Meet The Team
Emily Davis
Principal / Ballet Teacher
Having taught dance for over 8 years, Emily started ballet aged 2 ½. She has gone on to pursue her dance training with Distinctions to an advanced level and at a young age auditioned and was awarded a place on the prestigious Cecchetti Associates programme.
Throughout this time Emily was given the opportunity to perform as a soloist in a number of productions, which fuelled her love of performing.
She was invited to choreograph and perform a solo piece at The Wigmore Hall and has also choreographed and performed for a number of student music videos.
Emily’s love of dance led her to pursue her professional teaching qualifications, where she has gained her ISTD DDI (Diploma in Dance Instruction) in Cecchetti Classical Ballet. Since graduating with a first-class honours degree from Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Emily combines her passion for dance and photography and holds regular photography days at the Academy.
She continues to advance her training, through both teaching qualifications and performance opportunities - and is currently taking the next step in her teaching qualifications and is training towards her ISTD DDE (Diploma in Dance Education) in Cecchetti Classical Ballet.
Mandy Waller
Teacher
Mandy has been dancing since the age of 3 and has been fortunate enough to dance in many major ballet productions including The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty and Coppelia. Mandy attended classes at the Central School of Ballet as part of the Associate programme and then continued her dance training at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary, where she graduated with a BTEC Higher National Certificate in Dance.
Since then Mandy has danced professionally in Ballet and Contemporary productions for a number of different companies in various venues including The Linbury Studio Theatre, The Bloomsbury Theatre, The Royal College of Music Theatre, Swindon Dance Theatre, Siobhan Davies Studios (London), Modern Art Gallery (Oxford) and at the Oxford Festival.
Connie Luk
Pianist
Connie Luk is a collaborative pianist and piano teacher based in South London. She received her Masters of Performance from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in piano accompaniment and studied with Ms Pamela Lidiard. She then continues her studies privately with Mr Roger Vignoles. In summer 2016, she received a scholarship for the Franz-Schubert-Institut Master Course in Baden bei Wien, Austria. She has received coaching and masterclasses from Graham Johnson, Julius Drakes, Martin Katz among others.
Orchestras Connie has worked with include YMSO, ULSO and LEO. She has also worked as a repetiteur for British Youth Opera, Ormond Opera and UCOpera. Connie has performed at the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Wigmore Hall, Talent Unlimited Music Futures Festival among others. Upcoming projects includes recitals as part of Mary Wollstonecraft Music Cafe. In 2018, Connie was invited to join the Abingdon Summer School for solo Singers as a staff piano accompanist. As a multi-art enthusiast, Connie is eager to develop classical music performance in new ways. She created song-in-theatre productions and worked as both director and pianist for Cabaret Girls and The Girl who Grew Up, both featured in Song in the City.
Sophie Morrison
Teaching Assistant
Sophie is a Scottish student training in ballet, contemporary and street dance at London Contemporary Dance School. She was recently a member of the National Youth Dance Company of Scotland.
Sophie started assistant teaching 5 years ago for her local dance school, helping children build confidence to take their ISTD ballet exams.
She enjoys spreading her love of dance and when she finishes her degree next year, she plans on progressing to further teaching qualifications.
Guest Artists & Teachers
Clara Kerr
Issy Brownson
Contemporary / Jazz Teacher
Musical Theatre Teacher
Clara graduated from The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) with a first-class honours degree in Dance. Since graduating in 2019, Clara has directed and choreographed two full length dance pieces, the first Caillte with performances at St. Luke’s Bombed Out Church and the Tate Liverpool as part of the Liverpool
Irish festival. The second, a commissioned piece called An Féileacán Agus An Rí which was a collaboration with Myra Zepf and performed as part of the Belfast Children’s Festival in 2020.
Most recently Clara was one of eight artists to be involved in Maiden Voyage Dance’s Match Makeinitiative, creating a screen dance named Backbone in collaboration with Jo Guthrie.
As well as choreographing, Clara performs professionally as a dancer and has performed for a month to over 2000 people in Birmingham’s NEC arena.
Issy is an actress working in the British Theatre and Film Industry.
During her studies at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, she worked closely with the Wind-Up Penguin Theatre Company, creating theatre pieces and workshops for disadvantaged children on a global scale.
Since graduating, she’s co-created the theatre company ‘The Imagination Sprouts’, an educational music and theatre experience for children in British Museums. She loves to sing and dance - and she enjoys the occasional wild swim in her spare time!
Emily Yong
Contemporary / Ballet Teacher
Emily started dancing at the age of three at local dance schools in Leicester and Peterborough. She was also a Junior Associate of the Royal Ballet School and a Cecchetti Scholar. Emily then went on to train at Rambert School, where she had the opportunity to work with Christopher Bruce and Robert Cohan, and graduated with a First Class Honours degree. Since graduating, Emily has enjoyed dancing with various different companies including Springs Dance Company, English National Opera, Off The Map, Hawk Dance Theatre and The Knotted Project. As well as performing, Emily has a passion for teaching dance, especially to children and young people. It brings Emily joy when dance brings communities together – she was delighted to be involved with Springs in Nine Elms Arts Ministry’s event Refugee: A Christmas Story - a community event which used dance and the arts to explore the topic of displacement.