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Faculty

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Natalie Pearl

Principal

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Emma Woods

Jazz, Musical Theatre Rep, Tap, Audition Technique

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Amy Reynolds

Commercial

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Keira Flutter

Classical Ballet and Repertoire

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Lyndsey Mekin-Hewitt

Acrobatics, Flexibility, Conditioning and Pilates

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Daniel Jenneson

Fitness, Strength Training

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Laura Spinney

Contemporary, Yoga, Pilates

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Stevie Sherlock

Commercial , Street, Heels

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Katie Neal

Contemporary, Lyrical, Commercial

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Benjamin Mundy

Technical Jazz and Musical Theatre Jazz

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Amber Leigh

NATD Teacher Trainer

Alongside the permanent teaching faculty, South Central Dance also has an outstanding selection of guest teachers ensuring diversity and excellence in all areas of the students training –

Dominic North – Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures
Billy Cullum – West End Performer and Choreographer
Hattie Palfrey – Commercial Dancer and Choreographer
Jonathan Mawson – West End and Commercial Dancer
Lawrence James – Latin and Contemporary Dancer
Anthony Hughes – West End Performer
Joshua Piper – Jazz and Commercial Dancer
Dylan mason – West End Performer
Sophie Goodway – Jazz and Contemporary Dancer
Dan Partridge – West End Performer
Lewis Palfrey – Jazz and Commercial Dancer
Albey Brookes – West End Performer
Melissa Any Lye – West End and Commercial Dancer
Antony Akid Morgan – West End and Commercial Dancer
Janne Carrington – ARAD/ Fellow ISTD Former Principal Ballet Dancer
Jane White – Course Leader, BA(Hons) Dance, Arts University Bournemouth

Natalie Pearl - Principal

RAD Reg teacher
RAD Mentor
AISTD (adv) mtdb, tdb
AIDTA
PDT Cert
Acro Arts cert
Co- creator of Groove Child Dance Syllabus

The biggest warmest welcome to South Central Dance, I’m Natalie, the principal.

Running a professional training course to guide young dancers into the industry has always been a dream of mine.

After training at Laine theatre Arts and working professionally as a dancer, choreographer and freelance teacher, I settled back in my home town of Bournemouth and started my own dance school, which is now in its 18th year.

For the past 5 consecutive years of entering the International Dance School of the Year, I have been a winner in my dance school category each time. In 2020 I was awarded the prestigious Project B Award for Innovation in Male Dance by the RAD.

Emma Woods

Jazz, Musical Theatre Rep, Tap, Audition Technique

Emma trained at Northern Ballet School before embarking on a career in Musical Theatre, performing in various shows , credits include Oklahoma- BBC Prom at Royal Albert Hall, Annie Get Your Gun-Dance Captain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Swing and Dance Captain at Regents Park Open Air Theatre, Kiss me Kate - BBC Prom at Royal Albert Hall , Sister Act - Original Cast Dance Captain and ensemble at the London Palladium, Dirty Dancing - Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman and Original Cast ensemble, understudying and playing Penny Johnson, Mrs Schumacher and Elizabeth at the Aldwych Theatre, Sinatra - Mia Farrow and Original Cast Dance Captain at the London Palladium, Mary Poppins - Original Cast ensemble at the Prince Edward Theatre, We Will Rock You - Ensemble at the Dominion Theatre, Copacabana- ensemble (Scandinavian Premiere and Tour) Cats - ensemble, understudying and playing Demeter, Jennyanydots and Victoria at the New London, Hot Stuff - ensemble and Dance Captain (UK National Tour) Oliver! - Bet at Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, Spirit of the Dance - (Reno, USA) Singin’ in the Rain -ensemble at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester

She was fortunate enough to be in original companies and create roles, and later look after shows as Dance Captain or Associate Choreographer. Naturally this led to becoming a choreographer in her own right, producing work for The Royal Opera House, The Globe, Nevil Holt Opera, Northern Ireland Opera and National Theatre Wales.

Emma choreographed the Musical Theatre grades 1-3 for the BB0 and is currently also an assessor for Trinity. Emma continues to teach and choreograph at many of the leading vocational colleges whilst maintaining links to the South Coast and her hometown, Bournemouth.

Emma relishes every opportunity to work with young people- helping them improve their strength and skills whilst developing their own individual style and expanding their knowledge of theatrical styles through repertoire.

She loves being a component of a students development, watching their confidence grow and their performance soar.

Amy Reynolds

Commercial

Amy is a highly experienced freelance dance teacher. Her diverse training and background includes BA (Hons) degree in Devised Theatre, 8 years as Artistic Director of Pure Funk Dance Company, Dance INSET trainer for Primary school staff, and co-creator of the Groove Child Dance syllabus.

Amy has also been head of commercial at First Position School of Dance since 2010, her creative choreography is simply incredible. She has been pivotal in the training of many dancers who have gone on to work professionally. Her passion to inspire up and coming dancers is clear to see.

Amy has more recently taken part in a Mental Skills for Dancers teacher training program to further help the growth of the students she works with.
She is excited to be part of the teaching faculty at South Central, in assisting the development of the professional dancers of the future.

Keira Flutter

Classical Ballet and Repertoire

Keira trained & performed with Royal Ballet and Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet as a principle dancer. She went on to become a Principle dancer in Germany and worked with many wonderful choreographers, even having ballets created especially for her. She has also performed performed in various theatre shows, pantos and dance videos. Keira has been teaching for over 15 years in a theatre and dance schools as well as teaching private students.

Keira loves to inspire each student and pass on the knowledge of her training at The Royal Ballet, she is extremely passionate about teaching and working closely with students sharing her love of Ballet.

Lyndsey Mekin-Hewitt

Acrobatics, Flexibility, Conditioning and Pilates

Lindsays background is in competitive gymnastics, where as a performer and then coach spans 35 years.

She was a member of the British national squad, and competed nationally and internationally before going on to coach at a Centre of Excellence. Having always had a passion for performance she later went on to perform internationally as an acrobat, dancer and aerialist, followed by a period of circus and dance training. In more recent years she has taught and mentored many elite athletes and performance artists to help fulfil their dream of becoming professional performers, or to secure places at prestigious higher education establishments.

This is where her passion lies, making the industry accessible, and helping to maximise the potential of young people.

Daniel Jenneson

Fitness, Strength Training

Dan is a level 2 certified instructor in fitness, exercise and physical activity and a Boxercise instructor.

He has been working in the dance sector for the last 5 years , teaching dance specific fitness and strength training for female and male dancers.

Helping students achieve their fitness goals and seeing their work with him assist them hugely in their dance development something Dan thrives on.

Laura Spinney Farrell

Contemporary, Yoga, Pilates

Laura trained at First Position School of Dance and then at Laban, contemporary Dance school. There she studied a wide range of techniques, and worked with a variety of dance artists and choreographers, and completed her BA(hons) in Dance theatre. She then went on to dance with MapDance company, which toured contemporary dance works from a range of choreographers around the UK. During this time Laura was teaching school and college students whilst on tour, and gained her postgraduate diploma in Dance performance. She then went on to complete a PGCE in Dance at Brighton university , gaining qualified teacher status in secondary education, and taught for 2 years as head of department in a London secondary school. After deciding she wanted to teach in a different sector she then completed diplomas in Yoga and Pilates and went on to teach this as well as contemporary Dance as freelancer.

Laura loves teaching, seeing how people can express themselves through their movement, and seeing how they move differently in their own natural and unique way. She loves encouraging this when teaching, trying to develop students’ individuality and own style of movement.

Stevie Sherlock

Commercial, Street, Heels

After training at First Position School of Dance , Stevie went on to train at Wilkes Academy of Performing Arts in musical theatre for 3 years.

On graduating she gained an apprenticeship with the prestige Dancers INC Agency. During this time and since she has worked extensively as a dancer and model.

Credits include the Brit Awards, X Factor, Salon International, Pantomimes, Corporate Events and various other productions.

Stevie has always had a passion for choreography and has been teaching commercial for 7 years.

Stevie loves the way dance has led her to some really inspiring people and the sense of community within dancers. Teaching gives her so much fulfilment , especially over the past year and absolutely she loves seeing the passion and improvement of younger dancers.

Katie Neal

Contemporary, Lyrical, Commercial

Katie trained at the Carrington Hollywood Academy of Dance in RAD Ballet and ISTD Modern and Tap and this was also supported with 5 years training as a Royal Ballet Associate and later a student of the CAT programme at The Place. Growing up Pure Funk's Street Dance Company gave Katie plenty of performance and choreographic experience alongside her more classical training. Following her degree at LCDS she performed internationally with multiple companies whilst also teaching at Laban, The Place and Studio 68. Katies performance credits include; Avant Garde Dance, Jose Agudo Company, Just Us Dance Theatre, Kamara Gray (Alvin Ailey) and Boy Blue Entertainment Olympic Opening Ceremony. Katie is delighted to be back in Dorset teaching a multitude of dance styles alongside Yoga and her RAD CBTS qualification. Katie is also a technique practitioner on AUB’s Dance Undergraduate degree.

Katie loves seeing the process of students learning material and applying their own flair on top to produce something new. In her classes there is a strong focus on musicality and dynamics to draw out each dancers individual style and qualities.

Benjamin Mundy

Technical Jazz and Musical Theatre Jazz

Ben trained at Arts Educational Schools, London. His theatre credits include Dance Captain/Swing/Understudy Aaron/Understudy Bobby’ in Curtains, Dance Captain/Ensemble’ in The Producers , Dance Captain/Ensemble’ in Sasha Regan’s All Male Iolanthe (UK Tour), ‘Dance Captain/Pollux’ in Orpheus The Mythical, Assistant Dance Captain/Swing’ in Annie in the West end, ‘Eugene Florczyk’ in Grease (for CURVE, Dubai), ‘Bert Healy/Dance Captain’ in Annie (South Africa), ‘Swing’ in Annie (UK & European Tour), ‘Coricopat’ in Cats (West End Revival, London Palladium), ‘Coricopat/Understudy ‘Rum Tum Tugger’ Cats (UK and International Tour), ‘Dance Captain/Ensemble/Understudy ‘Silly Billy’ in Sleeping Beauty & ‘Ensemble’ in The Olympia Horse

Ben has also performers in various concerts including Hollywood Proms at the Lytham Festival, To Gillie with Love at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, The Olivier Awards in both 2013 & 2014 at The Royal Opera House and Kerry Ellis in Concert at London Palladium.

Ben adores teaching dance because there is always work to be done, improvements to be made, finding joy in the journey. ‘You can always unlock new doors in terms of your technique, style and performance. What you can create in the studio is boundless and that is supremely exciting to me. ‘

Benjamin Mundy

Technical Jazz and Musical Theatre Jazz

Ben trained at Arts Educational Schools, London. His theatre credits include Dance Captain/Swing/Understudy Aaron/Understudy Bobby’ in Curtains, Dance Captain/Ensemble’ in The Producers , Dance Captain/Ensemble’ in Sasha Regan’s All Male Iolanthe (UK Tour), ‘Dance Captain/Pollux’ in Orpheus The Mythical, Assistant Dance Captain/Swing’ in Annie in the West end, ‘Eugene Florczyk’ in Grease (for CURVE, Dubai), ‘Bert Healy/Dance Captain’ in Annie (South Africa), ‘Swing’ in Annie (UK & European Tour), ‘Coricopat’ in Cats (West End Revival, London Palladium), ‘Coricopat/Understudy ‘Rum Tum Tugger’ Cats (UK and International Tour), ‘Dance Captain/Ensemble/Understudy ‘Silly Billy’ in Sleeping Beauty & ‘Ensemble’ in The Olympia Horse

Ben has also performers in various concerts including Hollywood Proms at the Lytham Festival, To Gillie with Love at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, The Olivier Awards in both 2013 & 2014 at The Royal Opera House and Kerry Ellis in Concert at London Palladium.

Ben adores teaching dance because there is always work to be done, improvements to be made, finding joy in the journey. ‘You can always unlock new doors in terms of your technique, style and performance. What you can create in the studio is boundless and that is supremely exciting to me. ‘

Amber Leigh

NATD Teacher Trainer

Amber is a multi-award winning teacher and dance business owner and has performed in and had her choreography danced in Disney World Florida, Disneyland Paris and the Main Stage at Ireland’s Perform Dance Convention. Amber has a Ba(Hons) Degree in Choreography and Dance and is fully qualified to teach across 20 genres of dance, aerial and acrobatics, and is a regular sell out workshop leader for Move It, London and Perform, Dublin. As well as teaching Amber is also a qualified festival/competition adjudicator, casting agent and examiner in training. Amber has an incredible success rate with her teacher training courses and is so looking forward to tutoring the wonderful students at South Central Dance.