Teacher- Ballet, Contemporary, Hip Hop, Acro
Nicholas Saavedra
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Teacher - Hip Hop, Musical theater, contemporary
From a young age, Nick Saanto has always had a passion for performance. He started his journey through acting, working for Cinar and many other production companies. Attending Saint-Luc high school, he soon realigned his career path; starting to sing, play saxophone and clarinet. Once graduated, he then went on in Jazz voice performance at Vanier College. Through the years, he has played lead roles in over 20 musicals. Singing for the Metropolitan Orchestra at Wilfrid-Pelletier hall, and participating at the Classica festival as a featured act. He also was bandleader and singer for a show at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
However, he felt like something was missing. He decided to start training in dance, and grew very fast to become a professional, dancing for Just For Laughs, dancing as a back-up for many local artists, and participating in Sharing Dance’s celebration for Canada’s 150th anniversary.
Wanting to pursue a solo career, he recorded and launched his first album “PRDX”. This wasn’t enough; he wanted to share his knowledge and passion for arts. So he decided to start teaching, and bring forth a different pedagogy, where each student’s allowed to shine through their own groove. Always pushing for the best, and redefining limits, he asks of his students nothing but pure and real energy, hoping to change the future of performing arts.
Sarah first started dancing and choreographing in highschool participating full force in the school's dance program and taking over the reins. For four years she assisted her teacher in choreography as well as training with Excel Danse and her hometown's multiple theatre companies. After graduation, she continued to pursue dance studies in jazz, ballet and hip hop including theatre, musical theatre and voice training at George Brown college in Toronto. Upon returning to Quebec Sarah moved to Montreal and began training at the 8Count Dance Complex for several years. It led her to countless opportunities, including a role in the last Step Up movie, Step Up 5 : All In and a role in Just For Laugh's production Mary Poppins. Although performing is an immense passion of hers, recently Sarah has found it a lot more satisfying to teach. Aside from teaching, Sarah also works with the mentally and physically deficient. Born with an endless supply of optimism, Sarah puts her energy towards helping and caring for others. Thus, teaching dance to small children as well as teens satisfies her in a way no other job can. She's responsible for spreading love and giving self confidence to the world's most important humans: the next generation.
Sarah Holmes
Teacher-Hip Hop, Jazz, Musical theater
Emilia Gaul
Teacher - Jazz, ballet, tap
Emilia started dancing at the age of 3 at Danse 501 Verdun and has trained in various styles such as ballet, tap, and musical theatre. At an early age she was given the opportunity to compete at dance competition across the country and more recently has had choreography win top prizes at various competitions.
She started to assist in dance class at the age of 9 and by the age of 18 was teaching the classes on her own. She has taught Ballet, Tap and Jazz to different age groups ranging from 2 years of age. She also competed with Danse 501 Verdun at many different competitions. She has taken all her education and work experience and combined it with her passion for dance.
Performing around the world as a professional classical ballet dancer, from corps de ballet to soloist and principal roles, Randall has gone the distance. Danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada and Les Grands Ballet Canadiens. From there continued to the united states with the Oregon Ballet and Eugene Ballet. He graduated from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet school with distinction but started it all with Linda Howell at Dance 501. He has competed and has been awarded in Ballet, contemporary, jazz and hip hop. This is not someone who is trying to teach after taking a few classes....this man is a professional who has performed in the greatest theater's. Locally you would recognize salle wilfred pelltier place des arts. Make no mistake, if you want to be taught from someone who has been among the greatest dancers in the world....this is it.