Jade grew up in Hawke's Bay, completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts & Design. Once completing his degree, his love of education and working with youth - led him to complete his teaching diploma.

After completing his teaching diploma, Jade went on to teach within some of Hawke's Bay's leading schools, then directed some of the best Art Departments across the country.

His passion and combined love for the arts and education have come to life with DANZA, and Jade is excited to see the influence DANZA has upon it's students.  Jade believes that DANZA will provide more than just classes to it's students, more so; role models and a place for students to ignite their passion for the arts.

Claire qualified as a dance teacher in 2012, and followed it by training professionally in dance performance in Australia.

She completed her Certificate IV in Elite Dance Performance at Village in Sydney, followed by a Diploma in Musical Theatre. In 2018 she took part in the Christchurch International Summer School Emerging Professionals Program, where she had the privilege of personal mentorship from Jonathan Groff.

Claire performed as a dancer in the Amici production of Mamma Mia in Auckland and is a NAPTA Award nominated choreographer.

She is also a registered examiner of the Asia Pacific Dance Association and has a diverse experience across all genres of dance.

Shelley studied singing and acting at Auckland’s EXCEL School of Performing Arts. She then furthered her training in Australia by gaining a Bachelor of Arts (Music Theatre) from the University of Ballarat’s Arts Academy. Shelley has performed two of her self-devised cabarets at Melbourne’s renowned The Butterfly Club and in 2014 she was selected to sing for New York based Vocal Coach and Musical Director Michael Lavine, during his tour of Australia.

2017 saw Shelley co-found and launch the New Zealand Music Theatre Company (NZMTC). After two years in London, she made the move home in December 2018 with the goal of developing a thriving, professional music theatre industry in New Zealand.

Shelley is excited to be a part of the DANZA team, and looks forward to working with young people who are passionate about becoming diverse and well-rounded performers.

Luna was born doing gymnastics, started dance classes at 12 and has been combining the two ever since. 

She has been coaching gymnastics and choreographing routines from beginners to competitive levels since the age of 14, giving her a wide range of knowledge from strengthening to skill and technique. 

She also has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland with a double major in Film and Drama. 

She is currently involved in AMT/Amici 2020 production of Mary Poppins as a dancer and dance captain, and has most recently appeared on stage as a dancer and acrobat in the six month professional season of City of 100 Lovers 2019 at Sky City Theatre and AMT/Amici 2018 production of Mamma Mia!

Luna loves the community of support and kindness DANZA has created and is excited to share her knowledge and experience with performers of all levels. 

Heidi grew up in Auckland and began ballet classes at the age of four. After training at Mt Eden Ballet Academy, Heidi moved to Melbourne when she was 17 to join The Australian Ballet School where she completed an Advanced Diploma of Dance.

In 2007, she became a member of The Australian Ballet and has toured with the company all over the world including Tokyo, Paris, New York and Shanghai. 

Heidi hopes to pass on her knowledge and passion for dance and inspire young New Zealanders to pursue a career in dance.

Chloe has been dancing her whole life, starting with ballet at 3 years old and later moved to Tap, Modern and Contemporary.

She has also done Cheerleading for the last 15 years, which has taken her abroad to Australia and America several times to represent New Zealand. 

Chloe holds a diploma in Dance & Theatre Arts Majoring in Classical and Modern Dance, and graduated from The University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Dance in 2017.

Now she is back at University doing her postgraduate study in secondary education majoring in Dance and Drama.

Kyle is an established self-taught dancer in hip hop who has been dancing since he was 13 years old. Throughout his school years, he was actively involved with hip hop crews and trained in contemporary right throughout high school.

Kyle has competed at HHI Worlds twice, and has represented New Zealand at Dancebrandz in Hawaii winning numerous gold medals.

Over the past 4 years, Kyle has been teaching open classes, working with competition soloists and leading development crews.

Alongside with his brother Mikey, he co-manages the hip hop crew “Trademark”. Kyle’s philosophy as a teacher is based all around inspiring each other in dance and encouraging his students to stay true to who they really are.

Mikayla started dancing at the age of 3, training in the styles of Jazz, Ballet, Lyrical and Contemporary. Growing up in Auckland, she started training in JDNZ, she then moved to Rotorua where she completed the jazz syllabus of AJDA.

Whilst there, she was a part of the AMJAZZ Creative Professional Dance Company and performed in the Rotorua Production of Chicago. Mikayla is passionate about teaching and working with her students to help them build their confidence and self-esteem.

Mikey currently works as a freelance dancer, teacher & choreographer. He is a self taught hip hop dancer since 2010 and has been sharing his love for people and dance ever since. For the last 8 years he has taught at a variety of local Auckland dance studios and has worked with some of the country’s best hip hop crews. He has been to the World Hip Hop Championships three times with crews such as Akenza ,Kaleidoskope, and ID Megacrew. In 2018, he competed at the Global Dance and Cheer games, in Hawaii, leading crews that took out all 5x divisions and winning gold medals for NZ.

Mikey is a kind, highly energetic and passionate teacher who is all about creating an environment that not only allows people to feel comfortable with dance, but encourages people to be comfortable and confident with themselves.

After a professional ballet career in Germany spanning over 10 years, Kathleen returned to New Zealand. Her desire to pass on her knowledge and experience gained as a professional dancer means that she now enjoys teaching, choreographing and coaching, and is thrilled to share her passion and enthusiasm for the art of ballet with her students.

Kathleen was a professional classical ballet/contemporary dancer with the Dresden Semperoper Ballet, where a varied repertoire, guest choreographers, international guest artists and world renowned ballet masters provided a platform for her personal artistic growth.

Since returning to NZ, she has danced with Footnote and taught classical ballet at Auckland’s Unitec. Kathleen is an extremely experienced teacher and has coached dancers who are now following their dream at notable places such as The Royal NZ Ballet, Queensland Ballet Apprentice Programme, Paris Opera Ballet, New Zealand School of Dance and the Australian Ballet School. 

Brooke has been dancing since the young age of 3. She has been trained with the exam syllabus B.A.L as well as NZAMD through the styles Tap, Jazz, Ballet and Contempoary. 

While competing in the styles Tap and Jazz Brooke has managed to work with many amazing industry professionals and attending elite training sessions.

She has also received 3rd place at the prestigious National Young Performer Awards for Tap as well as 3rd place at the Noel Burnett Tap award at the Caledonian Competition Society.

Dancing has managed to get Brooke jobs on  Nickelodeon’s Power Rangers, Jono and Ben, Singing in the Rain national promo video as well as touring nationwide as a guest act for the ‘Showquest Competition’. Brooke is passionate about dancing and is extremely excited to share that with her pupils.

Ellena grew up in Auckland where she began dancing at the age of 3. Ellena trained in JDNZ for Jazz, Hip Hop and Contemporary and BAL for Ballet and Tap. After realising she wanted to pursue a career in dance, Ellena moved to Melbourne, Australia in 2016 to study dance fulltime at Transit until September2019 and attained a Diploma in Elite Performance.

During her fulltime training she has been involved in a wide range of performances and shows at various venues, including Melbourne’s Crown Casino, Langham Hotel and in flash mobs around Melbourne. 

Ellena has recently discovered her passion for teaching after receiving her Certificate 4 in Dance Teaching and Management. She loves inspiring others and helping them achieve their own goals. She has returned to Auckland to continue her dance career and is thrilled to have joined the teaching crew at DANZA.  Her passion is to instil the enjoyment and love of dance for all her students.

Samantha is trained in ballet, contemporary, lyrical, jazz, and musical theater and has been dancing since she was 6 years old.

At 17 she gained the level 6 diploma in ballet teaching through BBO and from there went on to gain a bachelor of arts majoring in contemporary dance at Unitec. Through this programme she choreographed several short works, inspiring a life long love of innovative choreography.

Currently Samantha is studying physiotherapy and believes that learning as much as you can about the inner workings of our bodies can only make us better dancers. She has been teaching since she was 15 years old and is always excited to share her knowledge and passion with her students.