroze method to young children.
Aggie also gives private piano tuition.
Robyn Holder
National Diploma in Performing Arts (Dance)Currently completing BA Hons at the London Contemporary Dance School.
Robyn is from Grahamstown in South Africa, it was here where she started dancing at a young age. After moving to London in 2005, Robyn began her training at Marble Hill Dance Studio under Abigail Cova and then went on to complete a National Diploma in Performing Arts (Dance) at Lewisham College. During this time Robyn was part of 'Quick Fix Dance Company' and performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2009.
Robyn is currently in her second year at The London Contemporary Dance School where she is completing a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance. She has particular interests in choreography, performing, improvisation, teaching and dance for film. She has been involved in a number of performance projects and worked with dancers and choreographers from various contemporary companies including Sarah Dowling,Dance Physics and James Wilton. Most recent projects include 'Polystyrene Dreams' (film by Jack Exton) and City of London Festival 2012 with choreographer
Mestre Ponciano.
Robyn has taught at Marble Hill Dance Studio since 2009 as an assistant and cover teacher for all ballet grades and nursery classes. She was also a class assistant for Chelsea Ballet Schools before commencing her training at London Contemporary Dance School.
Vanessa Fenton
Vanessa Fenton danced with the Royal ballet Company as a first artist for 13 years. She has danced and choreographed all over the world for numerous companies including the The Paris Opera, La scala Milan, The Bolshoi Ballet, The Kirov Ballet and other companies in the far east. She has won many awards for her dance and choreography and has choreographed for Shirley Bassey, Ronnie Wood, Erin O’Connor, and for The Brit Awards ceremonies. Vanessa has worked in film and with many photographers including, Kubrick, Mario Testino, Bryan Adams and Mary McCartney. Vanessa is currently choreographing on a new documentary for channel four television.
Vanessa currently teaches ballet privately to a number of children and adults. Her work with children extends to choreographing The Royal Ballet School’s end of year show, The London Children’s Ballet, A Chance to Dance for the Royal Opera House and she works closely with the education department at the Royal Opera House.
She teaches at various schools and takes ballet master classes around the country. Vanessa joined Marble Hill Dance Studio in September 2011 and is available for private tuition and hold dance parties for Marble Hill Dance Studio
vanessafenton.co.uk
Darren Panton
Artistic Director, Choreographer, Movement coachDarren Panton was born in London, he began performing as a singer at the age of six in an amateur production and started dancing a year later, entering the Irene Tempest School of Dance. In 1984 at the age of eight, he successfully auditioned for the exclusive Junior Association of the Royal Ballet, where he spent the next eight years training at the Royal ballet School and Upper School and was selected every year for the Royal Opera House school performance. In his graduation year Darren had a piece choreographed for him by Anatolie Gregoriev of the Kirov Ballet, also during his training he appeared in various documentaries and children’s TV programmes such as Blue Peter and Grange Hill, he also performed with Vangelis in a charity performance at the Royal Opera House in aid of Amnesty International, The Royal Festival Hall, The Drury Lane and The Sadler's Wells Theatres. He became the first black male to graduate from The Royal Ballet School.
After leaving The Royal Ballet School, Darren performed and toured around the world with three of Britain’s most leading dance companies. Being very versatile he won a number of street dance competitions and choreographed two works within the companies and choreographed for a number of fashion shows, television productions, videos, several dance schools and youth projects. He has worked with the respected choreographers, Jimmy Loucust, Sheron Wray, Dolly Henry and Noel Wallace as well as worked with numerous celebrities such as, Truce, Damage, Bobby Brown,Usher,Jah Rule, Blackstreet, Janet Jackson, All Saints, Cavanar, Billy Piper, The Verve and Cassius, Anna Vissi, Vanessa Mae, Terri Walker, The Honeyz, Diana Ross, Boyzone, Shirley Bassey, Elton John, Kylie Minogue and Laura Michelle-Kelly.
Always diversifying, Darren has modelled for Bally Shoes and Clothing Company Paul Costello and danced / modelled for Trade Shows. He has performed in many television adverts and starred in the powerful film Beard of Justice for Channel Four and performed in the rap opera ‘Miracles’ at the Royal Albert Hall. He has also worked with the renowned photographer Tony Butcher in the past featuring in two calendars for Harrods and Selfridges.
Darren performed in two West End musical productions, the LION KING and Notre Dame de Paris whilst finding time in his busy schedule to choreograph for well respected productions and teach young children dance in and around London. In 2001 The Royal Ballet shown a strong interest in his work and invited Darren to join the Chance2Dance team which was established in 1991 in collaboration with the Dance Theatre of Harlem to give talented children without the opportunity an access to ballet training.
In 2002 Darren choreographed the movie THE CALCIUM KID starring Orlando Bloom and in 2004 released THE DANCERS BODY workout for Universal pictures. In 2005 he was assigned by Angel Record Group a Subsidiary of EMI to give artistic development for newly assigned artistes. He is currently a dance consultant and artistic director to dpmanagement, and is also an important role model with the education at the Royal Opera House, The Place and the Greenhouse charity organisation as an artistic director to their youth dance company. In 2009 Darren was cast for Michael Jackson's “This is It “ tour and due to this great loss to the world of entertainment formed the company ‘Panton&Dynott’. He was also asked to join the team at www.chokolate.tv which looks after such stars as Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake when on European tours. Darren believes in expanding the language of Dance and Music, bringing it to a new international level.
Kelly Regan
Kelly Regan was born in Palos Heights, Illinois and as a young child moved to live on Florida’s Gulf Coast. At the age of eight she began taking classes in both Acrobatics and Tap dance and within two years began classes in Ballet.
From 2004-2007, Kelly was a student at the American Academy of Ballet in New York where she studied under many respected teachers and former dancers from around the world including, Olga Dvorovenko, David Howard, Jay Jolley, Sara Knight, Sean Lavery, Stephanie Saland and Violette Verdy.
Following her high-school graduation, Kelly auditioned and was subsequently accepted into the Central School of Ballet in London. Unable to accept the offer of a place at the School, she instead began training with the Texas Ballet Theater School in Dallas under the direction of Ben Stevenson. During her time in Dallas, Kelly began working at an RAD school where she taught both Grades and Vocational examination classes.
Although her formal ballet training began at a relatively late age, Kelly has attained her Intermediate, Advanced 1 and Advanced 2 examinations of the Royal Academy of Dance with Distinction.
Since moving to England, Kelly has taught and coached students at the West London School of Dance, Young Dancers Academy and Denise Winmill School of Dance. She has also successfully achieved both the BA (Hons) Ballet Education and Licentiate (LRAD) from the Royal Academy of Dance.
Kelly currently teaches in London and will begin her Pilates Teacher Training with Alan Herdman in September.
Charlotte Hurry
BA (hons), RTS, ARAD, LRADCharlotte attended the Arts Educational School Tring Park from a young age specialising in Classical Dance, after which she completed a 3 years degree course at the Royal Academy of Dance studying Ballet Education where she graduated with a 1st class honours, registered teacher status and became a Licentiate of the RAD.
As a professional dancer, Charlotte has performed aboard the P&O fleet on MV Oceana, in the London Palladium (2011) for the Magic Cares concert (CGB), with The London Ballet Company (Bridewell Theatre) and in the Swansea Grand Theater (QDOS).
Arlette Mangion
B.A. (Hons.) Ballet Education ARAD RTSArlette, born in Malta, was introduced to Ballet at the tender age of two and a half. In her early teens she started taking classes at Creative Dance Studio with Ms Clarissa Borg. She was also encouraged to join Daphne Lungaro’s Folklore Group where she performed locally (Malta) and internationally (Hong Kong). It was at this time that Arlette realised that she wanted to fully commit to Ballet as a career. She, therefore, decided to apply for a degree in Ballet Education at the Royal Academy of Dance in London.
Arlette was accepted and graduated in July 2011 achieving her Registered Teacher Status, Arlette has also passed her RAD Advanced 2 examination in March 2011. Arlette decided to remain in London after graduating. She currently works as a ballet teacher at Marble Hill Dance Studio, MK Dance, Jennifer Hay Ballet, Wee Ones Nursery in Wandsworth and Rainbow Day Nursery in Bromley. She also assists at The Ballet School in the Wandsworth branch.
